I would like to congratulate Leila Lalami, author of the wonderful Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits, on being awarded a Fulbright Scholarship. She will be moving to Casablanca for 9 months conducting research on Islamic extremism and secular movements for her next book. I wish her well on her journey.

Ed has posted the first installment of our discussion about David Mitchell’s forthcoming Black Swan Green. My response will be posted there in the next few days.

David Mitchell will be appearing here next month on April 19th (it’s not listed yet, but trust me, he’s coming).

I managed to miss Bookdwarf.com’s 2 year anniversary, which was on February 7th. Whoops. Well, happy anniversary to me.

Mr. Segundo of the Bat Segundo Show recently met with Dave Barry. Listen here for discussion on among other things “phone calls from Paul Anka, daily affirmations, indices, sex with ducks, buzz cuts (1960 vs. 2005)”.

Birnbaum also has a new interview available in print form at the Morning News. He spoke with theoretical physicist Lisa Randall, who’s from my neck of the woods actually.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Laila Lalami’s appearance at my store tomorrow evening at 6:30. She will be reading from her debut Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits with Chris Castellani author of The Saint of Lost Things. It’s hard to be objective as I consider Laila a friend, but I really enjoyed her book and am looking forward to hearing her read from it.

2 good links for y’all:
Number 12 of the Bat Segundo Show is available for your listening pleasure. This session features Lydia Millet.

Robert Birnbaum spoke to Ron Rash recently about all sorts of southernly things. Check it out.

Several authors have appeared in the area that I just didn’t have the energy to attend. Luckily, Jenny Davidson attended the Jonathan Lethem lecture at MIT and posted about it.

Plus Haruki Murakami, who is at Harvard for the year, has been getting around. He gave a lecture at MIT in the same series as Jonathan Lethem, and recently spoke at Tufts, where he was a professor. The Tufts Daily News has the beans. Murakami will be speaking again at the First Parish Church, sponsored by the Reischauer Institute with the cooperation of my store. Unfortunately, the tickets sold out very quickly, though there may be some overflow seats. Fortunately, yours truly will be in attendance. I will do what I can to record the lecture.

Robert Birnbaum posted another of his great interviews over at the Morning News. This time he spoke with Jonathan Lethem, author of the novels Gun with Occasional Music (which I finally read on vacation), Motherless Brooklyn, and most recently The Fortress of Solitude. Mr. Lethem recently won a MacArthur fellowship. Has anyone read Fortress of Solitude? A copy just made its way to my desk and I want to know if it should be added to my TBR pile.

I love me a catfight on a cold Thursday morning. Steve Almond has written an article all about Mark Sarvas aka TEV and his hatred supposed hatred for Almond. Now, before people start jumping into the comments here and tearing me a new asshole, I am not taking sides in what is clearly a personal fight. I like Mark and his blog. I’ve met him in person and found him perfectly amiable. I’ve also met Almond, as he’s local to these parts. He’s been perfectly nice to me. Of course some are going to rally around Mark.

I do however object to Almond’s dismissal of litblogs, but praising them in an article attacking one wouldn’t have served his purpose I suppose. Not everything he says is wrong. I do read lots of other litblogs and I imagine any audience I have beyond my family is other litbloggers. So what? I like books, I work in books, I like to read about books. I disagree with the statement “few of these lit blogs actually discuss literature in a meaningful way”. I think he’s totally wrong. I read many blogs with “meaningful” discussions about literature. Sure, some days its all poking fun of an author, or hashing out some news. But some days you get in depth analysis of a book or an author. Where else should we go to talk about books? The major reviews all discuss the same books. All the major bookstores seem to be closing, so that’s out. You could take a class, but who has the money! Bookclubs I suppose are one answer. Blogs however are a great forum for this type of discussion. I’ve read some mind-opening essays and dialogues online about books. Maybe Almond is looking in the wrong places (and no, I am certainly not suggesting he look here). Where do you go to talk about books?

Laila Lalami, author of the wonderful Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits and creator of MoorishGirl.com, writes about rich vs. poor in an essay at Powells.com. It’s thought provoking, so read it.

And the Morning News has another long Robert Birnbaum interview up today. This time, Uncle Bob speaks with Stuart Dybek, author of I Sailed with Magellan and Childhood and Other Neighborhoods: Stories.

Sara Ivy interviews Sherwin Nuland, whose new book Maimonides is the second in the Jewish Encounters series, a collaborative effort between Schocken and Nextbook. Sherwin Nuland will be appearing at Harvard Hillel on October 11th at 6:30pm for those interested.