
New books this week from Jonathan Lethem, Alice McDermott and others. Also: creating better literary conversations, lying about reading books, and ending the publishing industry’s long war on technology.
“Spin the wheel and get a girlfriend. Will she be Vera Nabokov, or will she be Zelda Fitzgerald? Just be nice to her.”
Bookslut has created “a monthly literary magazine, devoted to the strange and to the wise.” Also links to new books by Stephen Rodrick and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
“Free, right? That’s the best of our national brand. America: Home of the Babysat. Just doesn’t have the same ring.”
The top ten books that I didn’t read this year include Hitchens’ Mortality, Ron Rash’s The Cove, and Junot Diaz’s This Is How You Lose Her.
Peter Ames Carlin’s Bruce is the first Springsteen biography in 25 years to be written with complete access to the Boss.