Out this week: Marlena by Julie Buntin; American War by Omar El Akkad; What It Means When a Man Falls from the Sky by Lesley Nneka Arimah; Kingdom of the Young by Edie Meidav; No One Is Coming to Save Us by Stephanie Powell Watts; and Living in the Weather of the World by Richard Bausch. For more on these and other new titles, go read our most recent book preview.
Tuesday New Release Day: Buntin; El Akkad; Arimah; Meidav; Watts; Bausch
What We Owe
Recommended reading: In a piece for the LA Times David Ulin ponders the ethics of writing. "What do we owe our subjects? Do we have the right to tell their stories at all?"
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She Said, He Said
"Ms. Cline, who was 27 when the novel came out, was celebrated as a major new talent. But for the last two years, her success has been overshadowed, in private, by legal threats levied against her by a former boyfriend." Emma Cline, bestselling author of The Girls, and her ex-boyfriend, Chaz Reetz-Laiolo, have filed public lawsuits against each other including allegations of plagiarism, physical abuse, and intimidation, according to the New York Times. From our archives: staff writer Michael Bourne's review of Cline's debut novel.
Pilgrim at Tinker.com
A brand new lit mag out of Canada, Numero Cinq, goes by the tagline “a warm place on a cruel web.” As if to drive home the point, the editors published a nifty study of Pilgrim at Tinker Creek.
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Remodel At What Cost?
Caleb Crain has strong reservations about the New York Public Library's proposed $350 million remodel, or, in his view, the library's shift away from "its research mission." To put his concerns bluntly, he asks, "What problem is the Central Library Plan (CLP) meant to solve?" He then vividly enumerates the problems with the proposal. For those of you wondering what can be accomplished with an essay, there's this: Mr. Crain's got him landed on one of the project's advisory panels as a result.
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Film Time with Steve
Looking for something to watch this weekend? Steve Buscemi’s ranked his top ten films in the Criterion Collection.
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Feels so good being bad
For the last couple days #badwritingtips, a collection of hilarious writing tips to take your novel from typical to terrible, have been trending on twitter. The Guardian rounded up a few of their favorites. Perhaps this advice will help out the unlucky souls retweeted on working on my novel.
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Reader’s Tan
Have you ever gotten stuck in a book? Here's a delightful little comic by Grant Snider that explores the process of losing oneself in reading.
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