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Staff Picks: Flavorwire’s Favorite Cultural Things This Week

By Chloe Pantazi on

Need a great book to read, album to listen to, or TV show to get hooked on? The Flavorwire team is here to help: in this weekly feature, our editorial staffers each recommend the cultural object or experience they’ve enjoyed the most in the past seven days. Click through for our picks, and tell us what you’ve been loving in the comments. … Read More

Books

10 Phenomenally Tricky Books Everyone Should Read

By Emily Temple on

This morning, we read Laura Miller’s piece on “sneaky author tricks” over at Salon, in which she muses on the dangers of metafictional, tricks-y writing — one of her points being that if an author’s going to do it, he’d better do it well. Like Miller, we are rather fond of authorial tricks, and considering that today is April Fools’ day, we thought we’d collect a few of the best here. Click through to see a few of our favorite tricky books. … Read More

Film

10 Authors Who Loved the Film Adaptations of Their Books

By Jason Bailey on

Last week, we had a good laugh at the recently uncovered notes from the producers of Blade Runner, who seemed united in their hatred for the “deadly dull” sci-fi noir that would prove one of the most influential movies of the ‘80s. But it’s important to remember that some of those casually involved in the production actually liked it quite a bit — particularly Philip K. Dick, whose book Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? was the basis of Ridley Scott’s film. And while there’s a long (and enjoyable) history of authors loathing what Hollywood does to their books, there are a few examples of writers who are utterly delighted with their page-to-film adaptations. We’ve collected them for you after the jump. … Read More

Books

The Doubles: 10 Pairs of Great Books With the Same Titles

By Emily Temple on

There must be something in the water this spring — that’s the water the publishing industry all drinks, that is. This month, Algonquin is publishing Jill McCorkle’s novel Life After Life, and in April, Reagan Arthur/Little, Brown will come out with Kate Atkinson’s, er, Life After Life. Oops! Both novels, as it happens, are quite good (and are sharing top billing as the American Booksellers Association’s Indie Next Pick in April), and we’re looking forward to “accidentally” having to buy them both. Intrigued by this phenomenon, we dug around for other examples of two great books sporting the same title — though none of our other pairs were born so close to one another. Check them out after the jump, and let us know if we missed any of your favorite titular doppelgangers in the comments. … Read More

Books

15 Movie Tie-In Book Covers That Make Us Sad

By Emily Temple on

Yesterday, we spotted the cover for Scribner’s upcoming republication of The Great Gatsby, in concert with the film adaptation’s May release. The Great Gatsby is one of those books with a cover so iconic that any change to it offends our delicate sensibilities, but even with that self-awareness, the image got us thinking about other movie (and TV) tie-in editions of books, and how truly awful — not to mention unfaithful to the original text — they can be. That said, there’s no denying that movie tie-in editions sell books, so we guess there’s a light at the end of the tunnel. We just wish there were another way. … Read More

Books

10 of Our Favorite Profiles of Ten of Our Favorite Writers

By Emily Temple on

This week, like everyone we know, we fell head over heels for Joel Lovell’s wonderful profile of Flavorpill favorite George Saunders in The New York Times Magazine. What with that and his amazing new collection, we’re thinking that this might just be the year that Saunders transitions from being every writer’s favorite writer to everybody‘s favorite writer — after all, when the cover of The New York Times Magazine calls out your book as the best of the year (in January, no less), that’s as good of a ticket to household name status as you’re likely to get, shy of any Oprah-gilding. For those of you who, like us, inhaled Lovell’s profile and found yourself itching for more great writing on great writers, we’ve put together a few great profiles that you can read online to slake your literary lust. Read through for some choice quotes and links to the original articles, and do point us toward your own favorite author profiles for further reading in the comments. … Read More

Books

The Best Books Flavorpill Staffers Read in 2012

By Emily Temple on

Year-end best-of book lists can be tough. After all, if you’re anything like us, you’re still catching up on the best books of 2010 — or 1910 — and only sneaking a few brand new hardcovers into the mix. So when sitting down to contemplate our collective year in reading, we decided to include everything, not just the new stuff. After the jump, your humble literary editor and a few other Flavorpill staffers expound on the best books we read this year — whether they be books that came out this year, or just the ones we finally (finally!) got around to reading. And inquiring minds want to know, dear readers, what was the best book you read this year? Let us know in the comments. … Read More

Books

10 Novels to Replace ‘Catcher In The Rye’ as the Perfect Teen Book

By Emily Temple on

Last Friday, Jessica Roake over at Slate lamented the fall of Holden Caulfield in the esteem of modern teenagers — “The problem is that Catcher in the Rye is no longer a book for cool high school students,” she writes. “Catcher in the Rye is a book for cool high school teachers.” A host of factors have added to the books current lack of cool, the most important probably being its ubiquitousness on modern high school syllabi — how can something truly feel underground, transformative, if your teachers are assigning it?

“The perfect teenage book should feel like it’s being passed around secretly, its message too raw and powerful for adults to understand,” Roake explains. “It should inspire highlighting and ponderous margin notes that embarrass you 20 years later. Most of all, it should feel like it’s speaking directly to you, and only you, even if everyone else in your class is working on the same essay question.” We totally concur, and after the jump, we’ve put forward ten novels that we think might just have the chops to replace our beloved Catcher in our collective teenage imaginations. But then again, maybe nothing will ever replace it. Click through to check out our list, and if you don’t see your favorite, add and argue in the comments. … Read More

Books

Authors’ Funniest Responses to the Film Adaptations of Their Work

By Emily Temple on

Novels have always been fodder for filmmakers, but it seems as though the adaptation pace has been amped up in recent years (and even in recent months), with Hollywood churning out versions of every beloved book, whether it’s actually unfilmable or no. But what do the authors have to say about all this? Of course, it depends both on the author and on the adaptation. After the jump, we’ve collected a few of their funniest responses to the film adaptations of their work, or even just the prospect of said adaptation, whether wry, resigned, angry or goofily psyched. Click through, and add to our collection in the comments! … Read More

Film

How Does ‘Cloud Atlas’ Stack Up to the Book?

By Emily Temple on

Unlike nearly everyone I know, I didn’t like the trailer for Cloud Atlas. When I first saw it, I winced at its length, its bombast — it seemed too bloated, too slapdash, and too much like a mashed-up clone every other epic movie I’d seen. There was no possible way, I thought, that this movie would do justice to David Mitchell’s enchanting novel. But then again, for your humble literary editor and resident book nerd (and not, I’ll point out right away, a laureled film critic), that seems pretty predicable. Still, when I sat down to watch the film at its US premiere at the New Yorker Festival this month, I was on my guard. Seeing a book I love translated well to the big screen is a great joy of mine, but the opposite is as big a disappointment — I don’t think I’ll ever get over what Frank Oz did to The Indian in the Cupboard. But I was surprised. The film, incredibly ambitious in its own right, serves as a kind of lovely sound poem ode to the novel, as interpretive as it is adaptive. … Read More