archive

Literature, writing and coffee

From TLS, a review of The RSC Shakespeare; a review of The Gods of Freud: Sigmund Freud’s Art Collection by Janine Burke; a review of The Animated Man: A Life of Walt Disney by Michael Barrier and Walt Disney: The biography by Neal Gabler; and fifty years after the TLS ran a symposium on "committed literature" around the world, a look back on the late Harold Beaver's piece on writers in the United States – and their obsession with self-definition. The Future of Gonzo: Hunter S. Thompson's widow Anita tries moving the celebrated writer's legacy forward. From Sign and Sight, "Richness, beauty, horror": An interview with Walter Kempowski on his autobiographical literature, his life as a writer and his activities as a people collector. Japan's Prodigal Novelist Returns: Haruki Murakami, writer of things foreign, has found a home — in the country of his birth (and more).

Cod... Salt... what’s next, a book on toothpicks? Yes. For you, reader, the war is just beginning: The Second World War has become the hottest thing in publishing. A look at the renewed appeal of chaps in a scrap. A review of Carl Von Clausewitz's "On War": A Book That Shook the World (Books That Shook the World) by Hew Strachan. A review of Shoot the Widow: Adventures of a Biographer in Search of Her Subject by Meryle Secrest. From The Atlantic Monthly, Writers in Training: Edward J. Delaney discusses the country's best graduate writing programs and how to compare them. Beat it, Twixters: Ryan O’Reilly’s Snapshot tells 20-somethings to hit the (metaphorical) road. There have to be books somewhere in this place: Recent cuts in library subsidies mean free access to information is now as rare as free parking. 

From Fronesis, what is it about coffee – and coffeehouses – that makes it so agreeable to the bourgeoisie? asks Jakob Norberg in a brief social history of the dark, rich brew. And of the bourgeois public sphere. A review of The Social Life of Coffee: The Emergence of the British Coffeehouse by Brian Cowan. Hacking Starbucks: Where to learn about the ghetto latte, barista gossip, and Nicole Kidman's usual. The Worst Op-Ed Ever Written? Ron Rosenbaum on Stanley Fish, the professor who makes you feel sorry for Starbucks. A teenager has been taken to hospital after overdosing on espresso. So how much is too much coffee? The New World of Wine: As European winemakers enter the harvest year, they face a growing set of challenges: the surging popularity of “New World” wines, less protection from the EU, and even global warming. An interview with Michael Veseth on where the world of wine is headed