Lists
November 29, 2011
Reasons Not to Self-Publish in 2011-2012: A List 168
by Edan Lepucki
You see, Reader, I still don’t plan on self-publishing my first novel, though I don’t deny the positive aspects of that choice.
November 22, 2011
The Notables: 2011 1
by C. Max Magee
This year’s New York Times Notable Books of the Year list is out. At 100 titles, the list is more of a catalog of the noteworthy than a distinction. Sticking with the fiction exclusively, it appears that we touched upon a few of these books as well: The Angel Esmeralda by Don DeLillo (Most Anticipated) [...]
October 28, 2011
Seven Reasons Why Alexandre Dumas Will Never Die 5
by Bill Morris
If every smart person’s goal in life is to die broke, then Dumas was an unqualified success. But while a lesser man would have bemoaned the cruelties of fate that left him penniless on his deathbed, Dumas had this to say about death as it approached him in 1870: “I shall tell her a story, and she will be kind to me.”
September 28, 2011
Very Bad Things: A Pessimistic Reading List 9
by Emily St. John Mandel
Troubling works of fiction for troubled times.
September 21, 2011
The Life and Afterlife of Literary Theory: A Syllabus 17
by David Winters
In 1996, NYU physics professor Alan Sokal tricked the preeminent journal of postmodern thought into publishing his article, “Transgressing the Boundaries: Towards a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity.” The piece was pure gibberish.
September 10, 2011
Recovery in Pieces: A Study of the Literature of 9/11 13
by A-J Aronstein
We can’t blame earnest authors for trying. It just wasn’t long enough ago yet.