New this week: a pair of highly anticipated collections, Nothing Gold Can Stay by Ron Rash and Middle Men by Jim Gavin. Also out is Michael Hainey’s intriguing memoir chronicling his investigation into his father’s mysterious death, After Visiting Friends.
Tuesday New Release Day: Rash, Gavin, Hainey
AutoSummarizing the Classics
Graphic designer Jason Huff takes the one hundred most downloaded copyright-free books and reduces them (pdf) using Microsoft Word 2008’s AutoSummarize 10-sentence function. Book Bench highlights several of the absurd – if occasionally poetic – results.
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Celebrating, Not Sanitizing, Complicated Women Writers
“Somehow, in my eagerness to honor these words, I’d tamed the political intentions behind their meaning. I’d reduced my icon’s truths into affirmational pick-me-ups rather than letting them sink deeper.” Dianca Potts reflects on how to best to appreciate the fullness of Maya Angelou, Audre Lorde and Toni Morrison. We need to resist erasing their complexities in our haste to embrace them as icons or reduce them to inspirational quotes.
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Fighting the Taxman
Neighbor and sometime Millions humorist Jacob Lambert has published a piece in Philly Weekly on our street’s travails with the Board of Revision of Taxes (BRT). I was there and it was a stirring mix of city politics and journalism in action.
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A Guide to a Guide
A few days ago, our own Edan Lepucki talked shop with Millions contributor Ramona Ausubel, whose new collection, A Guide to Being Born, came out last month. Now, at Full-Stop, Emily Oppenheimer reviews the book, which she says refuses to “make use of the obvious perspective.”
Han Kang Wins the Man Booker International Prize
This year’s Man Booker International Prize goes to Han Kang’s “dark, cynical,” and vivid novel The Vegetarian, translated from the Korean by Deborah Smith. Also check out John Yargo’s Millions review of the novel.
The Reconstructionists
Maria Popova, who recently wrote a Year In Reading post for our series, has teamed up with artist Lisa Congdon on a new project concerning notable women working in art, science and literature. For each week in 2013, The Reconstructionists will present an illustrated portrait of one “trailblazing woman, along with a hand-lettered quote that captures her spirit.” Updates will also feature a “sort micro-essay about her life and legacy.” Up first in the series are Anaïs Nin, Gertrude Stein, Agnes Martin, and Hedy Lamarr.
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A.S. Byatt on Feministing
Chloe Angyal briefly interviews A.S. Byatt at Feministing. Byatt will be reading in New York City this Thursday.
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