Sasha Dugdale believes that Ted Hughes’s greatest contribution to the world of poetry remains Modern Poetry in Translation, the magazine which got its start thanks to an off-hand suggestion by Hughes at a cocktail party in the mid-sixties. Here’s our review of Jonathan Bate’s recent take on the poet, Ted Hughes: The Unauthorized Life.
The Iron Man
Penguin Postcards
If we were to buy ourselves a gift this year, it would be Penguin's "One Hundred Book Covers in One Box" postcard set.
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What Really Happened in the 1980s
Recommended: Meagan Day on Joan Didion’s essay "In the Realm of the Fisher King," which you can find in Didion's collection After Henry.
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Coherence Salad
"You couldn’t say, no, this is actually a president, this is exactly how a leader ought to talk and reason, because even with the uhs and ums cleaned out and the spoken sentences made to look like written ones, Trump’s discourse isn’t coherent." Linguist Michael Erard for The Awl on reading Trump's transcripts.
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Best American Books On Sale
Pretty good deal on Amazon today: All the e-book versions of the "Best American" books are $1.99.
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Book Picker Book Picker Pick Me A Book
It's time for NPR's Book Concierge again! The interactive site will help you sort the year's releases by about a gazillion criteria, including "book club ideas" and the seriously great "seriously great writing."
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Sounds, Feelings, Thoughts
Recommended Reading: Clare Cavanagh on the experience of translating the work of Polish poet and Nobel Laureate Wisława Szymborska.
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