Out this week: Silence Once Begun by Jesse Ball; Dept. of Speculation by Jenny Offill; This Dark Road to Mercy by Wiley Cash; The Last Enchantments by Millions contributor Charles Finch; My Life in Middlemarch by New Yorker staff writer (and Millions interviewee) Rebecca Mead; and Still Life with Bread Crumbs by Anna Quindlen. For more on these and other new titles, check out our Great 2014 Book Preview.
Tuesday New Release Day: Ball; Offill; Cash; Finch; Quindlen
Got Two and a Half Days to Kill?
Hachette Audio has composed a 56-hour long audiobook version of Infinite Jest. In case you're wondering: no, they don't read the endnotes; they're provided as a "bonus PDF." Also, The Huffington Post gathered two audio excerpts.
(Winds of) Winter is Coming.
Get your mind right ahead of the Game of Thrones Season 4 premiere by reading this just-released chapter of George R. R. Martin’s sixth Song of Ice and Fire installment, Winds of Winter. Martin told fans in a recent blog post, “The new chapter is actually an old chapter. But no, it's not one I've published or posted before.”
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Robert M. Pirsig Dead at 88
Robert M. Pirsig, author of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and Lila: An Inquiry Into Morals, died today at the age of 88, according to a statement released by his publisher. Pirsig's work explored a system of thought called the "Metaphysics of Quality," which has been defined as "a thesis that quality is the basis of reality, and that this understanding unifies most East Asian and Western thought."
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Proto-Stalin
The world isn’t exactly wanting for character studies of Captain Ahab, but Chris Power manages to come up with a novel analysis of the character in this essay about the Moby-Dick antagonist. In Power’s telling, Ahab was valuable in part for what he told us about the 20th century -- namely, he foreshadowed the dictators and despots to come. You could also read Hester Blum’s contribution to this essay about the best American novels.
Is there a rising star among you?
The Ashmead Award is presently accepting nominations, so if you know an exceptional young editor it may be time to break out the letterhead.
LMAOR
Andy Borowitz (of The Borowitz Report) picks five novels "that are enough to make anyone laugh."
Detroit Students Wait for Books
Seven weeks into the academic year, schoolwork is well under way at Detroit Public Schools. But many students—potentially thousands—are still waiting to receive textbooks.
Tuesday New Release Day: Rushdie; Williams; Oates; Evison; Powell; Rash
New this week: Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights by Salman Rushdie; The Visiting Privilege by Joy Williams; The Lost Landscape by Joyce Carol Oates; This is Your Life, Harriet Chance! by Jonathan Evison; Cries for Help, Various by Padgett Powell; and Above the Waterfall by Ron Rash. For more on these and other new titles, check out our Great Second-Half 2015 Book Preview.
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