“[I]t becomes an act of subversion, an act of catharsis.” Plougshares has a piece about the Lolita aesthetic on Tumblr. See also: our conversation with John Gall who, as art director for Vintage and Anchor books, was responsible for at least two Lolita covers, not to mention the redesign of the entire Nabokov catalog.
Reading Lolita on Tumblr
Friday Links
All week I’ve been enjoying posts by Jeremy Blachman at the Powell’s blog about life after the publication of his debut novel, Anonymous Lawyer. I particularly enjoyed hearing about his experience at BEA.In other blogging authors news. Critically acclaimed crime novelist George Pelecanos paid a vist to Confessions of a Dangerous Mind and left three posts. His new book is The Night Gardener.BarnesandNoble.com now accepts PayPal, so sell stuff on eBay and use the proceeds to buy books!Can’t remember if it’s forbidding, foreboding, or formidable? Check out Common Errors in English Usage, also available in book form.
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You Can’t Go Home Again
“When I go back to Bogotá, I like to share my knowledge of the car bombs that went off in the city in the ’80s and ’90s. I helpfully point out the gory details to cab drivers and friends. I press my finger on the window and point at corners, ‘That’s the spot where an ATM blew up, seven dead.’” From Bogatá to Tel Aviv — here are ten writers on the places they immigrated from, returned to, remember, and call home.
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YiR Alums In Spook
Are you familiar with Spook magazine founded and edited by Jason Parham? It focuses on promoting artists of color and their work. This month the fiction issue, was released and it features work from beloved writers (and Year in Reading alums!) Junot Diaz, Angela Flournoy, and Vinson Cunningham. Along with YiR favorite Justin Torres. You can buy it here! Perfect read for the snowy weekend.
Roald Dahl and the Hilariously Bad Grades
A newly released Roald Dahl collection, The Missing Golden Ticket and Other Splendiferous Secrets, includes a secret ending to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and excerpts from the author’s hilariously bad report cards. Wrote one teacher about Dahl in 1931: “A persistent muddler. Vocabulary negligible, sentences malconstructed. He reminds me of a camel.” (via Galley Cat)
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New McSweeney’s with Franzen, Meno, Oates, and Lepucki
Now available for order at McSweeney’s and Amazon, McSweeney’s Issue 37, featuring Jonathan Franzen, Joe Meno, Joyce Carol Oates, and most importantly, new fiction from The Millions’ very own Edan Lepucki!
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Fresh Powder
Year in Reading alumnus (and co-founder of The Morning News) Rosecrans Baldwin talks shop with Thomas Stoeckli, a photographer from Switzerland who specializes in photos of snowboarders.
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