“On January 14, 2017, Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus—America’s oldest and best circus, America’s last true touring circus—announced that it was closing, and six days later the country mourned, with an exit parade, a grand-finale funeral: the inauguration of Donald J. Trump.” Year-in-Reading alum Joshua Cohen, whose Book of Numbers spent seven months on our top-10 list back in 2015, and whose new novel Moving Kings made our most-anticipated list for the latter half of this year, reflects on the end of an era for The Point.
The Greatest Show on Earth
The New York Times Reviews The Pale King
C author Tom McCarthy takes on The Pale King in the New York Times Book Review this week. Separately, though the hard cover of The Pale King shipped and appeared on shelves ahead of the announced April 15 release date, the Kindle version only became available yesterday, right on schedule.
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N+2.0?
N+1 takes the brave step of making all more of its content available online, at a snazzily updated website. You might start with Mark McGurl's knockout piece on Zombie novels, a fitting companion to our own Emily W.'s recent work on vampires. Remember, though: subscribing "is the right thing to do."
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Medieval Marginalia
"Now I've written the whole thing; for Christ's sake give me a drink." Lapham's Quarterly has collected some medieval marginalia, much of which feels very modern indeed. Pair with Sam Anderson's "A Year in Marginalia."
More Kindle ‘Offers’
Amazon has introduced another ad-infused Kindle 'with Special Offers.' You can now get the 3G model, regularly $189, for $164, if you opt for a version that displays Amazon promotions on the home screen and screensaver.
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Money and Making Out Both
Even more Rossetti! Here is a hilarious reimagining of Rossetti's "Jenny" by Mallory Ortberg over at The Toast. If it's a belly laugh you're looking for, then stick with Ortberg: try Dirtbag Jason and the Argonauts.
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Tuesday New Release Day: Malcolm, Percy, Drury, Barrett, Kertész
New! This! Week! Forty-one False Starts: Essays on Artists and Writers by Janet Malcolm, Red Moon by Benjamin Percy, Pacific by Tom Drury, Love Is Power, or Something Like That by A. Igoni Barrett (read his piece at The Millions), and Dossier K, a memoir from Novel winner Imre Kertész.
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Pulling an Updike
Authors are known to mine material from their personal relationships for their writing, but John Updike found inspiration from his interviews. After journalist William Ecenbarger wrote a profile of Updike in 1983, he found himself the subject of an Updike short story. Pair with: Our review of Updike's Collected Stories.
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