From n+1's recent self-improvement issue, a long and enlightening essay on a dirty word, elitism: "American political, aesthetic, and intellectual experience can only be glimpsed through a thickening fog of culture war. And the fog, very often, has swirled around a single disreputable term."
OR Books announces its entrant into a quickly growing literary genre, WikiLeaks lit, with the publication of Micah L. Silfry's WikiLeaks and the Age of Transparency.
Jonathan Franzen’s novel Freedom may give a boost to Katie Fallon’s new book about the cerulean warbler, the rare and beautiful blue songbird emblazoned on Freedom's cover. Does this mean the famous red-tailed hawk Pale Male may have a rival in the small, competitive world of bird celebrity?
Sam Anderson names the greatest New York novel ever. After mentioning several possible candidates, Anderson writes: "In the end, however, I decided that the single greatest New York novel is . . . a relatively small book containing absolutely zero diversity."
Bookslut founder Jessica Crispin writes that recent events have made it difficult not to feel bewildered and disheartened by American politics, and recommends five books that might help you stave off political alienation.
Tonight, Gail Collins and Rebecca Traister read at Brooklyn’s Greenlight books.
