**Interesting Articles on Books, Authors, Reading, etc. - Mar/Apr 2010

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**Interesting Articles on Books, Authors, Reading, etc. - Mar/Apr 2010

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1kidzdoc
Edited: Mar 3, 2010, 9:46 am

I just read an excellent article in the 11 February issue of The London Review of Books by Toril Moi about the problematic new English translation of Simone de Beauvoir's The Second Sex by Constance Borde and Sheila Malovany-Chevallier. The full text of the article is available online:

The Adulteress Wife

2avaland
Mar 3, 2010, 7:40 pm

Belletrista's Issue 4 is now up!

http://www.belletrista.com/2010/issue4/index.php

Not all of Belle's contributor's are from LT, but most are. Thanks to all of you who contribute and also to all of you who read the 'zine. It's a labor of love for most of us.

3kidzdoc
Mar 5, 2010, 8:43 pm

I received a Google Alert e-mail about a review in this coming Sunday's Los Angeles Times of The Changeling by the Nobel Prize winner Kenzaburo Oe, which is described as follows:

"A Japanese novelist tries to understand why his longtime filmmaker friend committed suicide, raising issues of art, postwar identity and Japan's coexistence with nationalism."

Oe is one of my favorite writers, although I didn't enjoy his last translated book, Somersault, but I'll get this book very soon, based on this review.

'The Changeling' by Kenzaburo Oe

4fannyprice
Mar 7, 2010, 11:25 am

5kidzdoc
Mar 9, 2010, 12:54 pm

Today's New York Times has a glowing review of The Surrendered, the new novel by Chang-Rae Lee. I received an Early Reviewer copy of this from LT, so I'll start reading it this week.

Lives Scarred by Horrors of Korean War

6lilisin
Mar 9, 2010, 2:41 pm

kidzdoc -
I saw that too! I will also be looking out for it although I'm sure you'll read it before me. Did you see the Ryu Murakami being offered in this month's Early Reviewers list?

7kidzdoc
Mar 9, 2010, 3:35 pm

I didn't see Murakami's book, lilisin. I haven't read anything by him, although I have heard of Coin Locker Babies. Which book(s) of his would you recommend?

8lilisin
Edited: Mar 9, 2010, 3:39 pm

I actually haven't read any of Ryu's work. Been meaning to get to him but have just so much else to get to first. A lot of people recommend Almost Transparent Blue though.

9polutropos
Mar 9, 2010, 9:42 pm

Ian McEwan's latest book condensed to 700 words, and quite savaged.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/mar/09/solar-by-ian-mcewan

10kidzdoc
Edited: Mar 11, 2010, 11:55 pm

Marie Arana reviewed Dreams in a Time of War, the newly published childhood memoir by Ngũgĩ wa Thiongó, in yesterday's Washington Post:

Dreams in a Time of War

11kidzdoc
Mar 12, 2010, 8:40 am

Yesterday's Guardian interviews Abdulrahman Zeitoun, the focus of last year's book Zeitoun by Dave Eggers, which was one of my favorite books of 2009.

SPOILER ALERT: Those who are planning to read this book may want to wait on reading this article.

The amazing true story of Zeitoun

12rebeccanyc
Mar 12, 2010, 9:06 am

Thanks for the heads-up about Ngugi's new book: I'll look for it at Book Culture if I make it there this weekend.

13kidzdoc
Mar 12, 2010, 9:19 am

You're welcome, Rebecca. My local Borders has Dreams in a Time of War in stock, so I would assume that Book Culture will also have it. I'm planning to buy it and The Changeling by Kenzaburo Oe when I go out this afternoon.

14janemarieprice
Mar 12, 2010, 1:24 pm

11 - Thanks for that. Zeitoun was one of my favorites of last year as well.

15stretch
Edited: Mar 12, 2010, 6:44 pm

An article from NPR on the pricing of ebooks:

"No Ink, No Paper: What's The Value Of An E-Book?"

16theaelizabet
Mar 13, 2010, 5:28 pm

11, 14 Interesting article on the man, Zeitoun. The book was a "top ten" read for me, too.

17Jargoneer
Mar 14, 2010, 6:53 am

This appeared the day Salinger died so was overlooked - the poet and translator Michael Hofmann gets stuck into Stefan Zweig - Vermicular Dither.
All the recent Zweig publications in English have portrayed him as a lost master, it appears his reputation in his own language is much much lower.

18rebeccanyc
Mar 27, 2010, 7:23 pm

The Booker prize folks are going to award a "lost" Man Booker Prize for books published in 1970 when the calendar used for awarding the prize changed, making most books published that year ineligible. The short list is:

Nina Bawden The Birds on the Trees
J G Farrell Troubles
Shirley Hazzard The Bay of Noon
Patrick White The Vivisector
Mary Renault Fire from Heaven
Muriel Spark The Driver’s Seat

The winner will be decided by readers' votes. You can vote here.

19dukedom_enough
Apr 7, 2010, 12:32 pm

Today's New York Times has a review of a memoir by Norris Church Mailer, Norman Mailer's last (sixth!) wife. What an incredible jerk the guy was.

