Ed and Jenny pointed me to an interview with Richard Powers over at Powell’s . Powers is one of my favorite authors. I’m working on something for his new book The Echo Maker with some other folks, but I will say that this book really had me asking a lot of questions at the end (in a good way).

Somehow I don’t feel at all bad for the publishers in this article. They choose to send out far too many books each season. That they’re putting out so big name authors at once, it’s their fault if they don’t all get the attention they deserve. It’s hard enough for some books to get any attention, I won’t feel bad if the enw Charles Frazier doesn’t get a review in the Boston Globe (though I’m sure it will since they’re running such a mediocre section they’ve, cut more pages this summer and now only review the same books the NYT reviews). Like Ed, I don’t get paid to do this. You can send me stuff, email me, whatever, and I don’t have to read it, review it, or like it. I like to think I’m more than a marketing tool. I’ve said it before but I’ll restate my intentions for this blog. As someone who works in a bookstore (have I ever mentioned what I do? I do frontlist buying for the store), I have access to many many books, particularly advanced copies. Since I read prodigiously and love talking about books, I thought I would write about what I’m reading, open the discussion a bit more, if you will. It’s that simple.
Regardless, the publishers are expecting a big book season. I for one am hoping that Margaret Maupin is right: “This could be the year,” she said, “when people buy one or two more books than they planned — and one less DVD.”

• The LA Times writes about the elusive Sam Harris, author of The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason and Letter to a Christian Nation. To avoid the crazies, he keeps his most personal details secret. With the religious fervor in the country today, I can understand his reasons.
• Wow, you mean they make graphic novels for adults now? No way!
• Two of my favorite bloggers have written reviews for the Philly Enquirer: Sarah Weinman and Mark Sarvas.
• Sarah also appears in David Milofsky’s article in the Denver Post about literary blogs’ impact on the book scence. Mentioned are the Lee Siegel scandal and the Ed Champion/Lev Grossman debacle. It’s interesting, the idea that critcs should or shouldn’t be criticized. It seems to me that once you express an opinion, you open yourself up to discussion. I have no real problem with that. I express opinions here all the time. If you agree or disagree, you can tell me so. That’s the way it should work, even with traditional media. Why do you think the New York Times Book Review has a letters page?
• The Times of London asked authors to name a book they think had been unfairly negelected. I’d never heard of many of the books listed. If I had to name one, it would be any book by Gilbert Sorrentino. He was an amazing writer (he died in May) and perhaps he’s more popular than I think, but I don’t think he got the attention he deserved. Do you have any suggestions?

• The New York Times Book Review has gotten themselves a new designer. Finally! Steven Heller has stepped aside to let Nicholas Blechman, who now works for the Week in Review section, take over. What do you suggest they do?
• Publisher Houghton-Mifflin has announced a comic contest to celebrate the launch of their newest book in the Best American series. Harvey Pekar edited the inaugural volume The Best American Comics 2006. Booksellers of all stripes are invited to draw a comic of Pekar with the chance to win a few prizes. This promises to be very entertaining.
• Robert Birnbaum speaks with Edward Jones, author of The Known World and the recent short story collection All Aunt Hagar’s Children. I’m determined to read Jones one of these days. Has anyone else read him and have an opinion?
• Dan Wicket of The Emerging Writer’s Network and Steve Gillis of 826Michigan have launched a new publisher Dzanc Books, devoted to publishing “two excellent books of literary fiction per year, as well as work in partnership with literary journals to advance their readership at every level”.
• Stay tuned for the next round of the LBC Read This! postings. We’re voting this weekend on these three books: Firmin: Adventures of a Metropolitan Lowlife by Sam Savage, Sideshow: Stories by Sidney Thompson, and Manbug by George Ilsley.
• Bob Woodward’s new book State of Denial, set to go on sale next Tuesday, has already generated a fair amount of news. The New York Times has a long report about the contents of the book, which alleges among other things that Bush ignored warnings about more troops being needed in Iraq. Newsday and the Washington Post,not to be outdone, also have their own articles. How many books have to come out saying the same thing before something changes? The information exists. Rumsfeld and Bush and their whole cabal clearly have some explaining to do. I would think that even the most diehard Republicans would start asking questions now. Maybe I am just naive? (On a side note, you can come hear Woodward speak at the First Parish Church on October 17th. See here for more details.)

