Jonathan Franzen at the End of Postmodernism (Continuum Literary Studies)
The Guardian (Free subscription) | 11/20/2009
Oprah Winfrey's talkshow is scheduled to finish in 2011. But the legacy may last slightly longer She is a cultural phenomenon. But today Oprah Winfrey will announce that she is to bring her television show to an end in 2011 , 25 years after its first national broadcast . We have much to thank (perhaps) Winfrey for: her show led the way for a new kind of daytime talkshow, and, of course, talkshow host....
5th Estate (Free subscription) | 11/19/2009
Here at FifthEstate we don't go in for self promotion too often, but we couldn't help but notice that out of the 100 books the Telegraph proclaimed as the defining books of the Noughties (I considered an alternative title of this post 'Noughties but Nice' but couldn't bring myself to inflict that on you) Press Books, the imprint from within which this blog is run, has a total of ten titles on the list....
Reading matters (Free subscription) | 11/18/2009
Cormac McCarthy's post-apocalyptic novel The Road has been chosen as the best book of the decade by The Times. The newspaper compiled a list of 100 books, an incredibly eclectic mix of fiction and non-fiction, with some intriguing choices, including the following books reviewed on Reading Matters: Unless by Carol Shields Giving Up the Ghost by Hilary Mantel Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson Cloud...
Ambling Along the Aqueduct (Free subscription) | 11/14/2009
Over at the Valve, Andrew Seal considers recent novels by men that have won critical acclaim in light of Nina Baym's "Melodramas of Beset Manhood." He emphasizes Baym's focus on the critics' obsession with this theme. He concludes: it seems to me that the literary critical project of reading American fiction according to this American myth still sets the table for what we will be served as...
the Literary Saloon (Free subscription) | 11/13/2009
At Le Figaro they ask their readers what is the French novel of the decade ? offering nine choice (plus 'other'). Among the titles readers can vote for several are available in English, and three of these are under review at the complete review : Platform by Michel Houellebecq, Grey Souls (By a Slow River) by Philippe Claudel, and The Kindly Ones by Jonathan Littell (the latter being the runaway leader...
Purple Row (Free subscription) | 11/05/2009
More photos » by Kathy Willens - AP Charlie Weis was a key midseason acquisition for the Yankees on their quest to their 27th championship. To cover their bases, the Yankees also got some much needed help by signing Jeff Gordon, Serena and Venus Williams, trading for David Beckham, purchasing the rights to Jonathan Franzen and Lang Lang. Browse more photos » It's so great to see long suffering...
Mike's Writing Workshop & Newsletter (Free subscription) | 10/31/2009
Saturday, October 31, 2009 Posted by Michael Geffner at Labels: , , , , 0 comments: Subscribe to: Mike's Writing Workshop & Newsletter About Me Michael Geffner New York, United States Writer/Journalist/Columnist. Awarded for outstanding column and feature writing by APSE (Associated Press Sports Editors) 2005, 2006; won New York Publishers Association's contest for Distinguished Sports Writing,...
49 Writers (Free subscription) | 10/29/2009
We're eagerly awaiting our own upcoming interview with Alaska poet Joan Kane , but we can understand why she's a little busy today, as the secrecy veil lifts over receipt last night of a coveted $50,000 Whiting Writers Award. New York magazine had this to say about the prize, which was awarded to ten writers and playwrights. "...the Whitings are a ticket out of water-treading obscurity. Not everyone...
Vulture (Free subscription) | 10/29/2009
Whiting winner Nami Mun at the Orange Award for New Writers ceremony earlier this year. In her forthcoming memoir Lit , poet-memoirist Mary Karr credits God with leading her to sobriety and, eventually, bestseller status. But she also owes the latter to a Whiting Award, which gave her some much-needed financial stability and led to her meeting Binky Urban, the agent who implored her to write a memoir....
East Bay View (mostly a food blog) (Free subscription) | 10/12/2009
Not a pure response to this , since my working definition of "of the decade" is more flexible. Though the Brits are overrepresented (too much reading of the Guardian) my list is more internationalist than the Millions list, plus I like some picture books a lot. Comics aside, there's very little genre fiction on the list: I find it hard to work out what's worth reading, as recommendations,...
Microsoft Watch (Free subscription) | 10/08/2009
In which your humble blogger, a longtime iPod user, continues to test the capabilities of Microsoft's new Zune HD against the iPod Touch. The Zune HD represents Microsoft's attempt to develop a mobile media-player ecosystem that can compete with Apple's own offerings; Redmond is hoping that the multi-touch device can earn a few more points' worth of market-share heading into the holiday season. Onwards...
Nathan Bransford - Literary Agent (Free subscription) | 10/08/2009
You know how whenever someone gets disgruntled with the publishing industry they invariably name a classic book and say, "Well, [insert James Joyce, William Faulkner, Herman Melville, other dead white male/Jane Austen here] would NEVER have found a publisher today." And this is supposed to remind us about the fickleness of today's crass publishing business, the shortsightedness of its employees,...
About Literature: Contemporary (Free subscription) | 09/30/2009
Over at The Millions , C. Max Magee and company are taking the literary pulse of the 21st Century by listing The Best Fiction of the Millennium (So Far) . Though admittedly premature, this list of twenty books was in fact discerned not only by contributors from The Millions, but also a respectable panel of 48 writers, editors, and critics, who were all asked a single question, "What are the best...
5th Estate (Free subscription) | 09/28/2009
To commemorate the close of the first decade of the 00’s, last week The Millions blog ran an ongoing feature counting down the best books of the millennium (so far). Judged by a distinguished panel of writers, critics, and editors, Jonathan Franzen’s The Corrections emerged in the top spot as the best new title of [...]
the Literary Saloon (Free subscription) | 09/26/2009
At The Millions they have now run down the top twenty 'Best of the Millennium' works of fiction, both as determined by their panel and voted on by their readers; see Best of the Millennium, Pros Versus Readers for both lists. (As I've mentioned, I think it's way too early (like about 950 years too early) to be doing this kind of thing -- and the 'millennial' label is fairly silly (books of the decade...
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