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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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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. [...]

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 [...]