New Murakami (Might Be) Coming Soon

Meanwhile, in NPR’s recording studio, classically trained violinist Aleksey Igudesman and pianist Hyung-ki Joo perform the most original rendition of “I Will Survive” you’re going to hear all year.

Last week, Erin Fortenberry reviewed Walter Kirn’s Blood Will Out for The Millions, writing that the events in the book were partly centered on Kirn himself. Now, in the Times, Janet Maslin reads the book, which struck her as “primarily a tale of seduction.”

Cutting out large chunks of a book is pretty common, but cutting out 200 pages is a little  unusual. While working on his latest novel, Joshua Ferris decided to abandon the elements drawn from crime fiction, which meant he had to toss out a huge portion of his draft. “Now that was a fun day,” he says.

“Poetry is an egg with a horse inside.” — An anonymous third grader. Matthea Harvey writes about the power of poetry and how children can enjoy poetry in the classroom. For more poetry, check out our On Poetry column.