Ah, another Sunday, another Globe Books section to devour. Ideas section> WTF?! Slim pickings this week. There are only 3 full reviews and only 4 fiction book reviewed in the entire section (1 ‘full’ review [full actually means a quarter of the page since they feel the lead review needs a giant illustration always], 2 in a short column and one in the ‘Short Takes’ section). Are they following the NYT’s lead with multiple Chronicle type columns?
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Author Archives: bookdwarf
Pow, Amazon, to the moon!
Moby linked to this article about Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, and his plan for the recently acquired 165,000 acres in West Texas. “Over the next 30 to 40 minutes, Simpson said Bezos told him the goal of his venture – known as Blue Origin – was to send a spaceship into orbit that launches and lands vertically, like a rocket.” Huh. Not sure what to make of this.
In unrelated news, did anyone else know that there’s a movie coming out this summer based on the television show The Honeymooners? It stars Cedric the Entertainer as Ralph Kramden and Mike Epps as Ed Norton.
Nominee for Douchebag of the Year?
So you write an 11 sentence introduction to a book on 9/11, which was published to raise money for the families who lost someone on that day. 11 sentences. And you get $76,000 in royalties? Which you pocket? Sure, he gives money to charity already, but c’mon! There are no words for this guy. We have to create new ones for his kind.
(found story on Bookslut)
Quickie review
I haven’t had much time to read lately, but I did manage to finish Meg Wolitzer’s newest book The Position this morning. I’ve been hearing good things about her for years and the galley appeared on my desk with a nice looking cover and I thought, now’s a good time to check her out. I am glad I did. I like her writing, but was ultimately disappointed with The Position. In my opinion the story falls apart in the end. The Postion follows Paul and Roz Mellow in 1975 who decided to write a sex manual complete with artful drawings of themselves. The novel examines what happens when their 4 children discover the book and how it impacts their lives. To me, there was a huge disconnect between the characters and Wolitzer throws in some drama, just for the sake of throwing in drama. I know I sound like I am trashing the book. In fact, I thought it had great potential and I enjoyed reading it. It wasn’t until I reached the end and thought about the book as a whole that I reached these conclusions.
Everybody was Kung-fu fighting….
Sorry, feeling punchy today, no pun intended. Alex Beam calls Joe Queenan on taking it like a man in his latest article in the Boston Globe. “Sod off, Joe, before someone starts printing your pathetic sales numbers — 6,124 copies of ”Country” sold, according to Bookscan.”
Burn!
I am not sure if I agree with Jennifer Nix’s argument at Alternet or not. I don’t know why the various authors she mentioned went with those various publishers (my pessimistic assumption is that greed had something to do with it). But I like the passion she displays in the article. It’s nice to know everyone’s not publishing drones.
You’d think I read nothing but the NYT
Frank Rich has another dead-on editorial about the dangers of censorship today. I am not going to rant about the FCC. I swear.
Some Mysterious stuff
The NYT has several mystery reviews today. One is a full length review of George Pelecanos’ new book Drama City. I’ve heard excellent things about him and Maslin’s review makes me want to check him out. The second article is a rundown of 9 new mysteries. Some of the authors are familiar to me and some are new.
Random quote of the day
“Anytime that people love something so much that they’ll fight for it in a cage,” he said, “it’s funny.”
From NYT article on a new craft show called “Craft Corner Deathmatch”. The entire article contains some gems: “We are not being irreverent about craft,” insisted Mr. Taberski, who once worked as an aide in the Clinton administration and knows how to please a constituency. “We’re just being irreverent near it.”
Exciting Events
I just glanced at the Event schedule for April here at the Harvard Book Store. Man, do we have some good stuff coming up!
* Friday, April 1st, Ian McEwan
* Wednesday, April 6th, Jonathan Safran Foer (who has been getting lots of posts lately)
* Tuesday, April 12th, Camille Paglia
* Wednesday, April 13th, Jeanette Winterson
* Monday, April 25th, Ruth Reichl
I don’t know if I can make it to all of them. There’s a lot more too. Sorry if it seems like I am just plugging my store. I don’t write this blog for work. It’s just my own personal site, but I can’t help but mention this stuff.
Bookdwarf 