NYT - WordUp

June 11, 2008

Heart of Darkness
By Sharon Steel

Andre Dubus III's The House of Sand and Fog was probably THE saddest, most wrenching book we ever read. We were hoping his latest, The Garden of Last Days, would be similar in its delicious soul-killing-ness. But Janet Maslin doesn't think so! In her Books of the Times review, she notes that:
“The Garden of Last Days” explores the cultural chasm between Bassam’s world and Spring’s.

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Author Rants, NYT

June 05, 2008

On the Campaign Trail
By Sharon Steel

In the NYTBR's Summer Reading supplement, some famous writers suggested a few books they thought the Presidential candidates ought to read in between all the flesh-pressing and promise-making. (When this ran, Hillary Clinton was still in the picture. Er, technically.) Anyway, Loorie Moore and Junot Diaz had some excellent ideas.

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Essays, NYT

May 27, 2008

Miles To Go Before I Sleep, Indeed
By Sharon Steel

William Grimes wrote in the New York Times last Friday about the 2006 book 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die (Universe). He offers a realistic take on said list, pointing out its merits while acknowledging that any such catalog should be taken with several grains of salt (perhaps sea salt of the Moby Dick variety?).

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NYT, Recommended Reading

May 12, 2008

James Frey Scores a Rave
By Sharon Steel

Janet Maslin really, really likes James Frey's new novel, Bright Shiny Morning. She calls it a "captivating urban kaleidoscope" and goes on to suggest that this book is going to "save" Frey, or that this is how he saved himself. We're back to being...maybe...hopeful? This whole thing seems rather surreal.

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Lit Gossip, NYT

April 28, 2008

The Ax and Pen of a Literary Critic
By Sharon Steel

We know that the point of this New York Times Sunday Styles piece on N+1 editor and author Keith Gessen wasn't supposed to be about the fact that he is obsessed with checking his Amazon.com ranking. Though it's nice to know that even good-looking, 33-year-old Harvard graduates who live in Prospect Heights, helm their own literary magazine, and have a book out that's earned its fair share of praise and attention also have moments of paralyzing insecurity.

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Lit Gossip, NYT, On Writing

April 18, 2008

Thesaurus Sluts
By Sharon Steel

The best Times lede we've seen in a long time kicks off Charles McGrath's review of Joshua Kendall's The Man Who Made Lists, which chronicles the life and times of the creator of Roget's Thesaurus. It goes like this:
Sylvia Plath loved her thesaurus so much that she called herself “Roget’s strumpet.

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Lit Gossip, NYT

April 15, 2008

Unaccustomed Earth's Swift Rise
By Sharon Steel

Yesterday, we told you about Sloane Crosley's debut on the Times's nonfiction paperback bestseller list, yet we neglected to rhapsodize about the #1 book on the hardcover fiction list. That would be Pulitzer Prize winner Jhumpa Lahiri's (former Boston resident and graduate of BU's Creative Writing program) critically lauded Unaccustomed Earth

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Lit Links, NYT, Publishing

April 14, 2008

Sloane Crosley Has The Career You Always Wanted
By Sharon Steel

Sometimes, alt-weekly dreams really do come true! Remember back in November, when we were obsessing over Sloane Crosley, Vintage/Anchor book publicist extraordinaire, who had a much-hyped, uber-blurbed book of personal essays coming out this spring?

I Was Told There'd Be Cake has arrived.

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Brookline Booksmith, Galley Cat, Lit Gossip

April 07, 2008

Liz Phair Has Five Jobs and One of Them is Novelist
By Sharon Steel

Yup. Liz Phair reviewed Dean Wareham's Black Postcards: A Rock & Roll Romance in this Sunday's NYTBR. Among other things, we have learned that her mother named her Elizabeth Clark Phair because she thought it would make a good New Yorker byline. But more importantly, and most exciting, is the fact that Liz is finishing up her first book -- "fiction, not memoir.

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Everyone's An Author, Lit Gossip, Lit Links

March 31, 2008

He's Just Not That Into Your Library
By Sharon Steel

Did you read Rachel Donadio's NYBR back-page essay about literary dealbreakers yet? Or her subsquent Paper Cuts blog post, in which she asked Times readers to state their own literary dealbreakers?

So, what are the most common literary dealbreakers? People who don't read at all, people who love Ayn Rand, people who dote on Harry Potter, people who worship The Da Vinci Code, people who are too pretentious, and people who aren't pretentious enough.

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Essays, How to Win Friends and Influence People, Idiotic Decisions

March 10, 2008

"The story is mine"
By webteam

Daniel Mendelsohn (The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million) wrote what we thought was a depressing but super-smart Op-Ed piece in the Sunday Times. He makes excellent points about the fake-memoir trend, but even more important, he explains what it means to the opressed classes of individuals whose identities are being stolen in the process.

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Book Scandal, Essays, Lit Gossip

March 05, 2008

Literary Lies: The Next Generation
By Sharon Steel

RECALLED.

Everyone is all in a huff over the "Margaret Jones" scandal. Her True Life story, Love and Consequences: A Memoir of Hope and Survival, was a fraud. She is not part Native American. She was not an abused foster child living on the streets of L.A., or a member of the gang the Bloods. She grew up with her biological parents in Sherman Oaks, CA, and went to a private Episcopal high school.

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Book Scandal, Galley Cat, Lit Gossip

March 04, 2008

Liars, Promotions, and Profiles!
By Sharon Steel

Sloane Crosley: The new Dorothy Parker, some say -- or just our new Imaginary Friend

Kelefa Sanneh, our favorite New York Times pop music critic, is going to be a staff writer at The New Yorker! Now he and the S.F.J. can totally duke it out over the Lil' Mama and Britney coverage. Loving it! Also moving to 4 Times Square is New York magazine writer Ariel Levy, of whose work we are also big fans.

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Book Scandal, How to Win Friends and Influence People, Idiotic Decisions

February 11, 2008

Modern Love Breeds Book Deals
By Sharon Steel

We realized long ago that we were not alone in the fact that we loved to hate Modern Love, a New York Times Sunday Style column equal to a 1,700-word cringe-fest. In this week's New York Observer, Doree Shafrir expertly dissects the column and its uncanny ability to breed book deals.

“I read the Styles section religiously, but my eyes glaze over the Modern Love column,” said an editor at Random House.

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Lit Gossip, Major deals, NY Observer

February 04, 2008

Monday Round-Up: Spilled Milk
By Sharon Steel

James Frey is serious about his come-back, so much so that he's jazzing up his forthcoming novel, Bright Shiny Morning, with jacket art by his friend Richard Prince. He's also thinking of going Ira Glass on us, with a book tour that the New York Post's Page Six likens to something that sounds more like a concert tour:

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Book Scandal, Lit Gossip, Lit Links

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