Megan Abbott’s Dare Me is out today. Learn more about her in an essay we published a year ago. Also out are You & Me by Padgett Powell, ML Stedman’s debut novel The Light Between the Oceans, and Dead Stars by L.A. great Bruce Wagner.
Tuesday New Release Day: Abbott, Powell, Stedman, Wagner
Perfect Punctuation
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Where She Was From
For only $1.65 million, you can have a piece of Joan Didion's childhood. Her high school home, The Didion House, is on the market in Sacramento. Before you make a bid, it might be good to brush up on California with Didion's 2003 memoir, Where I Was From.
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L.A. Times Book Prize Winners
Big Little Lies
“Literature can use secrecy as a device to ensnare readers, to pull the wool over their eyes or to reveal to them things that the characters can’t see. Whether large – businessman by day, serial killer by night; or small – where a character silently yearns for an ex-lover.” Eli Goldstone compiles a list for The Guardian of 10 novels whose characters are concealing big secrets, including a few lesser-knowns like Shirley Jackson's We Have Always Lived in the Castle and New Finnish Grammar by Diego Marani.
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A Bookish Jurassic Park
Recommended reading: before you head to the theaters for the latest Jurassic Park film, make sure you know the series's bookish roots.
The Year of Incendiary Writing
Caitlin Flanagan's long Atlantic piece on Joan Didion has sparked a lot of conversation. Among the article's contentious lines: "to really love Joan Didion ... you have to be female."
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Election Night in Chicago
I was lucky enough to attend President Obama's Election Night rally in Chicago, and wrote a diary of the evening for The Awl. "Let's Stay Together" played, Vivica A. Fox walked by.