20urania1
Apr 8, 2010, 4:34 pm

What an incredible jerk the guy was.

>19 dukedom_enough:,

Was that ever in question?

22fannyprice
Apr 10, 2010, 10:49 pm

A slightly old one but a goodie:

Historical Author Day Jobs

23dukedom_enough
Apr 15, 2010, 12:28 pm

Today's Boston Globe has an interesting article about how Paul Harding's Tinkers went from looking like it'd never be published to this year's Pulitzer fiction prizewinner. Probably a bit romanticized.

24dukedom_enough
Apr 15, 2010, 12:31 pm

urania@20,

I suppose not, but still it's striking to read a reminder of just how bad he was.

25avaland
Apr 15, 2010, 3:43 pm

>23 dukedom_enough: I agree that the prose is striking - very lyrical. I read it about the time I read The Winter Vault. Michaels' prose in that book is similar in its lyricism. This kind of prose can really spoil a reader....

26dukedom_enough
Apr 19, 2010, 7:37 am

Article on the late Thomas M. Disch, emphasizing his relevance to current culture and politics.

27rebeccanyc
Edited: Apr 19, 2010, 8:07 am

Not exactly an article, but reading this on the Book Depository home page made the volcanic eruption hit home for a so-far non-affected New Yorker:

"Due to the volcanic eruption beneath the Eyjafjallajoekull glacier in Iceland and subsequent grounding of all air traffic in Europe, we’re experiencing delays and supply issues. As a result we’re suspending our service to North America, and apologise for any inconvenience this may cause. We hope that flights will resume soon and we can start the service again. Thank you for your patience and understanding.

Customers outside of North America may order via BookDepository.co.uk although some of these deliveries may also be subject to delay. "

28avaland
Apr 19, 2010, 12:25 pm

Another article on the Pulitzer Prize-winning Tinkers, this time from the NY Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/19/books/19harding.html?pagewanted=1&hpw

>27 rebeccanyc: yes, I was just thinking today that no one had mentioned the disruption of mail and shipping that must be going on. I have some packages to send to Europe though...

29avaland
Apr 19, 2010, 2:59 pm

Interesting article on Egyptian author Nawal el Saadawi in the Guardian from the 15th.

30kidzdoc
Apr 24, 2010, 10:04 am

Yesterday I started reading Dread: Poems by Ai for the Club Read Read-A-Living-Poet Challenge. I wanted to learn more about her, but I found out that she had died last month. The New York Times published an obituary about her, which I had completely missed:

Ai, a Steadfast Poetic Channel of Hard Lives, Dies at 62

32dukedom_enough
Edited: Apr 27, 2010, 8:33 am

Seeing that David Frum, composer of George W. Bush's "axis of evil" phrase, has been in the news lately, people have been linking to an old hit, a joint review of Frum and Richard Perle's An End to Evil and Lords of Chaos: The Bloody Rise of the Satanic Metal Underground
By Michael Moynihan and Didrik Sderlind, a book on Nordic "Death Metal" rock music (of which I am not a fan, thank you). Warning: horrifying descriptions of death. The rock bands were associated with several suicides and murders, too.

33dukedom_enough
Apr 27, 2010, 8:38 am

Also, I do not agree with the aspersions against Canadians in this review - which the author meant satirically, in any event.

34polutropos
Apr 27, 2010, 1:21 pm

Intellectual dishonesty by a star historian and professor??? Tell me it ain't so, Orlando.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/apr/23/historian-orlando-figes-amazon-revie...

35polutropos
Apr 30, 2010, 12:21 pm

A bookstore that has every book in the world -- but one

http://sites.google.com/site/fadedoasis/misterbookseller/

36fannyprice
May 2, 2010, 7:21 pm

>35 polutropos:, I love that. How wonderful and sad.

37dukedom_enough
May 4, 2010, 8:28 am

OT, but I thought you'd be interested to see a tweet by Tim Spalding cited on Boingboing.

38avaland
May 5, 2010, 11:51 am

Belletrista, Issue 5 is now up on the web! It's a fabulous issue crammed full of reviews (33), articles, interviews and features (7), and New & Notable books (62).

http://www.belletrista.com/2010/issue5/index.php

The Belletrista.com FaceBook page was launched today also.

39solla
Jun 15, 2010, 2:33 pm

#1 It was an interesting article. Reading the comments, I think I could easily get involved, if I had the time, with trying to sort out the politics of her criticism and the responses, but, not knowing French at all I really have no basis to judge.

40solla
Jun 15, 2010, 2:43 pm

#10 I just read Dreams in a Time of War, and I agree with the author of the review that it was not focused on the time, but on the promise Ngũgĩ made to his mother. What is amazing is being able to hold on to that belief in such a time - for it often seems to me that my own failures are in essence failures of belief, or sometimes, confidence.

41dukedom_enough
Edited: Jun 16, 2010, 8:13 am

The NY Times notes that publishers are busily seeking the next Stieg Larsson.

The staff at Powell's Books have dubbed Larsson's trilogy "The Girl Who’s Paying Our Salaries for the Next Few Months."