Wow--in a time when newspapers are slashing their book review sections (along with the rest of their news coverage) to the bone, it's nice to know that some media outlets still cover books. In fact, National Public Radio has hired six new book reviewers and is expanding its book coverage in general with reviews on its Web site and through "author podcasts, critics' lists and other book-focused content."
"We’re building up our book coverage because book content really works for our audience," NPR senior supervising producer Joe Matazzoni said. "Books are among the top three topics attracting traffic to the NPR site."
Happy news. It would seem that literacy and media coverage of things literary are not quite dead.
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Sunday, July 6, 2008
A Memoir on Books
Maybe it's because he first opened his indie bookstore (Booked Up, very cute) in DC and because of his pithy remark about the people who live in DC and what they choose to read, but I just had to pass along this review of BOOKS: A MEMOIR by Larry McMurtry (yeah, the LONESOME DOVE guy).
On books in DC, McMurtry said, "Washington is a civil service town in which the stars are not the politicians or the bureaucrats: the stars in D.C. are the journalists . . . A world in which journalists are stars is not my world. What depressed me most in D.C. was that the various great houses I was invited to contained so few books."
So how come I used to see so many people reading books when I rode the Metro? Maybe the great unwashed masses who don't live in those "great houses" are better-read than the people they work for, because I saw no small number of commuters clutching books as they made their way to their offices. And not just junk. Sometimes, when I was reading a particularly controversial, classic or unusual book, I'd even get a comment from one of my fellow passengers on how he or she had read it and loved it.
I can appreciate McMurtry's views on DC's civil service-orientation and tendency to glamorize the media, but to say that we don't love our books . . . well, obviously, the guy has never been to my house.
On books in DC, McMurtry said, "Washington is a civil service town in which the stars are not the politicians or the bureaucrats: the stars in D.C. are the journalists . . . A world in which journalists are stars is not my world. What depressed me most in D.C. was that the various great houses I was invited to contained so few books."
So how come I used to see so many people reading books when I rode the Metro? Maybe the great unwashed masses who don't live in those "great houses" are better-read than the people they work for, because I saw no small number of commuters clutching books as they made their way to their offices. And not just junk. Sometimes, when I was reading a particularly controversial, classic or unusual book, I'd even get a comment from one of my fellow passengers on how he or she had read it and loved it.
I can appreciate McMurtry's views on DC's civil service-orientation and tendency to glamorize the media, but to say that we don't love our books . . . well, obviously, the guy has never been to my house.
Saturday, July 5, 2008
From Blog to Book
I happened upon this amusing blog, "Stuff White People Like," not too long ago. I'd heard it was being made into a book. And now, here it is.
Yes, folks, the Internet really is providing astonishing new opportunities for writers. But will it sell? After all, you can get the blog for free.
Yes, folks, the Internet really is providing astonishing new opportunities for writers. But will it sell? After all, you can get the blog for free.
Friday, July 4, 2008
'Calamity Physics' Indeed
Review of SPECIAL TOPICS IN CALAMITY PHYSICS (Penguin Books 2006)
Author, Marisha Pessl
I’d read a bit about this book and what an amazing piece of work it was (especially coming from such a young author). Naturally, I was intrigued. So I picked up SPECIAL TOPICS IN CALAMITY PHYSICS while on vacation.
Marisha Pessl is an amazing writer. She is obviously one who is well-read, intelligent and hopelessly enamored of words. She loves words and wordplay so much, she writes with the giddy enthusiasm of a kitten chasing a string or a child, running from one Christmas gift to the other, trying to figure out which toy to play with first. In her energetic prose, Pessl does tend to pile on the metaphors, like a customer at an all-you-can-eat buffet piling mashed potatoes onto her plate. She crams them onto the page, like rush-hour commuters onto a subway car. And her sentences (frequently interrupted with sometimes long parenthetical thoughts that may occasionally drift from the original topic of the sentence, but that’s okay) are often a profusion of words, tumbling over each other, much like boulders in a landslide.
