At The Nervous Breakdown, Brad Listi sits down with Michelle Orange, who talks about writing ledes, Pauline Kael, and the story behind her new book, This is Running For Your Life. (For more, go check out her interview with our own Hannah Gersen.)
Talking with Michelle Orange
Revenge of the Plumbers
Don Linn argues that despite all the excitement surrounding new business models and shiny new ereaders, 2012 will be the "revenge of the plumbers," as the technical infrastructure needed to support the ebook boom comes into focus.
A Short History of the Executioner
In her short history of executioners, Stassa Edwards notes that the decision to replace “the traditional punishment” of drowning people “in a sack in a local river” was actually quite pragmatic: it was “more economical” to go with a simple beheading.
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Ruchama King Feuerman on Tour
In celebration of Jewish Book Month, Ruchama King Feuerman—featured at Bloom in January—will go on tour to read & discuss her novel In the Courtyard of the Kabbalist. The tour kicks off today at the Evelyn Rubenstein Jewish Book & Arts Fair in Houston; check NYRB’s event page for more upcoming appearances.
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Sherlock Holmes and the Mysterious Copyright
Sherlock Holmes has solved his greatest mystery yet. It only took 125 years, but Arthur Conan Doyle's famous detective is in the public domain. A federal judge has ruled that all Sherlock Holmes stories published before January 1, 1923 are no longer under U.S. copyright law.
“The intersection of nature and man, and lovely”
In recent months we’ve had pieces about the homes belonging to Zora Neale Hurston and George Orwell, so in the spirit of that trend I encourage you to check out Nic Brown’s brief look at William Faulkner’s beloved Rowan Oak.
A New History of the Essay
“You might say we are awash in definitions of the essay and essays themselves, or to mis-paraphrase Wallace Stevens, ideas about the thing as well as the thing itself.” On The Making of the American Essay, the third and final volume of John D’Agata’s A New History of the Essay.
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