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Karen Thompson Walker

Books

Stereotyping You by Your Favorite Book of 2012

By Emily Temple on

It’s December, and you know what that means: it’s time for everyone — from your mom to your coworkers to every media outlet under the sun — to tell you what their favorite book was this year. There’s no escaping it, but at least you can use the information to totally stereotype whoever’s talking to you (or turn the lens on yourself). Click through to read our (tongue-in-cheek, mind you) 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

Books

25 Notable Books Unfairly Overlooked by ‘The New York Times’

By Emily Temple on

Earlier this week, The New York Times published their annual year-end list of the “100 Notable Books of 2012,” as chosen by the editors of The New York Times Book Review. As usual, the list is filled with very predictable (though often very worthy) choices, but this year we were surprised not only by the amazing, under-the-radar books the Times ignored, but by the equally amazing but high-profile and relatively commercial books that also got snubbed. To that end, we’ve compiled an alternative, or an addendum, if you will, to the Times’ list, including both lesser-known books we loved this year, and some big name books we can’t believe didn’t make the cut. Click through to read our list, and if you so desire, register your own addendums to our addendum in the comments. … Read More

Books

The 10 Best End of the World Novels

By Emily Temple on

This week marks the release of The Dog Stars, the debut novel by adventure writer Peter Heller, a stunning, hope-riddled end-of-the-world story about a man and his dog nine years after almost everyone else on earth has been eradicated. We think this novel is bound to become a classic, and it got us thinking about a few of the greatest apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic novels of all time. Click through to check out the books that — to our minds — make up the best of the best in end of the world lit. And as ever, if we’ve left off your own personal favorite, add to our list in the comments! … Read More

Books

The Future of American Fiction: An Interview with Karen Thompson Walker

By Geoff Mak on

If you haven’t noticed, we spend a lot of time thinking about literature here in the Flavorpill offices, digging through its past, weighing its current state, and imagining its future. Take a look at our bookshelves and you’ll find us reading everything from Nobel Prize winners to age-old classics to paperbacks printed at the bookstore down the street. Call it Chick-Lit, Hysterical Realism, Ethnic-Lit, or Translit — if it’s good fiction, we’ll be talking about it. So this summer, we’re launching The Future of American Fiction: an interview series expanding on that endless conversation about books we love, and yes, the direction of American fiction, from the people who’d know. Every Tuesday from now through August, we’ll bring you a short interview with one of the writers we think is instrumental in defining that direction. … Read More

Books

The 10 Best Books of the Year (So Far)

By Emily Temple on

As you may have noticed from the boiling temperatures, it’s the last day of June, which means we’re pretty much halfway through the year. To mark the year’s midpoint, Amazon put together a list of their picks for the best books of the year so far, but of course we have our own ideas about which books have made the biggest splash so far. It’s been a great six months in the book world, but we’ve got some heavy-hitters coming up this fall (new books by Michael Chabon, Zadie Smith, Junot Diaz and Paul Auster, just to name a few), so we’ll be interested to find out which of the books below hold on to their rankings when the year-end lists come around! Click through to read our picks for the ten best books of the first half of 2012, and let us know which you would have chosen in the comments. … Read More

Books

10 of the Strangest Apocalypses in Literature

By Emily Temple on

Nuclear war, zombies, alien attack, impact event. These are what we think about when we think about literary apocalypses (or any fictional apocalypses, for that matter). But don’t get too comfortable, folks: there are many more — and many stranger — ways that our planet could be destroyed. Case in point: Karen Thompson Walker’s debut novel The Age of Miracles hits shelves tomorrow, and while the book itself will probably do more to advance society than destroy it, the story is one of the most inventive and unusual ideas for the end of the world that we’ve ever read. Inspired, we’ve collected a few more of the strangest catalysts for apocalypses in literature — click through to check them out, and do let us know if we’ve missed your favorite in the comments. … Read More