It’s the end of the year, which means every media outlet and talkative friend has been regaling you with a fascinating list of their own personal favorite books of 2011. Now, we love lists as much as the next guy, but we also like to think a little bit about what these highly subjective choices might say about the listmaker. After all, you wouldn’t take reading advice from just anybody, now would you? Or even if you would, you should at least know what essential qualities their picks point to. Click through to read our (decidedly tongue-in-cheek) breakdown of what your favorite book of the year says about you, and in case you were wondering, our pick is on here too, and hey, we can cop to it. Read More »
Today marks the release of The Angel Esmeralda, which we admit we were surprised to realize was Don DeLillo’s first ever collection of short stories. Many authors publish short stories in journals before attempting novels, and often even publish collections to whet the public’s appetite for some larger fare. Some authors, like George Saunders and Lorrie Moore, are known mostly for their short stories (in fact, Saunders has never written even a token novel, which is relatively unusual for a writer of his renown), but the release of DeLillo’s book got us thinking about the other side — authors primarily known for their long-form fiction that have also written short stories, to varying degrees of success. Click through to see our list of ten short stories you probably haven’t read by authors famous for their long form work, and let us know which other underrated shorts you hold dear in the comments. Read More »
Writers get a bad rap in the looks department: if you spend your time holed up and scribbling away, you must be a scrawny, pasty artist type, mustn’t you? Not so! There are a plethora of attractive and well-formed writers, both in history and today, that completely demolish such stereotypes, and whose likenesses we’ve collected here. Now don’t get us wrong — of course we believe that the stuff in their heads is much more important that the shape of their heads (or the shape of their bodies, for that matter) but that doesn’t mean we can’t applaud them for excelling in multiple areas. Plus, it’s well past time to make literature sexy again, and if writers can replace actors as pinups in our culture of ogling, we’ll be happy campers. We’ve tried to pick some contemporary authors as well as some more classic choices, and an equal number of men and women, just to be fair to everyone. Click through to see the authors we think have the best literary figures in history, and make sure to tell us your own picks in the comments.
Zombies, somewhat inexplicably, have captured the attentions of American culture and don’t seem to be letting go anytime soon. Most representations, however, as perhaps best befits the shambling, brain eating, flailing creatures, are deliciously low-brow, from low budget horror films to trashy fright night novels — that is, until this week, when Colson Whitehead’s Zone One hit the shelves, reminding us all that zombies can be intellectual too. His literary use of the undead walkers in his post-apocalyptic vision of New York has led us to consider other high-brow treatments of zombies in pop culture, which have slowly been emerging to varying degrees of success as the gross-out creatures continue to gain popularity. Click through to see a few of our favorite highbrow zombies across the board, and let us know if we’ve missed any in the comments.
As we ease our way into the scariest month of the year, it’s time again for us to present our list of the most exciting books due to grace our shelves in the weeks to come. This month, take your pick from October’s virtual smorgasbord of books, and whether your pleasures lie in zombies, genetic anomalies, poetry, God, hell, love triangles or some combination of the above, you’ll find something to like here. Or maybe several somethings — after all, the weather’s getting chilly, and nothing compliments a cup of tea better than a great book. Click through to see our preview of the best bets for great reading this month, and let us know which books you can’t wait to read in the comments.
If you are in any way witchy, or follow the equinoxes, then you will know that the 23rd marks the first official day of fall this year. We decided to jump the gun and present our fall books preview a day early, just because we can’t wait, and because we are in no way astrologically-inclined. The following pages feature seven works of fiction, one encyclopedia, one photo/interview book, a memoir, and (an invisible, but deeply felt) partridge in a pear tree. The best way to cope with the changing of the seasons is to confront them head on, you know, so put on a sweater, brew a hot beverage, and curl up with some of these books.
Today at Flavorpill, we decided that it might be worth schlepping all the way to the Iowa State Fair to sample a plate of red velvet funnel cake, but we’d never go all the way to the moon for the cheese. We watched a supercut of 25 of the greatest unscripted movie scenes. We learned about Times New Roman’s complicated history. We crossed our fingers that Julianne Moore and Todd Haynes are serious about bringing a new TV show about “a recovering heroin addict who becomes a private eye in the fifties” to HBO. We read an excerpt from Colson Whitehead’s forthcoming “zombie novel,” Zone One, which is due out on October 18. We listened Mavis Staples and Win Butler cover “The Weight” at this past weekend’s Outside Lands festival in San Francisco. We witnessed the evolution of Apple ads over time. And finally, we were happy to see Dave Chappelle doing his first interview in nearly five years. We hope that this is an indication that he’ll be flying less under the radar in the future.
In these final, sweltering days of July, we find our intermittent vacation fantasies growing into full-blown obsessions. If you’re like us and still have a while to go before you can escape from your responsibilities (or if you can’t get away at all), you’ll need some kind of outlet for your daydreaming. That’s where this list comes in. We’ve rounded up ten books set in some of the world’s most desirable travel destinations, from Italy to California to Japan.
Patrick Kingsley recently wrote in The Guardian about “poisonous literary feuds” and the peacemakers who could broker a truce. We ran a post on the subject last year, but thought we would do an international list of troublemakers this time around. We’d also like to honor the man who racked up the most hours feuding with his literary colleagues: Norman Mailer. Writers today generally aren’t as venomous toward each other (although maybe Colson Whitehead would disagree after his salivary encounter with Richard Ford). We have to agree with Mailer’s proclamation on The Dick Cavett Show: “I’m going to be the champ until one of you knocks me off.”
In 1997, novelist George Dawes Green was homesick. Back in his native Georgia, on muggy, cricket-filled nights, his friends used to gather outdoors on the porch to spin stories to one another, chatting into the night while moths gathered overhead, bumping into the lightbulbs. Green, determined to recreate those gatherings in New York, founded The Moth, a non-profit literary organization dedicated to just that.
Over the past decade, The Moth sponsored live storytelling events in communities across the country, as well as launching a Moth podcast and public radio show, featuring heavyweights like Malcolm Gladwell and Salman Rushdie. Last night, The Moth had its annual fundraising gala at Capitale in Manhattan. Wry comments, feather boas, and vintage ballgowns abounded, and literary rock stars — like host Jonathon Ames and honorees Calvin Trillin — mingled with past Moth contributors. Check out our photos and read some of the best quotes of the night, after the jump.
