For her project Fictitious Dishes, graphic artist Dinah Fried whipped up five iconic meals from famous novels.
Devouring Fiction
The CIA Supports the Practice of Good Grammar
“’There is absolutely no truth to this allegation [that the CIA is trying to remove ‘ë’ from the Russian alphabet],’ the spokesperson told the Wall Street Journal. ‘The Agency supports the practice of good grammar and pronunciation in any language.’”
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Urban Homesteaders
Better late than never, here are eight great new books for Urban Homesteaders.
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52 Blue
Recommended reading: Leslie Jamison, author of The Empathy Exams (which we covered here and here), writes again, this time about 52 Blue, “the loneliest whale in the world.” The full work is available at Atavist for $3.99, but an excerpt is available at Slate.
How to Throw the Best Book Events
A new “book event crowdfunding platform” currently launched in beta, and it goes by the name of Togather. To get the party started, they interviewed Tumblr guru, Year in Reading alumna and all-around publishing maven Rachel Fershleiser about what it takes to throw a good book event.
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More Anticipated Books
The eagle-eyed Scott Esposito spots fall publication dates for volumes I and II of Murakami‘s IQ84…and for Helen DeWitt‘s new novel (!), Lightning Rods, due out from New Directions.
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Truck Driver From the Waist Down
Recommended Reading: On the forgotten journalism of Harper Lee, author of To Kill a Mockingbird. Lee’s forays into journalism included a 1,200-word profile of Officer Dewey, the lead investigator in the series of murders which were the focus of Truman Capote’s seminal In Cold Blood, and another short profile of Capote himself for the newsletter of a Book of the Month Club which had selected In Cold Blood as its monthly read — seriously.
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Waste of the Young
Fifty years after T.S. Eliot’s death, the poet’s estate has finally agreed to authorize a biography, which explains the publication of Young Eliot, a new book on his early years. Among other things, the book reveals details about Eliot’s first marriage, in which his wife Vivienne Haigh-Wood gave him the nickname “dearest Wonkypenky.”
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