And then there are the citations (plus illustrations or, as they're called in the book, "visual aids"). Yes, a clever device (some even do double duty as metaphors, such as, “We walked by what had to be Bethany Louise’s room, painted gum pink, a pile of clothes on the floor (see 'Mt. McKinley,' Almanac of Major Landmarks, 2000 ed.)”) that demonstrates the protagonist, Blue Van Meer’s, scholarly upbringing under the tutelage of her itinerant professor father. (Not to mention that she's incredibly well-read. Is there a book or article she hasn't read? Is there no source she's unable to quote at the drop of a hat?)
Blue’s mother having tragically died in a car crash after a long, tiring night of working on her butterfly and moth collection (her specialty), the father-daughter duo set off on an extended road trip, in which Blue gets to attend a multitude of schools over the years, treating each new venue as a place to observe human behavior, rather than develop close ties (which will only have to be broken when she moves yet again) and develops a close relationship with Dad that some people might envy (compare Ryan O’Neal and Tatum O’Neal in Paper Moon, 1973).
Yes, it’s a youthful, showy, poetic, almost gymnastic kind of writing. The kind that, when it puts one so young into the exalted heights of the New York Times bestseller list, might lead an older, more jaded person to feel a bit put out (see F. Murray Abraham and Tom Hulce in Amadeus, 1984).
But you know what? While part of the charm of this book is its abundance of zeal and cleverness, and we can forgive a gifted young writer any tendencies to soar like a hawk and do loop-de-loops like a stunt pilot with her words, what really matters (and what’s really true) about this book is that it tells a terrific (in every sense of the word) story about someone you can really care about.
Pessl’s story has a well-structured plot, in which Blue finally settles in during her senior year at a private high school with a group of favored students known as the Bluebloods--and, given her unconventional upbringing, Blue’s desire to be included with them surprised me, even disappointed me a little (see Lee Fiora of Prep by Curtis Sittenfield (Random House 2005)). Nonetheless, it’s the only way you can really get to know Hannah Schneider (who we learn right from jump dies by hanging), become familiar with her dark secrets and delights and take a glimpse, along with Blue, at how the other half lives.
And what starts off looking like a father-daughter road trip chronicle turns into a coming-of-age story, in which Blue starts to rebel (ever so slightly) and keep secrets from her father, which all leads up to the scene where Hannah’s found dead. That’s when Blue (thinking things are not what they seem, always observing, looking for the truth) starts checking into the whole thing. Her investigation leads from one revelation to another and the plot twists come so fast and furious, they leave you breathless. Until, at the end, Blue is left pretty much feeling like this (see Visual Aid below):
Author, Marisha Pessl
I’d read a bit about this book and what an amazing piece of work it was (especially coming from such a young author). Naturally, I was intrigued. So I picked up SPECIAL TOPICS IN CALAMITY PHYSICS while on vacation.
Marisha Pessl is an amazing writer. She is obviously one who is well-read, intelligent and hopelessly enamored of words. She loves words and wordplay so much, she writes with the giddy enthusiasm of a kitten chasing a string or a child, running from one Christmas gift to the other, trying to figure out which toy to play with first. In her energetic prose, Pessl does tend to pile on the metaphors, like a customer at an all-you-can-eat buffet piling mashed potatoes onto her plate. She crams them onto the page, like rush-hour commuters onto a subway car. And her sentences (frequently interrupted with sometimes long parenthetical thoughts that may occasionally drift from the original topic of the sentence, but that’s okay) are often a profusion of words, tumbling over each other, much like boulders in a landslide.
And then there are the citations (plus illustrations or, as they're called in the book, "visual aids"). Yes, a clever device (some even do double duty as metaphors, such as, “We walked by what had to be Bethany Louise’s room, painted gum pink, a pile of clothes on the floor (see 'Mt. McKinley,' Almanac of Major Landmarks, 2000 ed.)”) that demonstrates the protagonist, Blue Van Meer’s, scholarly upbringing under the tutelage of her itinerant professor father. (Not to mention that she's incredibly well-read. Is there a book or article she hasn't read? Is there no source she's unable to quote at the drop of a hat?)
