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.)
Sweet Mercy
Tuesday New Release Day: Starring Cusk, Barry, Eltahawy, Foer, Klein, Kois, and More
It's blockbuster season, which means new books from big names: Naomi Klein, Jonathan Safran Foer, Jacqueline Woodson, and Tracey Chevalier.
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The (Literary) Gen-X Midlife Crisis
At the Daily Beast, Taylor Antrim analyzes Bret Easton Ellis, Jennifer Egan and the Gen-X midlife crisis: “Sad white guys! The culture’s lousy with them…”
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Pride and Prejudice Continued
The short shelf of books written by Jane Austen has been recently supplemented by many imaginative efforts–Jane Austen as an amateur detective, and several works depicting Austen characters (or Jane herself) as a vampire, a zombie or some other Gothic monster. So what’s next? Death Comes to Pemberley by P.D. James is Pride and Prejudice continued.
From Iowa to Illinois
Poets & Writers‘ 2011 MFA rankings are out, and poet John Gallaher has some questions for students in the top 20 programs. (via The Rumpus)
Tuesday New Release Day: Gass, Dee, Gaddis
New this week: Middle C by William H. Gass, A Thousand Pardons by Jonathan Dee, and the Letters of William Gaddis.
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Taking Off
“Every streetlight is a slightly different hue/of white the squares like the blank faces of robots/offer the Hondas and Toyotas idling in the lot something/like hope and yet I am thinking of all of the people on the planes/landing and taking off the twin miracles of arrival and departure/each of them singing ‘Take Me With You’ whether they know/the song or not they are all singing”. A poem written by Dean Rader on the day of Prince’s death.
Legendary Lovers
Recommended Reading: Becca Rothfeld on courtship and gender roles in Murasaki Shikibu’s The Tale of Genji, a classic work of Japanese literature written at the turn of the eleventh century.
Time to Read
One Reddit user wants to know, “What are some good books to read [in jail]?” Might we recommend some works by the 19th century Russian masters?
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