Out this week: Evening in Paradise by Lucia Berlin; Those Who Knew by Idra Novey; A Stranger’s Pose by Emmanuel Iduma; The Naked Woman by Armonía Somers; Northwood by Maryse Meijer; and The Feral Detective by Jonathan Lethem. For more on these and other new titles, go read our most recent book preview.
Tuesday New Release Day: Berlin; Novey; Iduma; Somers; Meijer; Lethem
“What is your useful skill in a tangible situation?”
First there were cupcakes, then donuts, and now toast. At The Pacific Standard, John Gravois discovers the surprisingly emotional and personal reason for why toast is the latest artisan food trend.
The Vampire Diaries
“Charles Dickens had orphanages and workhouses, the Brontë sisters had the wild moors, and modern writers have high school.” So begins L.A. Times television critic Mary McNamara‘s take on The Vampire Diaries, the CW’s answer to Twilight (premiering tonight at 8). The show is loosely based on L.J. Smith‘s books of the same name and McNamara gives it a qualified thumbs up. She concludes that this latest addition to the vampire canon is “pure froth, but it is very welcome froth, especially in a genre that seems sometimes in danger of taking itself a little too seriously.”
David Foster Wallace’s Papers Opening to the Public
The University of Texas, Austin, is opening its acquired manuscripts of David Foster Wallace’s private papers, books, stories, and essays to the public. Previews of Wallace’s marked-up copies of books by DeLillo, Borges, and Updike are available on its website. (via New York Times)
Well-Mannered
Apart from being one of America’s most eminent fiction writers, Eudora Welty was also an accomplished photographer, as evidenced by the hundreds of images she produced while employed by the Works Progress Administration in the midst of the Great Depression. As Danny Heitman writes, she was also known as a great public speaker, in part because, as she put it, “I’m always on time, and I don’t get drunk or hole up in a hotel with my lover.” (h/t The Paris Review)
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Adaptation Progress Report
This week in book-to-film adaptations: Meredith Goldstein rounds up some possible and upcoming projects for The Boston Globe, including adaptations of The Goldfinch (which we cast here) and our own Emily St. John Mandel‘s Station Eleven.
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Powerhouse
Big news in the publishing world: Penguin and Random House have announced their decision to merge.
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