Ultra-bestselling author Danielle Steel went off recently about something that’s been bothering her for ages. “I think some people are threatened if one is enterprising or has many/varied interests,” she writes. In particular, “it’s about men who don’t like women getting out there, doing something new or innovative and accomplishing something.”
Danielle Steel Has Had Enough
A Caricature of ‘Not a Good Person’
"Because what [narcissists] have inside is empty space, they have had to make a study of the selves of others in order to invent something that looks and sounds like one. Narcissists are imitators par excellence. And they do not copy the small, boring parts of selves. They take what they think are the biggest, most impressive parts of other selves, and devise a hologram of self that seems superpowered. Let’s call it 'selfiness,' this simulacrum of a superpowered self." Go enjoy this excerpt from Kristin Dombek's new book The Selfishness of Others: An Essay on the Fear of Narcissism.
●
●
Tuesday New Release Day
Happy Freedom Day: The work at the center of all the reviews, magazine covers, and even, of course, controversy, has arrived. Jonathan Franzen's long-awaited novel Freedom hits shelves today. Our review. Also out today is Booker longlister Skippy Dies by Paul Murray. Another newly translated Roberto Bolaño is out, The Insufferable Gaucho. As is You Were Wrong by Jamestown author Matthew Sharpe. Finally, fashion fans will dig vintage Japanese prepster handbook Take Ivy.
●
●
Posthumous Praise
"The female writers whose work has most recently come in for enthusiastic appraisal are by no means a homogeneous group; their influences, preoccupations and style vary wildly." The Guardian profiles six women authors – Beryl Bainbridge, Anita Brookner, Angela Carter, Jenny Diski, Elizabeth Jane Howard, and Molly Keane – whose posthumous legacies continue to grow. Alix Hawley wrote a fantastic tribute to Brookner here earlier this year, noting, "[n]obody does depression quite so elegantly."
Make Margaret Atwood Fiction Again
"I haven’t met Drake, but I have of course met people who have met Drake. But you have to realize how o-l-d I am. I’m not likely to go to the same parties. Or many parties at all, to be frank." Junot Diaz interviews Margaret Atwood for The Boston Review. We obviously recommend you read our respective interviews with them both, too.
●
●
Curiosities
Try out our new "Random Post" button below the search boxes on the sidebar.CJR unveils new software in the quest to stamp out "gotcha journalism."* Charlie Gibson, September 11, 2008:Question: "Have you ever met a foreign head of state?"Gotcha Quotient: 95Reason: First of all, foreign policy-related questions are incredibly unfair...Tennis reprints David Foster Wallace's feature essay from its September 1996 issue.Perhaps not the most useful link in these tight times: "The Most Expensive Things I could Find On Amazon.com" (Note: several of these are out of stock. Coincidence?)None of you saw this coming: Rapper Coolio to release his own cookbook.Cindy Sherman's famous librarian "Untitled Film Still" fetched $900k at a recent auction.
●
●
A Not so Steamy First Time
Jesse Bering on his incredibly inelegant first time writing about sex. Cf. his most recent adventures of writing about sex, his new book Why is the Penis Shaped Like That?.
●
●