• Bat Segundo speaks with Victor Navasky about running The Nation.
• Robert Birnbaum gives the special Birnbaum treatment to Elizabeth Benedict, author of The Practice of Deceit.
• Elif Shafak was acquitted today of the charges of “insulting Turkishness”. You know, not enough attention is being paid to this trial. She’s the second large name author to have this happen. Perhaps it hits a little too close to home with all of this “your either with us or against us” baloney.
• Sony Picture Classics has some stills on their website from their forthcoming adaption of Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis (thanks Bookslut for the info)

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• Chimananda Aidichie’s Half of a Yellow Sun hit bookshelves last week. I’m glad to see that it’s getting great reviews. This book is probably one of the best I’ve read so far this year.
• Ed and Lev Grossman have apparently kissed and made up. Or fruited up. Whatever.
• Max runs down the recently announced list of MacArthur fellows so we don’t have to.
• Maud runs an interview with FSG editor and translator of Gregoire Bouillier’s The Mystery Guest. Run out now and read this book.

I’m back from vacation. Yesterday I spent sorting through gads of emails, about a million voicemails, and sat through a rather long meeting. All to say that I haven’t posted because I’m busy with post-vacation catch up. I had a great time in San Francisco. Did you know they have a thousand bookstores out there? Just kidding, but they do have a lot of great stores. I know everyone’s too busy lamenting the closing of several of them, but there’s still some great stores left: Green Apple Books and Music, City Lights, Cody’s on Stockton Street, The Booksmith, Book Passage plus the countless used stores I walked past.

What did I read while away you might ask? I’m ashamed to say that I only read two and a half books while gone. For the flight over, I read one of Rupert Thomson’s earlier novels Air and Fire. Since I had to get up at 4 am to catch the plane, I didn’t read for very long before passing out. I didn’t find this tale set in 19th century Baja California as good as his later novels, but it’s interesting to see the evolution of his writing.

While in San Francisco, I thought I would correct an egregious oversight that has allowed me to go this long without reading and Joan Didion. Slouching Towards Bethlehem seemed like the perfect book to read while exploring the city (I’m a dork like that). How wonderful to read the title essay in which Didion describes her impressions of the Haight-Ashbury scene while actually walking around the area. I wish I had read her years ago now.

I chose to read Michael Pollan’s Second Nature on the plane back to Boston because I’ve been doing a little gardening lately and I was interested to hear his opinions on the matter. Sometimes dry and sometimes wildly entertaining, I think Pollan is at his best musing about gardenings roots (no pun intended) while referring to his own earthy exploits.

I should also add that I met up with Ed while out there for some delicious Thai food. I’m only sorry that I didn’t get to go with him to the Marish Pessl reading at The Booksmith. He toured me around his neighborhood though and we had great fun picking up books we had read and wanted to read. Here’s a photo of us:

All in all, it was a great, relaxing vacation. I spent time with my sister and her husband, drank a lot of wine, ate some delicious food, and wandered around an immensely walkable city.

Hear hear!

I like Nick Hornby, but was anyone actually waiting for his permission to read whatever they want? I’d say: Read what you want and develop a thick skin. I like literary fiction, but it doesn’t really ruin my day when Hornby makes a reference to “prose that draws attention to itself, rather than the world it describes.” People aren’t always going to like what you like. Get used to it. Grow up. This Kumbayah it’s-all-good school of criticism doesn’t help anybody; it patronizes half the readers in the world and irritates the shit out of the other half.

I believe there is room for actual negative criticism in the book world without delving into snarkiness for the sake of snarkiness. The belief that negativity “ruins” reviews frankly seems lame. No one wants to get trashed in a review but there is such a thing as healthy criticism. Maybe I just hate all this be nice crap. Or maybe I just don’t want to be told what how to react to what I read by the Believer, who besides their weird “we want one corner of the world where writers don’t get kicked around” stance (Nick Hornby’s interpretation not mine), produce a great magazine.

Thoughts anyone? Disagree?

I’ve spoken before about chick lit and gotten a few angry responses. It’s hard not to talk about this genre without opinions running amok. What brings me to this topic today is the publication of This is Not Chick Lit an anthology edited by Elizabeth Merrick which contains eighteen stories from a wide range of women writers including Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Jennifer Egan, and Francine Prose. When the news of this book’s publication came out, tempers flared. “How dare they marginalize our writing” declared writers like Jennifer Weiner, Rachel Pine, and Lauren Baratz-Logsted. The response has been to publish simultaneously a warring anthology called This is Chick Lit, though it’s not out quite yet.

