Know a great title that’s not in our latest Book Preview? Tweet it using the hashtag #otherbooks2015. Coined by Steve Himmer — who’s written for us — the hashtag lets readers suggest noteworthy books that didn’t appear on our list. You can find even more additions in this Metafilter thread.
Second-Half Ctd.
Approaching Parity
"If we are looking for a single category to explain why women are better represented among best-selling authors today, the Literary/None category is our best candidate. Most best-selling books fall into this category, and its change over time closely matches the overall gender ratio, shifting from extreme bias in the 1980s to close to parity in the 2000s." Rosie Cima has put together a beautifully thorough and thoughtful analysis of gender, best-seller lists, and publishing for The Pudding. For a more exegetical analysis, consider our own Sonya Chung's exploration of writing across gender lines.
Make-Outs Not Guaranteed
Live in San Francisco? Want to spend an evening with the fun-loving gang at The Rumpus? Well then, clear out your Saturday -- they're holding a Literary Pub Crawl.
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Cain: Selling a Candidate or Selling Books?
Instead of capitalizing on his newfound momentum by hitting the campaign trail hard, Herman Cain this week opted to spend most of his time promoting his book, This is Herman Cain! My Journey to the White House, which just arrived in retail stores this week.
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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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How Many Palins Does It Take To Break Even?
Will HarperCollins sell 400,000 copies of Going Rogue? (My guess: you betcha.)
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Get Your Tissues
The first trailer for the film adaptation of Markus Zusak's The Book Thief is out. Expect a lot of Oscar nominations and tears.
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Defending the Poet Laureate
Recommended reading: Our own Nick Ripatrazone writes "In Defense of the Poet Laureate" and about the tension that arises when poetry meets government for the new Literary Hub site.
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