Pierre Wiktorin (Lund): Constructing a Distinct Other: Harry Potter and the Enchantment of the Future. From New English Review, Ibn Warraq on Jane Austen and slavery. Summer Reading: Should you read the best-selling memoir Eat, Pray, Love? 

From Eurozine, the re-transnationalization of literary criticism: Critical and public discussion of foreign literature in newspapers and magazines has traditionally served as a source of information and guidance not only for a broad readership, but also for "people in the business", for publishers and authors. When that discussion disappears, or loses its perspectives and becomes one-sided, this has consequences for the literary institution as a whole.

From TLS, a review of Guernica and Total War; La Guerra Civil en Euzkadi: testimonios inéditos recogidos por José Miguel de Barandarian; De Gernika a Guernica: Volume 1: Guernica, Volume 2: Marcas, Volume 3: Picasso's "Guernica"; Only for Three Months: The Basque refugee children in exile; and Recuerdos. A review of An Anthology of Jewish-Russian Literature: Two Centuries of Dual Identity in Prose and Poetry.

From NPQ, The New Global Cinema: An interview with Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu on how Hollywood must portray the point of view of others; and Nathan Gardels and Mike Medavoy on shock and awe vs. hearts and minds at the movies.

From Print, Buildings and People: Marketers are shaping the luxury-condo craze with high-concept campaigns. Welcome to the branded life; and Shadow Boxer: All James Harvey wanted was to make fine art. Thanks to Andy Warhol, he did—anonymously. The Art of the Politics of Art: "How much, if any, public money should be spent on the arts?" — the answer to which depends on the answer to the basic question, "Who says what is and what is not art?"

The Kingdom and the Tower: On Thursday, June 21, The New York Times spent its last day at 229 West 43rd Street. Gay Talese, the Times’ greatest chronicler and a former reporter there, returned to the gothic newspaper castle that housed Sulzbergers, Adolph S. Ochs’ ten-foot grandfather clock, thousands of journalists, massive underground presses that still ooze ink and defined an era in journalism.

Rare Books. Rare Brothers. Rare Chance to Profit. Closed: For weeks people have been coming into the Heritage Book Shop in West Hollywood in tears, saddened by the seemingly sudden decision of Louis and Benjamin Weinstein to close their antiquarian book business.