Lit Gossip - WordUp

May 22, 2008

Memo to Star Jones: Babs is in Boston, please stay away
By Sharon Steel

From the inbox:
Brookline Booksmith is pleased to announce that broadcasting legend Barbara Walters will be appearing at your favorite local independent bookstore on Thursday, May 22nd at 7pm.

She will be signing copies of her best-selling book Audition from 7-9pm.

If you would like to attend the signing, copies of Audition must be purchased through the Brookline Booksmith.

Post a comment

0

Brookline Booksmith, Events, Lit Gossip

May 19, 2008

OMFG Tolstoy!
By Sharon Steel

Can we just say that we're 100 pages into Anna Karenina, and now we're FINALLY fully able to vet Janet Malcolm's joke about Gossip Girl's Nate Archibald, who she describes as "a kind of Vronsky manqué, with a grande-dame mother, like Vronsky's, and a Navy-captain father who is 'a master sailor and extremely handsome, but a little lacking in the hugs department."

Post a comment

0

Lit Gossip, Reading about Writing

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.

Post a comment

0

Lit Gossip, NYT

May 05, 2008

James Frey is Blogging...
By Sharon Steel

Over at Omnivoracious, hosted by Amazon.com. Only one post is up so far and it's annoyingly music-centric. Why all the flashing lights and filler for your readings, James Frey? Why can't you just get up there and, um, READ? We have grown grumpy and tired of you, sir. We don't care what you think of Ozzfest, we would rather hear some things about your forthcoming book and your deal with HarperCollins and maybe, erhm, advice for writers who fucked up and are still trucking along and biding their time and doing their thing, maybe? Please show us what you're actually made of or go away.

Post a comment

0

Book Scandal, Brookline Booksmith, Coolidge Corner Theatre

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.

Post a comment

0

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.

Post a comment

0

Lit Gossip, NYT

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.

Post a comment

0

Brookline Booksmith, Galley Cat, Lit Gossip

April 10, 2008

Virtual Bookish Collage Crafting!
By Sharon Steel
Okay!! Our editor sent us this link to Polyvore a couple of weeks ago, and we were all, oh, cool, it's like Cher's computer in Clueless. And then we promptly forgot about it.

But the delightful T.Y. at the Lit Connection was inspired, and she created two book-themed character collages which we're totally envious of. The first is inspired by the prom scene in Stephanie Meyer's Twilight, the second, which is our favorite, is inspired by The Witch from Blackbird Pond! Go look at them, NOW! She also made one for a young Ernest Hemmingway and Sixteen Candles!

Post a comment

3

Lit Gossip, Lit Links, Things We Love

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.

Post a comment

1

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.

Post a comment

4

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

March 27, 2008

All the Sad Young Literary Hotties
By Sharon Steel

Keith Gessen: Author, broad-shouldered man.

The Observer is really doing some excellent shoe-leather reporting on sub-cultures these days. Last week's awkward musing on Urbane Tomboys flummoxed us (aren't these girls just hipsters who wear boy clothes, and what does this have to do with feminism?) but Doree Shafrir's story on Nerds of Steel this week is a little bit more our thing.

Post a comment

0

Bookslut, Jezebel, Lit Gossip

March 26, 2008

Wise Words from Zadie Smith
By Sharon Steel

Zadie Smith: "Put it in a drawer."

One of PopSerious's correspondents was at a lecture at Columbia University yesterday, where writer Zadie Smith (White Teeth) gave a lecture on "Feeling Fraudelent." Below, some wise words by the author. We love this kind of thing. So far, the best advice about writing we ever got was "Sometimes you just have to puke over the side and keep rowing."

Post a comment

0

How to Win Friends and Influence People, Lit Gossip, On Writing

March 21, 2008

Will White People Buy Stuff White People Like, the Book?
By Sharon Steel

Memed Out

Have you read Stuff White People Like? It's a very funny blog. We hope it will be a very, very, very funny book. Actually, it will probably have to be the funniest book in the entire fucking world to sell enough copies to justify the alleged $350,000 Random House advance, as reported by the Observer's Leon Neyfakh

Post a comment

0

Everyone's An Author, Lit Gossip, NY Observer

March 20, 2008

E-Books: Ew
By Sharon Steel

We love the Interweb! (Except when it tries to break our blog.)

But you know what we don't love? E-books. E-books are gross. It's like, we and nearly everyone else we know with day jobs spend hours upon hours staring at a screen and reading the Internet all day long. Everyone reads a different Internet. We like to read about literary gossip (um, duh), regular gossip, music, criticism, musical criticism, literary criticism, clothes, media, and more assorted esoteric shit.

Post a comment

1

Idiotic Decisions, Lit Gossip, Publishing

March 12, 2008

The Dark Side of Manners: Lady Snark's Guide to Common Discourtesy
By Sharon Steel

© Rachel McPherson

You know how sometimes, someone says something that makes your face hot and your hands ball into fists of fury and your face go into perma-scowl only to realize you have let them get away with it?

We do! Oh, we do, we do, WE DO! We have been there again and again, only to lie awake at night thinking of The Brilliant Things We Ought To Have Said.

Post a comment

0

How to Win Friends and Influence People, Lit Gossip, Recommended Reading

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | Next >

Follow the Boston Phoenix

All Blogs

Phlog (1,416)
Outside The Frame (303)
Dont Quote Me (516)
On The Download (2,157)
Talking Politics (1,518)
Laser Orgy (31)

Boston Phoenix
Memo to Star Jones: Babs is in Boston, please stay away
Published 5/22/2008 by Sharon Steel
From the inbox:Brookline Booksmith is pleased to announce that broadcasting legend Barbara Walters ...

Boston Phoenix
OMFG Tolstoy!
Published 5/19/2008 by Sharon Steel
Can we just say that we're 100 pages into Anna Karenina, and now we're FINALLY fully able to vet J...

Latest Comments

Is your doctor a greedy scumbag, or just a good Massachusetts liberal? - Suppressed Medical Records (File 5100-13465/001) St. Catharines, Ontario - Privacy Commissioner of Canada...

By mar on 11-20-2009 in Phlog

Tisei, Gay, By The Way - With this, it seems that Tisei is indeed the chosen one for LG. There is already a great Democratic candidate...

By Boston Bertie on 11-20-2009 in Talking Politics

DJ Hero: Enter to Win a Free Copy! - please please my mom cant by it so i was just wondering if you could if you can thanks a big

By james on 11-19-2009 in Laser Orgy

VIDEO OF THE WEEK: exclusive Cave In DVD preview - Good thing there's been screaming in their music long before their "last couple recordings."...

By Zach on 11-19-2009 in On The Download

VIDEO OF THE WEEK: exclusive Cave In DVD preview - I'm happy that one of the bands that got me into hardcore and alternative music is still playing and...

By Gabriel on 11-19-2009 in On The Download

Latest Comments from WordUp