I’ve written before about By Heart, a series at The Atlantic in which authors write short pieces about their favorite passages in literature. This week, our own Edan Lepucki — whose new novel you may have heard about thanks to Stephen Colbert — writes about the metaphors in Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale. (FYI, Margaret Atwood wrote a Year in Reading entry for The Millions.)
Body Language
“Neglect everything else.”
“I’ve got to be writing. I have a few ways to make sure I can carve out time. Part one: Neglect everything else. Part two: Get disciplined.” David Mitchell writes about writing and the poetry of James Wright for The Atlantic. Pair with his story in tweets, “The Right Sort,” and Brian Ted Jones‘s Millions review of The Bone Clocks.
Balzac in the 21st Century
Thomas Piketty, author of Capital in the 21st Century, has said that he drew inspiration from the social-criticism novels of Austen, Dickens, and Balzac. According to the LA Review of Books, the new Gilded Age that Piketty critiques has generated–and will continue to generate–social novels of its own.
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Holiday Gift Guides
BoingBoing‘s holiday gift guide has lots (and I mean lots!) of great things for just about anyone in your life. They even highlighted two different whiskeys. Then again, if you’re only looking to give gifts to your favorite writers, Hannah Gersen has you covered.
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Levente Szabó’s Great Book Cover Project
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Brace Yourselves
A graduate of Iowa’s esteemed Writer’s Workshop has reportedly inked a seven figure book deal for a fantasy trilogy being billed as “a female version of George R. R. Martin’s Game of Thrones.” Also? It was inspired by Barack Obama.
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Fusion of the Popular
Here is Amitav Ghosh in conversation with Michael Berkeley for the BBC Radio3 broadcast about his new novel, Flood of Fire. In the interview, Ghosh talks about his childhood by the water and the influence of the sea on his work. He also curates a playlist of influential music that ranges from Bengali boat songs to Phillip Glass to ‘Hindoo airs.’
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Great Expectations
John Keene, Ken Chen, and seven other writers share their most anticipated books coming out this spring. Also check out The Millions great book preview.
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The Hunt for Foul Balls
The town that named its football team after a famous American poem has outdone itself in terms of literature-sports crossovers: for their home opener tomorrow, the Baltimore Orioles will be wearing a special patch commemorating author Tom Clancy.
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