Out this week: The Big Green Tent by Ludmila Ulitskaya; Hotels of North America by Rick Moody; A Wild Swan: And Other Tales by Michael Cunningham; Dear Mr. You by Mary-Louise Parker; and Rules for a Knight by the actor Ethan Hawke. For more on these and other new titles, go read our Great Second-Half 2015 Book Preview.
Tuesday New Release Day: Ulitskaya; Moody; Cunningham; Parker; Hawke
Before “Once Upon A Time”
George Dobbs explores the history of some common cliches for The Airship and makes an elegant argument for being aware of overused phrasing: "The worst fiction might never go beyond widely used tropes, but the best fiction starts with an awareness of them." We agree, and also hope never to read "It was a dark and stormy night..." again.
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Steve Jobs
60 Minutes aired a great overview of Walter Isaacson's bestselling (yet just released today) Steve Jobs biography. The book was also reviewed by Janet Maslin for The New York Times.
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Bookshelves Ten Feet High
Chances are you've bragged about the size of your library. The number of books you own is a point of pride for many readers. But at what point does collecting books -- which few people would say is a bad thing-- turn into a problem? At what point, in other words, does it become hoarding? Pair with: Rebecca Rego-Barry on hunting for rare books at college library book sales.
Nothing Is Not Like Nothing
Robert Krulwich takes on two very different types of "nothing." As he illustrates through the invocation of Willem de Kooning, Robert Rauschenberg, and outer space, "nothing" is a lot more complicated than you might initially believe.
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Winter Reads: The Little House Books
Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House books bring an icy take on America in winter. To Guardian reader Alison Gibbsme, "as a child, they were full of adventure and excitement; as an adult I am shocked at how full of danger they are."
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Letterman Has Done Creepy Things
David Letterman has possibly topped himself. As told on the show last night, he has been doing some creepy things. Click here for the video of one of the most bizarre, fascinating -- and arguably brilliant, from a PR standpoint -- mea culpas in recent history.
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Dictionary of Regional @English
I snum! This is a bunch of bullcorn. You chowderheads best move your gogos and follow the Dictionary of American Regional English on Twitter.
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The Best Book for Every State
This week in book-related internet graphics: "A Map of the Best Book for Every State," complete with the promise that "every last one will let you understand a time and place in a more profound way than you maybe thought possible."
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