Out this week: Vacationland by John Hodgman; Funeral Platter by Greg Ames; True Stories by Francis Spufford; and The First Day by Phil Harrison. For more on these and other new titles, go read our most recent book preview.
Tuesday New Release Day: Hodgman; Ames; Spufford; Harrison
Dark Thoughts
If you know that Patricia Highsmith wrote The Talented Mr. Ripley, you know that she’s an exceptional authority on the workings of the criminal mind. At The Paris Review Daily, Dan Piepenbring digs up an old interview with the author, in which she describes the act of murder as “the opposite of freedom.” You could also read Tana French on Highsmith’s Strangers on a Train.
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“It is not enough to have his idea.”
Recommended Reading: Four poems by Darin Ciccotelli are up at BOMB.
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Lydia Kiesling in the Tournament of Books
This week, our own Lydia Kiesling took part in The Morning News Tournament of Books, where she adjudicated a showdown between Scott McClanahan’s Hill William and Ruth Ozeki’s A Tale for the Time Being. Who went on to the next round: the trans-Pacific odyssey, or the tale of West Virginia? (You could also read our own Edan Lepucki’s Tournament contribution from last year, or else read our own Nick Moran’s Year in Reading piece on Scott McClanahan.)
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Wherefore art thou Luke Skywalker?
Good versus evil, a hero coming of age, wars, and sibling love — Star Wars is the play William Shakespeare never wrote. Fortunately, Ian Doescher rewrote the tale of the Jedi in iambic pentameter in William Shakespeare's Star Wars. The best part is the book trailer, which features Shakespearean actors wielding lightsabers.
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Librarians > Google
A pretty nifty Neil Gaiman quotation appears on the floor of the Duke University Medical Center Library.
Muses and Bodies and Art and Grief
Recommended listening: David Naimon talks with Lidia Yuknavitch about "Muses, Bodies and Biography." Pair with Yuknavitch's Millions essay on art and grieving.
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