In our morning reading: fiction by Annalee Newitz, an interview with Rob Doyle, and more.
Afternoon Bites: Revisiting Naked City, Charles Portis Remembered, Chiwan Choi Nonfiction, and More
In our afternoon reading: a look back at John Zorn’s music, remembering the life and work of Charles Portis, and more.
Morning Bites: Six Organs of Admittance, Nick Hornby on “High Fidelity,” Greg Mania, You & I Revisited, and More
In our morning reading: talking with Six Organs of Admittance, new writing from Nick Hornby, and more.
Dennie Wendt on Soccer, the 1970s, and Writing “Hooper’s Revolution”
American soccer in the 1970s was a strange time for the sport. Maybe you’ve seen the documentary Once in a Lifetime, or read David Wangerin’s comprehensive Soccer in a Football World. There was a brief moment when some of soccer’s biggest stars converged on the nascent NASL, and expansion teams popped up around the country. Dennie Wendt’s new novel Hooper’s Revolution is set in a fictionalized version of that scene: protagonist Danny Hooper arrived in the United States to play […]
On Shop Novels, Past and Present
Consider the campus novel. It’s a genre within literary fiction capable of encompassing works as thematically and stylistically diverse as Donna Tartt’s The Secret History, Ishmael Reed’s Japanese by Spring, and Kingsley Amis’s Lucky Jim. As disparate as these novels are, however, one can find certain structures in common. Though no two colleges or universities are the same, the basic structures of most are similar enough that a hierarchy of characters can be easily established. (The same could be said […]
Afternoon Bites: Parnassus Books Year One, Adapting “Wild” and “Under the Dome,” Inside “Discordia,” and More
Writer Laurie Penny and illustrator Molly Crabapple talked with Bitch about their collaboration Discordia, Christopher Hitchens, Djuna Barnes, and more. Ann Patchett on the first year in the life of her bookstore Parnassus Books. Jay Bulger on making a documentary about legendary drummer Ginger Baker. Molly Ringwald is interviewed by the Los Angeles Review of Books. Nick Hornby is adapting Cheryl Strayed’s Wild for the big screen. And Brian K. Vaughan is adapting Stephen King’s Under the Dome for television. Edward Champion looks into the […]
Afternoon Bites: Coates on Chabon, Liturgy on Shellac, Hope Larson on “A Wrinkle In Time,” and More
Hope Larson adapted Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle In Time as a graphic novel. Ta-Nehisi Coates on Michael Chabon’s prose. Jason Santa Maria has some things to say about typefaces. Victor LaValle was interviewed at NPR. Perhaps the only time you’ll see “Liturgy” and “a capella Shellac cover” in the same sentence. Gabrielle Gantz on Nick Hornby’s More Baths Less Talking. Indie booksellers in NYC recommend their preferred fall books. Madeleine Miller’s essay “Writing at Six Miles an Hour” is quite good. […]
Weekend Bites: Loving Paul Murray, Dueling Covers, Bad Jobs in Literature, and More
At Largehearted Boy: Paul Murray (Skippy Dies) picks Nation of Ulysses and Nick Cave for his Book Notes entry. Largehearted Boy calls the book “one of the funniest novels of the year.” At Vice: James Ellory interviewed. At NPR: Nick Hornby on Fresh Air. At Thought Catalog: Putting a ton of thought into the Tao Lin/Jonathan Franzen Stranger/Time cover At Dangerous Minds: A letter from the Philip K. Dick auction. At Huffington Post: 9 bad jobs in literature. At The […]