• I’m just now getting around to reading Liesl Schillinger’s review of Atmospheric Disturbances. I was surprised at the amount of people who chimed in to agree with my assessment of the book (5 seems like a lot to me). Schillinger’s review does seem a bit wide-eyed at the idea that a woman wrote the novel. I’m not sure I’m as offended as Pinky, but mostly because I’m becoming accustomed to the sexism in the literary world. Novels written by women are treated one way and those written by men another. I await the fury.
• Over at the NPR website, Nancy Pearl has a nice list of books to bring while traveling. I’d also include a debut novel that’s coming out at the end of the month called Glimmer Palace by Beatrice Colin. Set in Berlin at the beginning of the 20th century, you follow illegitimate orphan Lilly Nelly Aphrodite find her way in the world. I started it at lunch yesterday and basically read until I finished it last night. Great stuff about the first world war and the run up until the second.
• Another interview with David Wroblewski! Whoo!
• Does anyone else find it ironic that Harper One, the religious arm of Harper Collins, will publish The Green Bible, a bible for the environmentalists this Fall? According to the Book Bench it will be printed on 10% recycled paper! There’s something odd that all of the publishers are jumping on the Green bandwagon and printing more books about the subject thereby making the problem worse. And 10% recycled paper? That’s the best they could do?

I’m still enjoying Augustus by John Williams. You could even say that I’m savoring it. It’s been so humid and disgusting here that I’m having a hard time reading or doing anything. But this book is good, fantastic I’ll even say. I’m heading down to the Philadelphia area tomorrow so I won’t be blogging. Here are a few links of interest to keep you busy:

• Another lovely piece on David Wroblewski, this one focusing on dogs. He is as charming as his picture makes him seem.
• Martin Clark received a rave review in the LA Times. Nice! He’ll be in Cambridge at my store on July 31st FYI.
• Sadly, I have to report the closing of Bunch of Grapes bookstore on Martha’s Vineyard due to a nasty fire in the building next door.
• I don’t want to hype a negative review, but there was something so funny to Dwight Garner’s review of Ark of the Liberties in today’s NYT.
  

  They also stand out because, by the time you are only a short distance into “Ark of the Liberties,” sparks and light are already in painfully short supply. You may already have acquired, in fact, that sinking feeling that comes with the realization that you are in for a long, slow, dithering ride. You’ve bought a wet pack of Camels…These phrases give this book the flop-sweat feel of a sophomore padding out a term paper; all that’s missing are the large type, the wide margins and a reeking pile of Red Bull empties…Mr. Widmer scores bonus anti-style points for the nonironic deployment of the word “poppycock.”

  Yowza.

I’ve been meaning to write a lengthy blog post about Jonathan Karp’s article in the Washington Post all week. Work crises have conspired against letting this happen. Read the article however, it’s worth it. It’s basically about why publishers publish so many books (hint: it’s green and lives in your wallet). Perhaps tomorrow I’ll have more time to write. For now I’m avoiding going outside where it’s pouring biblical style.

From today’s Shelf Awareness:

The much-anticipated film adaptation of Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates will not be finished in time to debut at film festivals in Telluride, Toronto or New York “because [director Sam] Mendes has been shooting the Focus Features comedy Farlanders this summer, a road movie set for 2009 release co-written by Dave Eggers and his wife Vendela Vida,” according to Variety.

Mendes will reportedly “return to the editing bay around Labor Day to do the final mix” on Revolutionary Road in preparation for an opening later this year.

Mendes’s next movie is a film version of George Eliot’s Middlemarch, Variety noted.

Set aside the fact that they made a movie of Revolutionary Road starring Leonardo Dicaprio and Kate Winslet, what’s this about a film of Middlemarch?  How on earth are they going to do it? This book, probably my favorite book which is saying a lot, is so nuanced and lovely. They’ve made miniseries of it, but a two hour film? Wow. I’m not sure how I feel about this.

Would you look at how great Amazon is, promoting the hell out of the debut novel The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, which they discovered. You can’t hear me saying this out loud, so you might not detect the sarcasm. According to this article in the Wall Street Journal, “driving that unexpectedly heavy demand has been strong reviews and promotional support from Amazon.com. ” I’m not doubting their numbers or the strength of Costco, Barnes & Noble, and Amazon’s buying power, but no where do they mention the fact that independents have been on the Sawtelle bandwagon from the beginning. I read it months and months ago and forced others at my store to read it as well. I recommended it heavily in January at the ABA Winter Institute and I wasn’t the only one. We’ve been behind this book from the moment the galleys hit our desks. I resent the WSJ ignoring that fact. Who made The Story of Edgar Sawtelle one of their Signed First Edition Club picks, the first debut novelist chosen for the program? Who asked to have David Wroblewski come to our store for a reading back in January? Who has had to ask our poor sales rep for more galleys each week? Excuse me while I take a time out.

Postscript: The first comment I got made me see that I’m not being clear here. I’m not angry that all these large chains are being Sawtelle. I think it speaks to the greatness of the book. I’m annoyed that they only spoke with B&N, Costco, and Amazon as if the independents had nothing to do with the book’s success. Basically, they’re getting all the glory and we’re getting none. It would be nice if we were recognized too.

• The 2008 Million Writers Award top ten online short stories have now been selected and voting on the top story of the year has begun. Voting will run through the end of the day on July 17. The stories are available here.
• Robert Birnbaum has thrilling interview with Dagoberto Gilb, author of The Flowers.
• Norton is bypassing the whole blog thing and going with Twitter. So far, so good since it’s run by Steve, who is cool.
• Jenny Shank of New West conducted an interview with David Wroblewski. Whoo.
• Check out the Harvard Review online. They’re right across the street from me, but it took someone emailing me to check out their publication.
• This isn’t literary, but a collection of photos taken of people driving in their cars.
• You might notice that I’m reading another book by Kim Stanley Robinson. I’ve become obsessed I guess. This is another dystopian novel, set in California years after the US has succumbed to nuclear annihilation. What is it about these kinds of books that draw us to them?

• The Christian Science Monitor loves it.
• Janet Maslin at the NYT calls it “the most enchanting debut novel of the summer.”