In our afternoon reading: interviews with Dawn Lundy Martin and Jenny Odell, how Bikini Kill’s reunion happened, and more.
Morning Bites: Ali Smith on “Super-Cannes,” Kerry James Marshall, Lost Punk Films, Aaron Burch, and More and More
In our morning reading: Ali Smith on J.G. Ballard, new writing by Aaron Burch, and much more.
Morning Bites: Ali Smith, Man Booker Prize Winner, Ta-Nehisi Coates Interviewed, Genevieve Hudson, and More
In our morning reading: new writing by Ali Smith and Precious Okoyomon, an interview with Ta-Nehisi Coates, and more.
Morning Bites: Valeria Luiselli Nonfiction, Ali Smith, Bargou 08’s Latest, and More
In our morning reading: new writing from Valeria Luiselli, a review of Ali Smith’s new book, and more.
Weekend Bites: Ali Smith’s Latest, Alexander Chee Fiction, Jenny Diski, and More
In our weekend reading: thoughts on Ali Smith’s new novel, fiction by Alexander Chee and Jess Zimmerman, and more.
#tobyreads: Myths Abound
I’ve been reading a lot of mythologically-oriented work lately. Sometimes that’s been explicit; at other times, it’s more implicit, found in a metaphor or a passing reference. A little while ago, I read Anders Nilsen’s graphic novel Rage of Poseidon, which brings together irreverent takes on Greek mythology, eventually blending them with irreverent takes on Christianity; for a piece that should show up elsewhere in a couple of weeks, I read Jo Walton’s The Just City, which blends Greek gods, Plato’s The Republic, […]
A Year of Favorites: Nick Curley
Reading about science, economics, and history in order to get out of our bubble. It became important for me in 2013 to read things that weren’t about Brooklyn, American literature, booze, grub, hair, or the fifty-five TV shows you just have to be watching. I get through non-fiction quicker than novels, because I’m not tearing it apart while I read it. So I took to the stars and the soil whenever possible. Livescience, Orion, The New Yorker, Cosmos, Discover, Outside, […]
#tobyreads: Created Creators: Sarah Hall, Ali Smith, and A.G. Porta on Artists’ Lives and Works
And so once again, we return to one of my preferred subjects for fiction: the making of art. Three of the four central characters in Sarah Hall’s How to Paint a Dead Man are artists; the two focal characters of A.G. Porta’s The No World Concerto are writers; and Ali Smith’s Artful is constructed around a series of lectures given on the subjects of art and aesthetics. None of these are traditionally structured, and that’s one of the pleasures of reading them: how […]