A very funny interview with John Warner, one of McSweeney’s editors for Mountain Man Dance Moves, on NPR.
From NPR.org: McSweeney’s, the publishing enterprise behind several humor journals, has a new book out — a collection of its often absurd “lists” that readers send in to McSweeney’s Web site. (more…)
Lydia Kilkenny is eager to move beyond her South Boston childhood, and when she marries Henry Wickett, a shy Boston Brahmin who plans to become a doctor, her future seems assured. That path changes when Henry abandons his medical studies and enlists Lydia to help him invent a mail-order medicine called Wickett’s Remedy. Then the 1918 influenza epidemic sweeps through Boston, and in a world turned upside down Lydia must forge her own path through the tragedy unfolding around her. (more…)
Adventures in Bookland
Here at 21st Century Lit, we have a problem: entirely too many books.
Oh, it was fun for a while. We crafted forts out of Harry Potter books (very sturdy!), complete with chairs fashioned from copies of The Devil Wears Prada (they were highly fashionable chairs). And there we would sit, naming our favorite authors of the past 10 years and puffing on imaginary cigars. (more…)
Reviewed by Laura Kasavan
In this great interview, Myla Goldberg (author of Wickett’s Remedy and Bee Season) explains her introduction to the Decemberists and their “Song for Myla Goldberg,” revealing the source of their insider-pigeon-toe-knowledge.
Coming from the man who wrote the book STRANGER THAN FICTION, I guess this is to be expected.
But he will not open your e-mails or return your phone calls.
Chuck Palahniuk, cult author of Haunted, will be replying to fan mail received in the month of October. Chuck explains the reasons behind his decision in a recent interview on NPR. It’s definitely worth a listen.
Detailed guidelines for your letters can be found on Chuck Palahniuk’s website. You’d better read up: some of these guidelines are pretty specific. For example, your letter must be type-written—and only on white paper with black ink. And don’t even think of using Comic Sans.
Our inboxes have been swamped with glowing reviews for Showtime’s new original series “Dexter,” based on Jeff Lindsay’s Darkly Dreaming Dexter. Alessandra Stanley for The New York Times writes, “I for one cannot wait to see the next episode.” The Chicago Tribune, not to be outdone, effuses, “Dexter’s dry, witty narration is so perfectly pitched that I immediately wanted to buy Lindsay’s novels to hear more of it.” Now that’s what we like to hear! Television critics trading their remotes for a book! (more…)
21st Century Lit recently had the pleasure of interviewing Patrick Somerville, author of Trouble. He made us laugh, he made us cry, and by the end of the interview, we were both entertained and genuinely moved.
Q: How old were you when you first started writing? When did you realize that writing was something you wanted to pursue?
PS: I knew that I liked to write, but I didn’t read what you would call a substantial piece of literature until I was sixteen, when I read Catch-22; up until then, I was either going to try to be a fantasy writer and jump onto the Dragonlance franchise in whatever capacity I could (there was a solid year in there when I was sexually fantasizing about female elves) or try to get involved with film. (more…)
Lou Dobbs interviewed James Fallows on CNN about his revelatory book, Blind Into Baghdad, which examines the American invasion of Iraq. You can read the transcript of the interview here. It’s interesting stuff, especially when Lou Dobbs insists that “we need…very real adult heroes.”
. . .
We’ll stop snickering eventually.