Comments on: A Teaching Moment http://blog.booklistonline.com/2006/04/25/a-teaching-moment/ Behind the Book Reviews--The Official Blog of Booklist Online Sat, 22 Nov 2008 05:00:13 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.3.3 By: Likely Stories » Blog Archive » The New Supergroups http://blog.booklistonline.com/2006/04/25/a-teaching-moment/#comment-224 Likely Stories » Blog Archive » The New Supergroups Tue, 22 Aug 2006 20:36:35 +0000 http://blog.booklistonline.com/2006/04/25/a-teaching-moment/#comment-224 [...] More on the YA age-range thing in the comments to yesterday’s post. [...] […] More on the YA age-range thing in the comments to yesterday’s post. […]

]]> By: Likely Stories » Blog Archive » The New Supergroups http://blog.booklistonline.com/2006/04/25/a-teaching-moment/#comment-215 Likely Stories » Blog Archive » The New Supergroups Fri, 18 Aug 2006 18:35:52 +0000 http://blog.booklistonline.com/2006/04/25/a-teaching-moment/#comment-215 [...] « A Teaching Moment Getting It Right » [...] […] « A Teaching Moment Getting It Right » […]

]]> By: Likely Stories » Blog Archive » I’m Shocked, Shocked http://blog.booklistonline.com/2006/04/25/a-teaching-moment/#comment-205 Likely Stories » Blog Archive » I’m Shocked, Shocked Fri, 18 Aug 2006 18:29:03 +0000 http://blog.booklistonline.com/2006/04/25/a-teaching-moment/#comment-205 [...] I wonder if Kaavya Viswanathan will now confess that she was planning to plagiarize something in her now-canceled second book? [...] […] I wonder if Kaavya Viswanathan will now confess that she was planning to plagiarize something in her now-canceled second book? […]

]]> By: Likely Stories » Blog Archive » Props to My Homies-I Mean, Colleagues http://blog.booklistonline.com/2006/04/25/a-teaching-moment/#comment-196 Likely Stories » Blog Archive » Props to My Homies-I Mean, Colleagues Fri, 18 Aug 2006 17:59:06 +0000 http://blog.booklistonline.com/2006/04/25/a-teaching-moment/#comment-196 [...] On Saturday, June 24, our young-adult-literature expert Gillian Engberg will be taking part in the Alex Awards Program. The Alex is given to 10 books, published in the previous year and written for adults, but that have special appeal to young adults (for these purposes, ages 12 through 18). This is an ALA award, cosponsored by Booklist. Speakers include 2006 Alex winners Lee Martinez, Greg Galloway, Neil Gaiman, Susan Palwick, and Jeanette Walls. There were also be short remarks from the committee members, from Gillian, and from Talia Ross, from Holtzbrinck marketing, who will speak from a publisher’s perspective about the increasing crossover of adult books to a YA audience (a topic of special interest to me) and the growing influence of the Alex Awards. Comb your hair and head on down to the Morial Convention Center, Rooms 388-390, at 4 p.m. Saturday, June 24th. [...] […] On Saturday, June 24, our young-adult-literature expert Gillian Engberg will be taking part in the Alex Awards Program. The Alex is given to 10 books, published in the previous year and written for adults, but that have special appeal to young adults (for these purposes, ages 12 through 18). This is an ALA award, cosponsored by Booklist. Speakers include 2006 Alex winners Lee Martinez, Greg Galloway, Neil Gaiman, Susan Palwick, and Jeanette Walls. There were also be short remarks from the committee members, from Gillian, and from Talia Ross, from Holtzbrinck marketing, who will speak from a publisher’s perspective about the increasing crossover of adult books to a YA audience (a topic of special interest to me) and the growing influence of the Alex Awards. Comb your hair and head on down to the Morial Convention Center, Rooms 388-390, at 4 p.m. Saturday, June 24th. […]

]]> By: Bill ott http://blog.booklistonline.com/2006/04/25/a-teaching-moment/#comment-121 Bill ott Sat, 12 Aug 2006 00:00:00 +0000 http://blog.booklistonline.com/2006/04/25/a-teaching-moment/#comment-121 My favorite academic satires: Richard Russo's Straight Man and Michael Malone's Foolscap. But there are so many others I'm not thinking of at the moment. Like the early volumes of Anthony Powell's Dance to the Music of Time, for example, the books that deal with Nick Jenkins' Oxford years-but those are somehow beyond satire while still very, very funny. <br /><br />Bill Ott My favorite academic satires: Richard Russo’s Straight Man and Michael Malone’s Foolscap. But there are so many others I’m not thinking of at the moment. Like the early volumes of Anthony Powell’s Dance to the Music of Time, for example, the books that deal with Nick Jenkins’ Oxford years-but those are somehow beyond satire while still very, very funny.

