Self Promotion
- I’m quoted in the National Book Critics Circle’s roundup of members’ thoughts on the smartest works on conjugal love. I picked Joan Didion’s The Year of Magical Thinking, her memoir of the year following the death of her husband.
Blog Headline of the Week
Best Blog Line(s) of the Week
- “Whining crept into the American memoir in the mid-1990s. …. Then talk shows were born and shame went out to the window.”
Interesting Reading in the Interweb Tubes
Bookish Linkage
- Amazon is launching a new publishing imprint dedicated to translations of foreign language books. The first is Tierno Monénembo’s The King of Kahel, slated for release in November.
- An overview of international SF and fantasy in 2009. (BoingBoing)
Nonbookish Linkage
- The 20 most harmful (healthwise) drinks in America. (GOOD)
- Poverty’s effect on student achievement.
- Cory gives us a glimpse of how Karl Mundt would “fit right into today’s media climate… on Fox News.”
- Although evidently a bit old, this is the first time I’ve seen this evidence of Pat Metheny’s taste in addition to talent. His views on Kenny G include “lame-ass, jive, pseudo bluesy, out-of-tune, noodling, wimped out, fucked up playing.” (kottke.org)
Sometimes you felt the trouble
Sometimes you felt down
Let this music relax your mind
The Rolling Stones, “I Just Want to See His Face,” Exile on Main Street
