July 2010
42 posts
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The Thieves of Manhattan
The Thieves of Manhattan, by Adam Langer, is a caper. A fun, irreverent, and smart caper.
I read this book after hearing it made fun of publishing, which made me be like, “Cool, that’s something I am obviously interested in!” But I didn’t realize Langer actually names big players in the publishing world and skewers the system by which books get published. This book is...
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“Spending time with her seemed almost too easy, as if we’d skipped all...”
– Adam Langer, The Thieves of Manhattan
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“Hey, have you heard the one about the difference between me, Wit, and my cousin,...”
– The Learners, Chip Kidd
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The Learners, Chip Kidd
Yesterday, I finished the aesthetic masterpiece that is The Learners by Chip Kidd. Kidd is a graphic designer turned novelist and you can tell by his book. His book is beautiful.
The Learners is nominally about the Yale Milgram Obedience experiments in the 1960s, and a lot about the main character’s, Happy’s, transformation because of them. There are many underlying themes in this...
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Twitter weighs in on books that change kids'... →
My additions to this would be: Laura Ingalls, The Giving Tree, Anne of Green Gables, From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs Basil E. Frankweiler, Harry Potter, The Secret Garden, Dr. Seuss, Number the Stars, Amelia Bedelia, The BFG, Jacob Have I Loved, Ellen Tebbits, A Wrinkle in Time, Ender’s Game, Chronicles of Narnia… And oh so many more.
I love this hashtag!
It’s been a really long time since I’ve finished two books in one day!
#INeverRead Moby Dick and I never will.
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“As anyone who has tried to outfit herself in an American shopping mall knows,...”
– This quote comes from an NYT piece I just read, Plus-Size Wars, which I thought was well-written, insightful, and honest. I think These kinds of problems with fit and availability of different clothes affect women of all sized and shapes. This quote is an example of the well-turned phrasing of the...
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Reviewing Super Sad True Love Story lifted a weight off my shoulders… http://booksijustread.com/
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Super Sad True Love Story
I have to say something lucid, articulate, and expressive about the way I felt about Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart. If I achieve these things in my review, it’ll be more than Shteyngart was able to pull off in his book.
I know he was just named one of the next big names in literature, and he’s a nice guy. I’ve met him. He loves New York City, and I do too, and...
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The God Delusion
I just spent about two months reading The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins. Sure, I read books in between starting and finishing, but The God Delusion was my main squeeze for most of the summer. I starting dog-earing all the pages that really struck me, that confused me a little bit, that had beautiful quotes on them. There are a lot of dog-eared pages.
The God Delusion was a difficult read....
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Man Booker Prize Long List →
I already own The Slap, and now it just shot up my “to read” list, which I have been contemplating all day. I started The Learners last night.
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Andrew Wylie vs Random House- Ebook Battle Royale →
Here’s a bit of sensationalist propaganda!
Finished a book tonight! Now I have to decide what to read next, an always difficult decision.
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John Le Carre
I just read John Le Carre’s A Most Wanted Man. Bob Gottlieb, a speaker at the Columbia Publishing Course, said the Le Carre was one of the most interesting authors he’s ever worked with, and that he consistently delivered perfect novels to his editor, Bob himself. I was obviously intrigued by this description of a writer I hadn’t heard much about, since my family is pretty much...
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The Radleys
Not one for new-ish vampire literature, I picked up The Radleys with some doubts. I quickly was absorbed however, reading The Radleys pretty quickly and enjoyably. I really liked Fear Street, Goosebumps, Christopher Pike, and Anne Rice books when I was young. This book brought all those joys back.
The Radleys was tongue-in-cheek with the black and red color scheme, reference to would-be...
New Yorker Larsson Parody →
FROWN!
I love this series, Nora Ephron. And I have no sense of humor.
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“I have plunged into an anxious but very beautiful affair. It seemed to me — and...”
– E.M. Forster, personal letters/diaries
Talking about the power of social media (and book bloggers in particular!) at the Harper Collins offices!
I’m bringing my twitter back from the dead- I have read SO MANY BOOKS since like, October, which was the last time I was posting regularly.
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NYT- E.M. Forster →
A piece I just read in the NYT about E.M. Forster. I have only read Forster sparringly, but this short bio intrigued me- and makes me want to at least read Maurice, which is described as his worst yet most honest work.
Can fiction be too honest?
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“Or did the cynic H.L. Mencken get it right when he tartly observed:...”
– Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion
IT’S THE SUMMER OF STIEG! RT @PublishersLunch Larsson’s Millenium Trilogy Has Sold Over 1 Million E-books! http://bit.ly/dBOEll
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Scholastic
Today, I was fortunate enough to have lunch with Arthur Levine, aka the man who edited the Harry Potter series. Obviously, I was very excited. We went to the Scholastic offices in SoHo, ate lunch round table style, and asked him questions. It was really cool, actually. I think he kind of wishes people would stop asking him about Harry Potter and JK Rowling. I GUESS I understand…
...
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The Fate of Franz Kafka's Legacy →
Fafka was a literary phenomenon, and his readers have long been waiting for the day when his trove of unpublished work would be unveiled. It all started when he wrote to Max Brod:
“Dearest Max, my last request: everything I leave behind me … in the way of diaries, manuscripts, letters … [is] to be burned unread.”
Now it’s happening, the legal battles, the baited...
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“Hitchens does drink a very great deal (and said of Mel Gibson’s blood-alcohol...”
– A Hitchens quote from this New Yorker Piece.
A really good piece I just read.
“Anyone who cannot come to terms with his life while he is alive needs one hand...”
– Franz Kafka (via libraryland)
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“When it comes down to it, this story is not primarily about spies and secret...”
– Stieg Larsson, The Girl who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest
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The Girl who Kicked the Hornet's Nest
The conclusion of the Stieg Larsson trilogy was bittersweet. Larsson intended the series to go on for ten books, and thus the finale feels incomplete, as he tragically died of a heart attack at the young age of 50. Larsson lived a life similar to his protagonist’s, Mikael Blomkvist, and his wikipedia page reads like a synopsis for another thriller novel.
I think the reason I loved this...
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The Girl who Played with Fire
The Girl who Played with Fire was exciting, tense and page turningly suspenseful.
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The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
This week I made the conscious decision to become addicted to the Stieg Larsson trilogy and I am not halfway through it. I finished The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and have happily proceeded onto The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest.
These books are truly fun. I am old-school excited about these books, and am making sure to line up the next book before I finish the one I’m on. I...
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Magazines
This week we started the magazine portion of the course. It’s a huge change from the books portion, and it’s also very interesting. I think the magazine industry is more prepared for innovation and the advent of the iPad etc. So that kind of makes me feel like I should pay close attention, and maybe follow magazines more closely.
Book Workshop
This past week has been really insane because it was Book Workshop week. I barely slept, ate only chips, bananas, and pizza and experienced the wrath of many.
I didn’t have my own life the whole week, and pretty much lived in the lecture hall in the journalism school at Columbia.
I’m really tired!