From TLS, characters in search of a pub: An article on the lost worlds of Patrick Hamilton. A review of Boomsday: A Novel by Christopher Buckley. A review of The Dead Fathers Club: A Novel by Matt Haig.
From Agni, an interview with Jane Hirshfield, author of six books of poetry, most recently After, which was shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize, and Given Sugar, Given Salt, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award; and here are aphorisms regarding impatience.
From Radiant, Pulled together from Luci Shaw’s lifetime of writing about art and faith, Breath for the Bones provides an intelligent look at the intersection of two worlds that, to the modern mind, often seem far apart. Now comes Lon Milo DuQuette's Accidental Christ, a story told by Jesus' elderly Uncle Clopas, and a gripping tale it is. From Nextbook, Asch's Passion: A popular Yiddish novelist strove for immortality by taking on Jesus, but it cost him his core audience and made him a marked man; Immediate Identification: Thoman Mann's protagonist knew he wasn't like the other boys. So did Marco Roth; and firmly in the fold: Haim Watzman looks back on the life of Israeli writer S. Yizhar, a trenchant critic of the country he loved.
From 3:AM Magazine, Andrew Gallix talks to Jon Savage about Teenage and the birth of youth culture; Richard O’Brien talks literature with John Darnielle of Mountain Goats fame; and Pete Carvill reviews Michael Muhammad Knight’s The Taqwacores.
From Chronicles, a review of Winter’s Bone: A Novel, by Daniel Woodrell. The Little Magazine That Could: On the 25th anniversary and the publication of Counterpoints: 25 Years of The New Criterion on Culture & the Arts. Newspapers need book reviews: In their enthusiasm for the web, editors should remember all the readers who still like a little ink on their fingers.
The closest most of us get to our favourite authors is reading their books. But some people insist on stalking their idols to their front doors... and beyond. Alan Taylor explores our fascination with the homes of the famous, while Rob Fletcher and Ajay Close recount their experiences of living with literary ghosts. Writing Under the Influence: Jonathan Lethem ponders a good side to plagiarism.
Second Lives and online utopias: A review of Second Lives by Tim Guest. Not sure if you're aware of this, but the Internet has changed everything: A review of Who Controls the Internet? by Jack Goldsmith and Tim Wu. Digital information has a shorter lifespan than you think — and federal budget cuts may make it even shorter. From Electronic Book Review, NINES is an initiative at the University of Virginia to "establish a coordinated network of peer-reviewed content and tools"; a review of an experiment in visual textuality, Only Revolutions: A Novel by Mark Z. Danielewski; and Mark Amerika on The Sounds of the Artificial Intelligentsia. And Steve Krug's Don't Make Me Think! A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability is to web design what Strunk & White's Elements of Style is to formal writing
