Mark Dimunation was on the committee that selected the 88 books for the Library of Congress’s current “Books That Shaped America” exhibit. Recently he did an interview with NPR‘s Lynn Neary in which he explained how he arrived at his decisions to include such works as Goodnight Moon, The Joy Of Cooking, and Uncle Tom’s Cabin.
The Books That Shaped America
More Adler
It's turning into Speedboat Week here, so why not spend the weekend with some of Renata Adler's most renowned nonfiction? Her controversial reassessment of Pauline Kael (featuring "A Limitless Capacity to Inquire," one of the best found poems you'll ever read) is at the NYRB, and her deep dive into l'affaire Lewinski can be found at the L.A. Times. Interestingly, as Sarah Weinman points out, Adler's 2001 book about the Bilderberg Conferences still hasn't seen the light of day. ("Who suppresses manuscripts? We do!")
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Sweet Mercy
A writer who calls himself the “Cal Ripken of turkey pardoning” reflects on the Presidential tradition. (If your curiosity extends to its history, you might like this rundown at Mental Floss.)
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Getting Directions from Jack Kerouac
Want to retrace Sal and Dean’s On the Road journey? The Placing Literature app lets you explore with your favorite characters by mapping scenes from novels. There are 1,500 destinations currently, but you can add your favorite novels or your own work.
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The New Republic’s New Reader
The New Republic, which was recently acquired by Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes, has started a super clean, neat little news reader.
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In A New York Epoch
Maria Popova investigates Teresa Carpenter's new anthology, New York Diaries: 1609 to 2009, and includes some wonderful excerpts and photographs.
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Their selections are generally toward the positive and progressive. If they were being really honest, they should include such stuff as Thomas Dixon’s The Clansman and The Turner Diaries.