Four days ago, Paula Broadwell’s biography of General David Petraeus was No. 126,995 on Amazon. Now, after the two were revealed to be having an affair, All In has jumped to No. 111 overall on Amazon, and is No. 3 in the categories history/Middle East/Iraq and history/military/Iraq war, and No. 6 in biographies & memoirs/leaders & notable people/military. The hardcover came out in January, and to ride the media wave surrounding the affair, Penguin has pushed the publication date for the paperback edition up to November 21.
At Dissent, Andrew Ross and Seth Ackerman consider the Strike Debt movement, and ask whether debt—as opposed to class or profession—can be the category around which the left can organize.
After a fifteen-year feud that originated in the letters pages of TheGuardian, Salman Rushdie and John le Carre have buried the hatchet. "I wish we hadn't done it," Rushdie said of the feud at the Cheltenham literature festival last month. "I think of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy as one of the great novels of postwar Britain."
November 11 marked the beginning of the annual University Press Week. At the Stanford University Press blog, Washington Post Book World editor Steve Levingston shares his thoughts on "Why University Presses Matter," while at Duke’s blog, Jack Halberstam observes, “Honestly, without university presses, we would have few venues left for big ideas and bookstores would be filled with hundreds of books on Yoga for Pets, Who Killed JFK, 50 Shades of Gray and Was Lincoln Gay? Not to mention 50 Shades of Gay, Who Killed Your Pet? and Yoga for Presidents.”
The Oxford American Dictionary has named GIF the 2012 word of the year. We’re still waiting on a comment from Ann Friedman.
This Saturday, come help Brooklyn’s powerHouse Books get back on its feet after Sandy by attending the Hurricane Release Fundraiser. The event takes place from noon to nine at the powerHouse Arena, and will feature readings by Joseph O’Neill, Rick Moody, Tea Obreht, Jonathan Franzen, Teju Cole, Jennifer Egan, and others.
