Comics fans will know that a new Marvel storyline may — just possibly — reunite Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson. This has, understandably, produced a range of reactions, not least of which is this piece by Ta-Nehisi Coates, who argues that the two embody a healthy marriage. “[Their] marriage was a rejection of the macho ideal of romance—which reigns even among nerds—and it mirrored and confirmed my own budding sense of what love was at a very young age,” he writes. You could also read Paul Morton on the character of Peter Parker.
Friendly Neighborhood
Tuesday New Release Day: Levertov; Tolstoy; Freud
New this week: The Collected Poems of Denise Levertov; a new translation of Tolstoy’s The Death of Ivan Ilyich; and the complete letters of Sigmund Freud.
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Better Looking than a Breakfast Burrito
Do you want to start a small press? Take advice from Spencer Madsen of Sorry House. In his article "I Made the Mistake of Starting a Small Press and So Can You" at The Toast, Madsen recommends making the book look "better than a breakfast burrito" and listening to 2 Chainz to get started. Pair with: Our article on how Curbside Splendor became a small press to watch.
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The Desk on the Floss
Stop, thief! It appears that George Eliot's writing desk has been stolen from the Nuneaton Museum and Art Gallery in England.
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Cain’s Campaign Cash
Bloomberg and Talking Points Memo raise questions about Herman Cain's practice of using campaign funds to buy his own book, This is Herman Cain! My Journey to the White House, from a motivational speaking company that he runs. (via)
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Tuesday New Release Day: Toews; Kirsch; Daum; VanderMeer
Out this week: All My Puny Sorrows by Miriam Toews; The Letters of TS Eliot: Volume 5; Rocket and Lightship by Adam Kirsch; The Unspeakable: And Other Subjects of Discussion by Meghan Daum; and a single-volume edition of Jeff VanderMeer’s Southern Reach trilogy. For more on these and other new titles, check out our Great Second-half 2014 Book Preview.
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Un Bon Dia
To begin to translate a book, you need to hone your knowledge of the language in which it’s written. To write a great essay about translating a book, you need a backstory, an interesting format and two or three foreign parables. At The Rumpus, Brian Oliu writes about translating his grandfather’s book from the Catalan.
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I’ma read I’ma read I’ma read
Hip-hop lyrics repurposed as book blurbs. Also, if Ron Swanson blurbed books. And of course, our own history of the blurb.
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