I’m not sure how to feel about this controversy. On the one hand, as part of a marginalized sector already (women), I don’t know that all of this fighting serves us very well period. Sales of chick lit show that people want to read books like these and who am I to look down on anyone’s reading choices. Okay, I admit it, I do look down on reading choices and I can’t help it. But that said, there’s the argument of “at least people are reading something” right? And really I think there are two arguments going on here. One is the argument for or against reading “light” fiction. The secondary argument might be whether or not chick lit should be called “light” fiction—does it deal with real issues or is it escapism? And who’s to say that women work their way towards Mary Gaitskill or Kelly Link, as Ed proposes? A lot of people don’t like to read “out of bounds”, that is outside of their comfort zone. I can’t see the leap from Sophie Kinsellsa’s Confessions of a Shopaholic to A.L. Kennedy’s Paradise, buy maybe I am underestimating people.

And this brings up a completely different argument. Why is women’s writing marginalized in the first place? Why aren’t more women writer’s books being reviewed? According to Elizabeth Merrick, “there is this golden moment of women writers right now; it’s like a golden age and a blossoming of women fiction writers, and it’s not getting that much attention.” Looking at my own bookshelves, I see more male authors than female. Francine Prose confesses that she does not read women very widely: “I have a terrible confession to make– I have nothing to say about any of the talented women who write today. Out of what is no doubt a fault in me, I do not seem able to read them.”

I’ve thrown several arguments out there I realize, but I find the incongruity between literary fiction and chick lit interesting. And as a woman in the book world, I wonder why the men still dominate the literati.

Addendum:
I meant to add something about the covers of chick lit novels. What’s with the color scheme? I’d be more inclined to pick one up if most of them weren’t pastel with martini glasses and high heel shoes on them. And before anyone accuses me of generalizing, I don’t think I am. I could go down into my store and pull any number of books with this theme. Even This is Chick Lit has a yellow cover with a high heel on the cover. The whole scheme is tacky and I wish they’d just cut it out.

I’m off to tomorrow morning to the wilds of New Jersey—Lambertville to be exact—for Mr. Bookdwarf’s family reunion. I hope to get some reading done over the weekend as well. I’m bringing a handful of books just in case one doesn’t agree with me.

• Have I mentioned Critical Mass, the blog of the National Book Critics Circle, before now? They usually have some interesting discussions going. Currently the topic is self-published books and why no one reviews them. It brings up larger issues of course, the nature of publishing and the difficulties in getting noticed in a growing sea of books.
• Mark pointed out this great Literature Map. Just type in a name and see where it leads.
• The delightful Pinky has a three part podcast with Aimee Bender. Here are parts 1, 2, and 3.
• Birnbaum talks with Susan Straight, author of A Million Nightingales.
• This week the discussion on the LBC focuses on Skin by Kellie Wells from the University of Nebraska Press. The Press has started a blog.

It’s a bit quiet right now in the book world. I’m taking the afternoon off to spend it with my mother (hi Mom!) and hopefully visit the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.

• The Globe Book Review started a blog a few months back. They post some tidbit pretty much everyday. They still can’t seem to be with the times: “A tip from eagle-eyed reporter Carol Beggy leads us to a surprising addition to what Public Radio’s Chris Lydon likes to call the blogosphere.” Wow, the blogosphere—what a good word to describe the world of blogs!
• There’s a wonderful interview with Francine Prose in the Atlantic Monthly that’s actually available online (for who knows how much longer). Prose’s new book Reading Like a Writer is due out this September and promises to be “a guide for people who love books and for those who want to write them”. I’ve flipped through the advance copy I have and it certainly is filled with some gems. Also, remind me to tell my Francine Prose anecdote sometime.
• Over at the LBC blog, we’re discussing Crawl Space by Edie Meidav. While I found the book hard to get into, it’s worth reading if only because of the fine writing. In the tradition of Lolita, the main character is impossible to like.
• Ed has posted something on author reading’s in response to Jessa Crispin’s article (which itself is a response to another article) on the downfall of the “traditional” book tour. From my experience here, I know book tours can be difficult. The whole process is difficult. We get many authors who want to come and read here, but we can’t possibly accommodate them all. Plus we have to keep in mind who shops here and what authors they might want to see read, etc. And you always have to keep it interesting. I think Jessa might be right—the traditional book tour no longer draws in the crowds the way it used to years ago.
• Kirkus Reviews has their Fall preview issue online (in PDF format). What books are you looking forward to reading? (thanks Michael Schaub for the link)