paper trail

Nov 2, 2010 @ 9:00:00 am

Dave Eggers's World Series sketch for San Francisco's Bay Citizen.

George W. Bush will be the headliner at this year's Miami Book Fair. On November 14, he'll give a straight-shooting talk about his memoir, Decision Points, which comes out a week from today. In the Drudge Report's exclusive preview, we learn that Bush's book begins with a trope found in so much of great literature, namely, a drinking binge: "Can you remember the last time you didn't have a drink?"

MobyLives airs some behind-the-scenes grumbling from the National Book Critics Circle Award, posting this remark from a dispirited anonymous board member: "Things are just as problematic at the NBCC as everywhere: none of the members have read all the submitted books, anything edgy or politically incorrect has no chance (since it always offends someone), and often the winners are books that the board members are merely 'okay' with."

Author and McSweeney's founder Dave Eggers sketches the World Series-winning San Francisco Giants and their fans.

An interview with Jay Rubin, Haruki Murakami's translator, who is at work on the Japanese author's latest book, 1Q84, set to be released in the US in fall 2011.

Hillary Mantel, the author of the 2009 Booker-winning novel Wolf Hall, writes a diary for the London Review of Books detailing a recent medical operation, considering the language of illness, and sparring with Virginia Woolf: "When Virginia Woolf’s doctors forbade her to write, she obeyed them. Which makes me ask, what kind of wuss was Woolf?" For those curious about Woolf's On Being Ill, here's a review by Francine Prose from the spring 2003 issue of Bookforum.