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Book Blog - Likely Stories, by Keir Graff - Booklist Online

Likely Stories

A Booklist Blog
Keir Graff and editors from Booklist's adult and youth departments write candidly about books, book reviewing, and the publishing industry

Archive for the 'Books and Reviewing' Category

Tue, November 16th, 2010
Sterling’s Gold Does Not Glitter
Posted by: Keir Graff

Headlines also considered: Sterling’s Gold Lacks Luster; Sterling’s Gold Slightly Tarnished; Sterling’s Gold a Cheap Alloy; Sterling’s Gold Fools No One; Sterling’s Gold Merely Iron Pyrite; Sterling’s Gold Is No Gem; Sterling’s Gold Lacks Eureka Moments; and you get the idea. Opportunities for metallurgical wordplay abound with the pun-tastically titled Sterling’s Gold: Wit & Wisdom [...]


Thu, November 11th, 2010
Zone, by Mathias Enard
Posted by: Keir Graff

so I have here on my desk the uncorrected proof of Zone, by Mathias Enard, which will be published December 14 by Open Letter although, really, it seems that Zone Books would have been a more appropriate publisher but anyway, the book concerns a French-born Croat intelligence officer who takes a train from Milan to [...]


Wed, September 29th, 2010
IC-SPAN: Reading Obama’s Wars on the iPad
Posted by: Ilene Cooper

In reviewing Bob Woodward’s new book, Obama’s Wars, I made my first foray into the world of e-books. First times are never all that pleasurable, are they? Getting the book online was a no-brainer. Obama’s Wars was embargoed and it would be faster to get it Monday morning first thing than wait for the stores to [...]


Fri, September 24th, 2010
Weeklings: Author-Critic Creatures, Milton in the Headlines, a Supposed Stigma, the Present Tense, and Too-Easy Reading
Posted by: Keir Graff

On the Guardian‘s Books Blog, Lesley McDowell writes about writers who are reviewers, and reviewers who are writers–and, honestly, I would have no idea what one of those looks like: It’s a strange hybrid, this author-critic creature. I can’t think of another art form where the “practitioner” and the critic overlap like this. Where are [...]


Fri, September 3rd, 2010
Weeklings: E-Readers and Self-Publishers (The Usual Suspects)
Posted by: Keir Graff

From the Department of I’m Shocked, Shocked, NPR reports that the NYTRB is mostly by and about white males (“Are ‘The New York Times’ Book Reviews Fair?“). Also on NPR.org (“Books Have Many Futures,” although I couldn’t find audio), Linton Weeks presents this amusing scenario: Other types of books are not only meant to be [...]


Fri, July 23rd, 2010
Weeklings: Tess Gerritsen, Orlando Figes, Patrick Bateman, Shirley Jackson, and Nancy Pearl
Posted by: Keir Graff

On Murderati, Tess Gerritsen asks, “Why the hell won’t they review my book?!!!” and pretty much answers her own question. My visit to the Inquirer was a sobering look at how tough newspapers have it these days, trying to keep up with all they have to cover.  Every author wants attention, but one look at [...]


Wed, July 21st, 2010
I Write Like James Ellroy, Who Writes Like David Foster Wallace
Posted by: Keir Graff

So this I Write Like thing has gone viral. Using a simple tool, people can have their writing analyzed and learn whether they write like Margaret Atwood or Stephen King. And it was only a matter of time before writers played with it, too. The results are amusing: Margaret Atwood, it turns out, writes like Stephen King. (The Huffington [...]


Fri, July 9th, 2010
Weeklings, I Mean, Monthlings: From First Editions to E-Readers to Fox News Chicago
Posted by: Keir Graff

It’s been so long since I wrote a Weeklings that this is really a Monthlings–and that’s being charitable. Here are a few of the things I’ve read recently that have lodged in my brain…due to the length of this post, I have introduced subject headings. First Editions Much as I covet first editions, I only [...]


Thu, July 8th, 2010
The Future of Book Reviewing—Now Available on MP3
Posted by: Keir Graff

I had a great time moderating “Everyone’s a Critic: The Future of Book Reviewing” at ALA’s annual conference in Washington, DC. I don’t need to issue a spoiler alert before telling you that we neither solved all the problems facing book reviewers, nor can we possibly have predicted the future of book reviewing with perfect accuracy. [...]


Thu, July 1st, 2010
W. S. Merwin Gives up Paradise for Washington, D.C.
Posted by: Donna Seaman

William Stanley Merwin’s poems are fully meshed in nature, and he lives his passion for the verdant world in Hawaii, where he cultivates endangered plants. The profound connection between green entities and the poet is indicated in the title of the first collection of Merwin’s I reviewed, Flower & Hand. This launched my apprenticeship to this exemplary observer of [...]





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