Kate Losse, author of The Boy Kings, has accused Dave Eggers of "rewriting" her book in his forthcoming novelThe Circle, which will be published in October. The Boy Kings is Losse's nonfiction account of her time as one of the early employees of Facebook. The Circle is also about a young woman who moves up the ranks of a company that bears a strong resemblance to Google, and gradually becomes disenchanted with the company’s ethos of transparency and information gathering. Losse admits that she has not yet read Eggers's novel.
The Jane Austen’s House Museum has raised nearly $250,000 in a successful effort to thwart American Idol winner Kelly Clarkson from purchasing a ring that once belonged to Jane Austen. Clarkson bought the ring at a Sotheby’s auction in 2012, but England’s culture minister imposed a temporary export ban on the sale, giving the museum time to fundraise and outbid the singer.
Goodreads apparently does not believe that a book should be judged by the behavior of its author: The company announced this week that it will “delete content focused on author behavior.”
At the Brooklyn Book Festival, the Awl asked Jennifer Gilmore, Nicholson Baker, Claire Messud, Meg Wolitzer, and others what “youngsters” they’re reading these days.
Electric Literature has launched their new travel blog, “Drink, Grovel, Fuck,” with a post about a boozy trip to London. The MO of the blog is to be “like Eat, Pray, Love, only less ambitious.”
Ghanaian poet and former diplomat Kofi Awoonor was killed during the Westgate mall attacks in Nairobi this weekend. He was in Kenya for a literary festival, and had been shopping with his son.
