New this week: The Tusk That Did the Damage by Tania James; B & Me: A True Story of Literary Arousal by J.C. Hallman; The Dream of My Return by Horacio Castellanos Moya; The Last Word by Hanif Kureishi; A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara; and The Discreet Hero by Nobel laureate Mario Vargas Llosa. For more on these and other new titles, check out our Great 2015 Book Preview.
Tuesday New Release Day: James; Hallman; Moya; Kureishi; Yanagihara; Llosa
In the Middle
A lot is written about artists just starting their careers, and about those artists with a lifetime of work to look back over, but in a piece for The Enemy Barry Schwabasky considers the difficulty of being somewhere in the middle of an artistic career. After all, "most artists do, for better or worse, live through what’s come to be known as their midcareer. It’s just that they don’t often do so with ease. ... The middle of the journey sometimes seems to be all about losing the way."
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Tuesday New Release Day: St. Aubyn, Erickson, Sendker, Mockingbird
This week sees the release of Edward St. Aubyn's final "Patrick Melrose novel," At Last. A new, omnibus edition of all the novels in the series is also out. Steve Erickson's new novel These Dreams of You is out, as is The Art of Hearing Heartbeats, a debut effort set in Burma by German novelist Jan-Philipp Sendker. This week also sees the release, on Blu-ray, of the 50th anniversary edition of To Kill a Mockingbird.
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From Football to Fiction
Rashard Mendenhall is retiring from the Arizona Cardinals in order to write, among other reasons. "The truth is, I don't really think my walking away is that big of deal. For me it's saying, 'Football was pretty cool, but I don't want to play anymore. I want to travel the world and write!'" Maybe he'll be published by another retired sports star's imprint?
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Upgrade U
The New Republic has launched its new redesign, and with it, asks the question as to whether Beyonce can have it all, let alone us mere mortals.
3-D That’s Believable
To promote the release of the 3-disc Blu-ray release of Lady and the Tramp, Disney's put together a promo in which two real-life dogs reenact the movie's most famous scene.
Hors de Texte
I would like to nominate Sam Anderson's riff on Roland Barthes's Mythologies for the best lede ever. I would also like to order a tee shirt for a faux boy band composed of Lacan, Derrida, Barthes and Foucault.
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Sarah Baracuda, In Her Own Words
Sarah Palin's memoir, Going Rogue, arrives in bookstores on November 17th; For those who can't wait, may we suggest The Sarah Palin Rogue Coloring and Activity Book?