Bill Ott

]]> By: Keir http://blog.booklistonline.com/2006/04/25/a-teaching-moment/#comment-122 Keir Sat, 12 Aug 2006 00:00:00 +0000 http://blog.booklistonline.com/2006/04/25/a-teaching-moment/#comment-122 My friend <a href="http://www.robertbuscemi.com/" target="new">Rob</a> has recommended that I read <em>Straight Man</em>. Maybe it's time for me to get off my duff and borrow his copy. My friend Rob has recommended that I read Straight Man. Maybe it’s time for me to get off my duff and borrow his copy.

]]> By: Robert http://blog.booklistonline.com/2006/04/25/a-teaching-moment/#comment-123 Robert Sat, 12 Aug 2006 00:00:00 +0000 http://blog.booklistonline.com/2006/04/25/a-teaching-moment/#comment-123 Alleged friend Rob here. I love all Russo's work, but the memory of Straight Man lingers most of all. The comedy's so broad it's like a Marx Brothers movie. It's a silly, silly book, but deeply humane. Actually, White Noise is somewhat in the same vein, no? The animal pleasures of a good home and idiot friends and provincialism and the posture of intellectualism and pig-headed-yet-impotent machismo and a full ice box and the mellowness of middle age and a stubborn/terrific spouse and a deep understanding of the cosmic comedy of it all. All of this speaks to me. I don't really envy the dudes 10 years younger than I am, and it's these kinds of books that show me why. More and more, I walk down the street and just giggle at everyone. I believe I'll borrow Amis when Keir's done. -ROB Alleged friend Rob here. I love all Russo’s work, but the memory of Straight Man lingers most of all. The comedy’s so broad it’s like a Marx Brothers movie. It’s a silly, silly book, but deeply humane. Actually, White Noise is somewhat in the same vein, no? The animal pleasures of a good home and idiot friends and provincialism and the posture of intellectualism and pig-headed-yet-impotent machismo and a full ice box and the mellowness of middle age and a stubborn/terrific spouse and a deep understanding of the cosmic comedy of it all. All of this speaks to me. I don’t really envy the dudes 10 years younger than I am, and it’s these kinds of books that show me why. More and more, I walk down the street and just giggle at everyone. I believe I’ll borrow Amis when Keir’s done. -ROB

]]> By: Keir http://blog.booklistonline.com/2006/04/25/a-teaching-moment/#comment-124 Keir Sat, 12 Aug 2006 00:00:00 +0000 http://blog.booklistonline.com/2006/04/25/a-teaching-moment/#comment-124 Our General Manager Mary Frances Wilkens thought she remembered that Editor-at-Large Joanne Wilkinson had written a Read-alike on academic satires, and lo and behold, there it was. Way back in September 1, 1997 <em>Booklist</em>, the first issue to feature Read-alikes, Joanne and Bill had used a review of Stevie Davies's <em>Four Dreamers and Emily</em> to recommend John L'Heureux's <em>Handmaid of Desire</em>, Bernard Malamud's <em>A New Life</em>, Michael Malone's <em>Foolscap</em>, Jane Smiley's <em>Moo</em>, and...wait for it...Richard Russo's <em>Straight Man</em>. Booklist Online subscribers can read the full thing <a href="http://www.booklistonline.com/default.aspx?page=show_product&pid=1631145" target="new">here</a> (click <a href="http://www.booklistonline.com/default.aspx?page=trialreg" target="new">here</a> for a free 30-day trial). Our General Manager Mary Frances Wilkens thought she remembered that Editor-at-Large Joanne Wilkinson had written a Read-alike on academic satires, and lo and behold, there it was. Way back in September 1, 1997 Booklist, the first issue to feature Read-alikes, Joanne and Bill had used a review of Stevie Davies’s Four Dreamers and Emily to recommend John L’Heureux’s Handmaid of Desire, Bernard Malamud’s A New Life, Michael Malone’s Foolscap, Jane Smiley’s Moo, and…wait for it…Richard Russo’s Straight Man. Booklist Online subscribers can read the full thing here (click here for a free 30-day trial).

]]> By: Mock Turtle http://blog.booklistonline.com/2006/04/25/a-teaching-moment/#comment-125 Mock Turtle Sat, 12 Aug 2006 00:00:00 +0000 http://blog.booklistonline.com/2006/04/25/a-teaching-moment/#comment-125 I love James Hynes's books: <em>The Lecturer's Tale</em>, <em>Publish and Perish: Three Tales of Tenure and Terror</em> ... and of course <em>Kings of Infinite Space</em> (actually post-academic satire, as it chronicles the continuing adventures of Paul Trilby from one of the "three tales," after he flees academe in the wake of that unfortunate business with his wife's cat). I found them all not only hilarious, but wonderfully creepy. I love James Hynes’s books: The Lecturer’s Tale, Publish and Perish: Three Tales of Tenure and Terror … and of course Kings of Infinite Space (actually post-academic satire, as it chronicles the continuing adventures of Paul Trilby from one of the “three tales,” after he flees academe in the wake of that unfortunate business with his wife’s cat). I found them all not only hilarious, but wonderfully creepy.

