Recent Articles
June 5, 2007
The Corey Vilhauer Book of the Month Club: June 2007 1
by Corey Vilhauer
The travelogue. Ah, the oft maligned travel novel, thrown onto the burn pile with other not-taken-seriously genres like mystery and thriller. Driven to the edges of respected literature, called unimaginative and easy, dropped first from a library’s collection and left to rot on library sale tables. Yet, it seems like everyone wants in the action. [...]
June 4, 2007
Voices From The Past: A Review of Running in the Family by Michael Ondaatje 3
by Andrew Saikali
“No story is ever told just once… We will return to it an hour later and re-tell the story with additions and this time a few judgments thrown in. In this way history is organized.” In 1978, and again two years later, Michael Ondaatje left his Toronto home and embarked on an ancestral odyssey – [...]
June 3, 2007
Back from BEA 0
by C. Max Magee
A whirlwind weekend in steamy NYC has drawn to a close. Somehow this year I managed to spend even less time than last year on the BEA floor, but as usual the real action was elsewhere. For example, Thursday night’s LBC party was quite an affair. Garth and Noah were along for the ride, and, [...]
May 30, 2007
The Millions at BEA (X3) 1
by C. Max Magee
I know that last year I expressed profound ambivalence about attending BEA, but in the end I’ve decided to go this year for a few reasons: It’s in NYC, giving me the opportunity to see the numerous family and friends I have there; I’ll get to meet up with some of the many cool people [...]
May 30, 2007
Ask a Book Question: The 55th in a Series (Future Blue Chips) 0
by C. Max Magee
Ron writes in with this question: The recent issue of Firsts magazine has an article on today’s “blue chip” authors for book collectors: Hemingway, Steinbeck, Faulkner, Fitzgerald. It made me wonder who writing today will be a blue chip author in the future. In the next 10 or 15 years, who will have books selling [...]
May 30, 2007
New York Magazine Kicks Playa-tastic Game at World of Letters; World of Letters Says, “Uh…Thanks”; Good Time Had By All 0
by Garth Risk Hallberg
The current issue of New York Magazine offers a typically glib handicapping of this summer’s debut novels and hot young fabulists, as well as surveys of overlooked books and of writers likely to stand the test of time. I’m least sympathetic to this American Idol style of journalism when it covers well-trod territory; New York’s [...]