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Michele Bachmann's steamy romance novel, 'Fires of Siberia,' out June 1
Congresswoman (R-MN) and presidential candidate Michele Bachmann carries the doubly apt nickname of “Firebrand.” Reactionary politics and incendiary rhetoric aside, Representative Bachmann is very much a woman, and her feverish gaze has inflamed the passions of conservative men (but not...
J.R.R. Tolkien's 'Fall of Arthur' and the path to Middle-Earth
The long unfinished poem edited by J.R.R. Tolkien's son, Christopher, provides fascinating insight into the author's work. The books go ever on and on. Forty years after his death at 81, works by J.R.R. Tolkien continue to appear. The...Show More Summary
Kai and Uncle Ruslan: When Memes Go Dark
“‘It’s important to realize how the funniness in these videos [such as those featuring Kai the axe-wielding hitchhiker and Uncle Ruslan] is really close to something that’s desperately unfunny,’ says Mark O’Connell, who wrote Epic Fail:...Show More Summary
Canon Fodder: Denouncing the Classics
In an essay in a 1933 issue of the magazine Scrutiny, the critic F. R. Leavis delivered a vicious hatchet job on one poor, unsuspecting poet:
To say that [his] verse is magniloquent ? is to say that it is not doing as much as its impressive...Show More Summary
Rana Plaza Has Happened Before
There are many revelations in Brenda Wineapple’s “Ecstatic Nation,” a rich, beautifully told chronicle of American politics and society between 1848 and 1877 that will be published in August. One of them is that the best works of history give as much perspective to the moment in which they are written as to the period that they describe. Show More Summary
‘The Dream Thieves’: Read an excerpt from Maggie Stiefvater’s sequel to ‘The Raven Boys’ — EXCLUSIVE
Maggie Stiefvater shattered no small amount of dreams when she ended The Raven Boys on a somewhat torturous cliffhanger (don’t
Go Go Gadget Classical Compositions
Fun Fact: the Inspector Gadget theme song is actually based on Edvard Grieg’s “In the Hall of the Mountain King.” Seriously. Related posts: The Classical Goes Old School The Classical is launching a monthly magazine.... The Scream Edvard...Show More Summary
Stolen Pearl S. Buck novel recovered, to be published four decades after author’s death
An unpublished novel of Pearl S. Buck’s has been recovered from Texas where it was stolen away to after the author’s death in Vermont in 1973. The winner of the first Nobel Prize in Literature to go to a woman, Buck’s unpublished manuscript is to be published by Open Road Integrated...
Pearl S. Buck to publish new novel ... 40 years after her death
A new novel by Pearl S. Buck will be published in October, more than 40 years after her death. Buck, best known for her novel "The Good Earth," won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1938.
The Patrón Way: A Conversation with a Marketing Pioneer
Most people assume that Patrón tequila has been around forever. But it wasn’t until 1989 that Ilana Edelstein’s late life partner, Martin Crowley, returned from Mexico with the “liquid treasure” which he, Edelstein, and co-founder John Paul DeJoria (also co-founder...
My Fantasy Britain by Bee Ridgway
Bee Ridgway grew up in Amherst, Massachusetts. She attended Oberlin College (B.A.), then worked for a year as an editorial assistant at Elle magazine. She studied literature at Cornell University (M.A. and Ph.D.) and has worked at Bryn Mawr College...
Coming next spring: Lea Michele’s first book
Lea Michele is writing her first book: The Broadway star and Glee actress has inked a deal with Harmony Books to release
Literature’s finest handlebar moustache
I love this signed photo of Arthur Conan Doyle. The Sherlock Holmes author has a phenomenal handlebar moustache and must have preened it prior to having the photo taken. While we’re talking about the great man, here is a video of Conan Doyle from 1928 discussing his famous detective with an appearance from Doyle’s dog. [...]
Elizabeth Warren to pen new book -- a middle-class call to arms?
A book can’t rescue the American middle class. But a lot of politicians who say they want to rescue the American middle class are writing books about their travails and their vision — all timed to come out as the 2016 presidential election machinery kicks into gear.
Finnegans Draft
Ordinarily I would caution against reading a novel’s first draft, however in the case of Finnegans Wake, perhaps all rules should be tossed out the window. With this one, it seems as though any and all supplemental material might help unlock the finished product’s mysteries. Case in point: the entire first draft of Joyce’s most [...]Show More Summary
Dianne K. Salerni: 7 Creepy Unsolved Mysteries
The moment I saw the photograph--a grave enclosed in an iron cage--I knew there was a book in it for me.
Dave Astor: Why We Tolerate Many Deaths in Literature
With all the real-life carnage in the world, how painful is it to also read about fictional deaths in literature? Pretty painful, especially if we're fond of the characters whose lives end. But it's hard for readers to avoid expired characters.
Kunal K. Das: Can You Find The Perfect Love Match Using Science? (NEW BOOK)
People have been trying to understand this business of love and relationships forever, and have tried just about everything - art, poetry, literature, psychology, sociology, biology, you name it.
Rayya Elias reminds us why we love New York in 'Harley Loco'
BY KATE WADKINS This past March, I left New York for the longest period of time in my adult life. I flew to the UK to stay with my father’s family and to take a breather, to think over why it is that I struggle so hard to live in a place that never seems to want me in...
Burn Your Letters?
Why is it that, when an author says very explicitly that she does not want her work published, we publish it? Willa Cather’s letters have been restricted since her death in 1947. She may be spinning in her grave now that a fat volume of those letters has been published. Show More Summary
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