Ed over at Return of the Reluctant (a daiily read) has written a great review of Chang Rae Lee’s Aloftover at January Magazine. This is a book I read several months ago and reviewed here as well (though not as well as Ed has done).

Sarah has some good points about the Laura Miller piece from the NYT Book Review. In this piece, Miller comments on the sheer number of books that get published—1 new fiction book every 30 minutes. I agree with Sarah on many points. Working at a bookstore, I get calls every day from an author who wants us to carry her/his book. You know what? Most of them are crap. Sure, it is just my opinon, but a lot of things should just never be published. Many are books that an author has self-published. But many are from big name publishers. Need I mention the Bill O’Reilly book coming in the Fall The O’Reilly Factor for Kids? Frankly, a lot of these books are just too hard for us to get. The discounts suck and we have to order more than we need. Sometimes it is just not worth it for us. Plus, like I said earlier, many of the self-published stuff is crap. And I agree with her about how it is hard to keep up with all the new books. I read pretty quickly too, but my TBR list seems to grow exponentially.

And the last link I am providing is to the event list at my store. As everyone knows, the DNC starts soon (something everyone in the Boston area is dreading) and we are having some killer events that week. A panel discussion with Al Franken, Toni Morrison, Joe Conason, Sidney Blumenthal, and Robert F. Kennedy, jr. on politics, books and the culture of war. We have Senator Edward Kennedy and Wesley Clark introducing Robert Byrd, who will speak about his book Losing America: Confronting a Reckless and Arrogant Presidency. Plus lots more—Molly Ivins, George McGovern, Joseph Wilson, etc. So anyone in the Boston/Cambridge area can check it out.