Blue’s mother having tragically died in a car crash after a long, tiring night of working on her butterfly and moth collection (her specialty), the father-daughter duo set off on an extended road trip, in which Blue gets to attend a multitude of schools over the years, treating each new venue as a place to observe human behavior, rather than develop close ties (which will only have to be broken when she moves yet again) and develops a close relationship with Dad that some people might envy (compare Ryan O’Neal and Tatum O’Neal in Paper Moon, 1973).
Yes, it’s a youthful, showy, poetic, almost gymnastic kind of writing. The kind that, when it puts one so young into the exalted heights of the New York Times bestseller list, might lead an older, more jaded person to feel a bit put out (see F. Murray Abraham and Tom Hulce in Amadeus, 1984).
But you know what? While part of the charm of this book is its abundance of zeal and cleverness, and we can forgive a gifted young writer any tendencies to soar like a hawk and do loop-de-loops like a stunt pilot with her words, what really matters (and what’s really true) about this book is that it tells a terrific (in every sense of the word) story about someone you can really care about.
Pessl’s story has a well-structured plot, in which Blue finally settles in during her senior year at a private high school with a group of favored students known as the Bluebloods--and, given her unconventional upbringing, Blue’s desire to be included with them surprised me, even disappointed me a little (see Lee Fiora of Prep by Curtis Sittenfield (Random House 2005)). Nonetheless, it’s the only way you can really get to know Hannah Schneider (who we learn right from jump dies by hanging), become familiar with her dark secrets and delights and take a glimpse, along with Blue, at how the other half lives.
And what starts off looking like a father-daughter road trip chronicle turns into a coming-of-age story, in which Blue starts to rebel (ever so slightly) and keep secrets from her father, which all leads up to the scene where Hannah’s found dead. That’s when Blue (thinking things are not what they seem, always observing, looking for the truth) starts checking into the whole thing. Her investigation leads from one revelation to another and the plot twists come so fast and furious, they leave you breathless. Until, at the end, Blue is left pretty much feeling like this (see Visual Aid below):
I have to say that, as a mystery writer who’s come to expect the unexpected, I actually anticipated the final, apocalyptic revelation (and even expected it to be worse). But it did nothing to ruin the book at all. In the end, like any great mystery novel (and although this is not genre fiction, it is at its core, a mystery), the reader is left, mouth agape, saying, “The clues were right in front of me. I just didn’t see them.”
ADDENDUM: I forgot to mention that this book ends with a final exam! (No kidding.) In keeping with the pedagogic nature of the work, Pessl finishes the story off with a set of questions--true/false, multiple choice and one essay--that actually raise some interesting theories about the story and suggest topics for discussion, much like the suggested topics for book club discussion at the end of other books I've read. And, no, Pessl does not provide answers.
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Amazon Lawsuit Blog
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
'The Odyssey'--Was it for Real?
Apart from this op-ed's too-funny headline, it's interesting reading about Homer's THE ODYSSEY and whether the events depicted actually happened or Homer (not of "The Simpsons", that other guy) made them up.
Of course, I can't read about THE ODYSSEY without thinking of "Ulysses", that wonderful movie with Kirk Douglas. Circe and the Sirens (sounds like rock group, doesn't it?), the Cyclops and lines like "More wine for Polythemus! Son of Neptune!" (Not to mention one of my favorites, "Beggars were always welcome in the house of Ulysses.")
Of course, I can't read about THE ODYSSEY without thinking of "Ulysses", that wonderful movie with Kirk Douglas. Circe and the Sirens (sounds like rock group, doesn't it?), the Cyclops and lines like "More wine for Polythemus! Son of Neptune!" (Not to mention one of my favorites, "Beggars were always welcome in the house of Ulysses.")
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Another Report From BEA
Another look at this year's Book Expo America in Los Angeles. Man, I'm sure between the celebs and all the publishers hawking themselves, there had to be mad, crazy stuff going on in that conference center.
I went to the one in DC (not known for mad, crazy anything--except maybe the way the government works) a couple years ago and that was a sensory-overload experience.
I went to the one in DC (not known for mad, crazy anything--except maybe the way the government works) a couple years ago and that was a sensory-overload experience.
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