]]> By: Bill Ott http://blog.booklistonline.com/2006/04/25/a-teaching-moment/#comment-126 Bill Ott Sat, 12 Aug 2006 00:00:00 +0000 http://blog.booklistonline.com/2006/04/25/a-teaching-moment/#comment-126 This whole question of the age range of young adult literature-and the retail realities that help determine it-was addressed by Booklist's Carte Blanche columnist Michael Cart in two recent columns: "What is Young Adult Literature?" (Booklist, 12/15/04)and "New Things and Under the Sun (Booklist, 1/1/05). Michael argues convincingly that today's YA novel can encompass an age range as wide as 10 through 35! This whole question of the age range of young adult literature-and the retail realities that help determine it-was addressed by Booklist’s Carte Blanche columnist Michael Cart in two recent columns: “What is Young Adult Literature?” (Booklist, 12/15/04)and “New Things and Under the Sun (Booklist, 1/1/05). Michael argues convincingly that today’s YA novel can encompass an age range as wide as 10 through 35!

]]> By: Kay Weisman http://blog.booklistonline.com/2006/04/25/a-teaching-moment/#comment-127 Kay Weisman Sat, 12 Aug 2006 00:00:00 +0000 http://blog.booklistonline.com/2006/04/25/a-teaching-moment/#comment-127 Two titles come to mind:<br /><br /><br /><em>Prep</em>, by Curtis Sittenfeld, was marketed as an adult title, yet it is<br />set in an eastern prep school and features only YA characters.<br /><em><br />Looking For Alaska</em>, by John Green, is a very similar coming of age<br />novel, also set in a prep school, yet it was marketed for YA's.<br /><br />I think both novels have YA and adult appeal. Two titles come to mind:

Prep, by Curtis Sittenfeld, was marketed as an adult title, yet it is
set in an eastern prep school and features only YA characters.

Looking For Alaska, by John Green, is a very similar coming of age
novel, also set in a prep school, yet it was marketed for YA’s.

I think both novels have YA and adult appeal.

]]> By: Keir http://blog.booklistonline.com/2006/04/25/a-teaching-moment/#comment-128 Keir Sat, 12 Aug 2006 00:00:00 +0000 http://blog.booklistonline.com/2006/04/25/a-teaching-moment/#comment-128 I read Cart's columns this morning over my coffee (BOL subscribers can find them <a href="http://www.booklistonline.com/default.aspx?page=show_product&pid=1536816" target="new">here</a> and <a href="http://www.booklistonline.com/default.aspx?page=show_product&pid=1535643" target="new">here</a>) and found them very thought-provoking. One of my thoughts was that I sometimes worry we're extending childhood into middle age (historically, 18-year-olds have often acquitted themselves brilliantly when asked to perform as adults). The other was that Cart is right: if the human brain is still growing into the mid-20s, then perhaps YA should be extended that far. But then, as he pointed out, you need new divisions. And his three - middle school, teen, and YA - make sense to me. I read Cart’s columns this morning over my coffee (BOL subscribers can find them here and here) and found them very thought-provoking. One of my thoughts was that I sometimes worry we’re extending childhood into middle age (historically, 18-year-olds have often acquitted themselves brilliantly when asked to perform as adults). The other was that Cart is right: if the human brain is still growing into the mid-20s, then perhaps YA should be extended that far. But then, as he pointed out, you need new divisions. And his three - middle school, teen, and YA - make sense to me.

]]> By: Keir http://blog.booklistonline.com/2006/04/25/a-teaching-moment/#comment-129 Keir Sat, 12 Aug 2006 00:00:00 +0000 http://blog.booklistonline.com/2006/04/25/a-teaching-moment/#comment-129 Oh, and Kay, thanks for your suggestions. The marketing does seem arbitrary, doesn't it? Tobias Wolff's <a href="http://www.booklistonline.com/default.aspx?page=show_product&pid=293014" target="new">Old School</a> is another book that, if I'm not very much mistaken, was marketed for adults, but had a lot of YA appeal, too. Maybe they didn't want to market Wolff himself as a YA author? Oh, and Kay, thanks for your suggestions. The marketing does seem arbitrary, doesn’t it? Tobias Wolff’s Old School is another book that, if I’m not very much mistaken, was marketed for adults, but had a lot of YA appeal, too. Maybe they didn’t want to market Wolff himself as a YA author?

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