Square Pegs

Susan Gable kindly points us to our first news item of the morning (for which our sinuses are bowing down in appreciation): your name in lights. In a manner of speaking. It is quite simple — all you have to do is win an auction on eBay (and surely you know how to accomplish that) and voila! you are a character in a book. Proceeds go to the First Amendment Project. Authors include Stephen King, John Grisham, Amy Tan, Dave Eggers, Michael Chabon, Nora Roberts, Daniel Handler (aka Lemony Snicket) and others. Chabon said: “It feels a little scary for […]

Was it just last summer that literary hoaxes were all the rage? Has time flown so quickly? The Boston Globe reminds us that it’s true — summer is nearly gone — be revisiting the literary hoax. After asking the all-important question — And finally what separates an artful hoax from an authentic piece of literature? — the article goes on to define three separate types of literary hoaxes. Yes, indeed, there are three. For those of you who don’t revel in the hoax, you should be aware that the art is far more subtle than you believe. But not all

Americans tend to love the notion of fairness. We like the idea of balance. We often seem to believe a world without bias is possible. That it is feasible to create “no spin” zone. This is a Velveeta with Miracle Whip on Wonder Bread viewpoint. It’s safe. It’s nice. It’s boring. Last week’s Washington Post apology for allowing Marianne Wiggins to review John Irving’s new book was interesting for what it was and wasn’t. It wasn’t a refutation of the review. It was an admission that it’s a small world after all. At Slate, Jack Schafer argues that a little

It is nice to see a reasoned response to a community issue. A question is raised on a radio talk show, and immediately large numbers of books are pulled off the library shelves. Oh, and there are protesters, most of whom likely haven’t entered the library nor read the books in question, passing judgment on the books and the people who stock library shelves. Granted, the books have been in circulation for 15 years without a complaint, so it makes one wonder if the “children” being protected are really adults in disguise. Age-appropriate materials are all very well and good

We know that we can be hard on the Los Angeles Times. It’s tough love and someone’s got to do it. Frankly, we know of nobody better suited to the job*. And just when we think our voice remains unheard (or posts unread), they go and do something just too sweet for words: they address the number one decorating issue faced in the Booksquare household. You know, the discussion that is always preceded by “we have to talk “? This is one with so much to quote that the appropriate thing would be to point you to the article. Which

If you need further proof that the British do not take the English language seriously, look no further than the second edition of the Oxford Dictionary of English. Our careful observation of our British friends has assured us there is no word they cannot shorten, mash with another, or create out of thin air. This is the country, after all, that gave us “chuffed”. So, yeah, new book out to explain what your pen pal is saying. As for us, we’re going to wonder how it took so long for “dramedy” to make the list. A handy guide to chuggers

We are lucky: we remember a time when reading was actually something one did in school. You sat down with a book, often one of your own choosing, and you read it. Right there in public. In full view of other students. Of course, they were also reading (or pretending to read), so it was okay. Nobody would get hurt. Somewhere along the line, we got the notion that passing tests is the same as being educated. With reading, you can test comprehension, you can regurgitate key facts, but it’s really hard, for the young, to check off a box

The Emerging Writers Network has conducted another e-panel for publicists. This time around, Dan Wickett grills three in-house publicists: Darlene Faster – Shaye Arehart, Michael Taeckens – Algonquin Books, Ami Greko, publicity assistant – Viking. We’re going to assume that you understand the basics here, so we’ll get right to what we think is the key element of publicity, as stated by Ami Greko: All of the publicists I admire the most have a great sense of what’s going on not just in literary journals or the New York Review of Books–which are both great sources of information and important

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: anyone who thinks sisterhood means playing nice all the time, well, you don’t have sisters. In our (never humble) opinion playing nice in reviews does any genre a disservice. Many years ago, a consensus emerged among a group of romance reviewers, resulting in a policy that basically said “If I can’t say something nice, I won’t say anything at all. And trust me when I say I’m going to say something nice, regardless.” This lead to, as HelenKay Dimon notes: . . .many review sites purport to be neutral but aren’t

Rather that boring our readers with our continuing obsession with royalties and such, we point you to Tod Goldberg’s blog (which we’ve discovered cannot be read until we’ve consumed new episodes of Battlestar Galactica, just in case he gets all analytical with it). Today, Tod considers a recent, well, decision by the Irish government to comply with a ruling to pay royalties on books borrowed from the library. As always, Tod takes the pragmatic view: Libraries are typically in such dire straits here in America that I suspect taking money from them would be akin to stealing the journalistic integrity