New this week: All That Is by James Salter, Life After Life by Kate Atkinson, Woke Up Lonely by Fiona Maazel, The Flamethrowers by Rachel Kushner, The Mermaid of Brooklyn by Amy Shearn, The Odds Against Tomorrow by Nathaniel Rich, and Our Man in Iraq by Robert Perisic.
Tuesday New Release Day: Salter, Atkinson, Maazel, Kushner, Shearn, Rich, Perisic
Some Links
Google put up a special Shakespeare page for easy access to all of his plays through Google Book Search. The Book Search blog has additional details.Latest literary trend story: senators writing books. “About 30 of the 100 currently serving U.S. senators have authored books at some point in their careers, and the number is growing.”A literary trend story continues: Product placement in novels. Earlier instances include efforts from Ford and BMW.In the Guardian, “An American judge intervening in a long-simmering feud has ruled that the rights to John Steinbeck’s most famous novels… should be seized from his publisher and handed to his descendants.”And finally, there’s Ed’s Twenty-One More Reasons Why Litbloggers Are Evil & Unethical
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Haiti: Before and After with Edwidge Danticat
Claire of the Sea Light author Edwidge Danticat remarks upon the “split between the Haiti of before the earthquake and the Haiti of after the earthquake” in her interview with Guernica’s Dwyer Murphy. Her latest novel was featured in our Great Second-Half 2013 Book Preview.
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Quoi?
French-Canadian writers are in an odd place when it comes to Canadian literature. By the official definition of CanLit, they’re part of the canon, yet because of the Quebecois language barrier, they maintain a certain distance from the literature of English Canada. At Page-Turner, Pasha Malla writes about their odd identity. You could also read Andrew Saikali on Canadian novellas.
East of Here
Recommended Reading: This interview with the director of the National Steinbeck Center.
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The Latest in Obama Lit
Obama inclined readers looking for a swifter read than The Bridge should pick up the pithy new anthology of poems composed during President Obama’s first hundred days in office, Starting Today: 100 Poems for Obama’s First 100 Days.
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On The Rise of the Book Trailer
“These are terrific diversions, but their status next to the book is a little ambiguous. Isn’t using animation to advertise a book a little like using sculpture to promote poetry?” asks Lindesay Irvine in this article about book trailers in The Guardian. If you’re looking for a diversion, this video short based on César Aira‘s Ghosts is certainly worth watching.
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