Booklist Online: Book Reviews from the American Library Association

I have been swamped–SWAMPED–the past few weeks, editing newsletters, mining data, writing reviews, and preparing for and attending Annual Conference. I say that not to complain but to account for my near-absence from both the blogosphere and the twitterdome. This absence pains me, because the news has been full of my kind of blogfodder. As I am an [...]

And what a week it was. All right, fine: weeks. A few miscellaneous links I can’t delete without sharing . . . .
The editorial board of the New York Times makes a good point (”Banning Books in Miami“):
The Miami-Dade School Board’s decision is not only unconstitutional, it is counterproductive. If the board wants to oppose [...]

Usually I leave the book-group beat to Book Group Buzz, but since I also patrol the feudin’ and fussin’ beat, I’m going to poach this story. Sorry, I mean, share this story–I’d love to read some of their front-line observations on the topic. But Joanne Kaufman’s New York Times article, “Fought Over Any Good Books [...]

The New York Post (”Sis Family Feud’s One for Books,” by Bruce Golding) reports on a literary lawsuit where the facts may be more entertaining than the fiction. The author of the soon-to-be-published novel Hedge Fund Wives makes some serious claims about her sibling’s claims to her creativity:
Writer Tatiana Boncompagni Hoover claims in court papers that [...]

Lots of people waking up on the wrong side of the bed this week.
Here in the U.S., Martin Luther King’s children are fighting over Barbara Reynolds’ in-progress biography of their father (”Dr. King’s Children Battling Over Book,” by Robbie Brown, The New York Times):
“It’s sad and pathetic to see the three of them behaving in [...]

Your Friday grab-bag: 
Bernard Henri Levy and Michel Houellebecq are tired of being pushed around, darn it. And, like the public men of letters they are, they’re . . . taking it public. The headline to Angelique Chrisafis’ Guardian story says it all: “The cultural whipping boys’ manifesto: France has vomited on us for too long.”
In [...]

Oh no he di’n’t: Horace Engdahl, “the top member” of the Nobel Prize jury, dissed American literature, big-time (”Nobel literature head: US too insular to compete,” by Malin Rising and Hillel Italie, AP):
Speaking generally about American literature, however, he said U.S. writers are “too sensitive to trends in their own mass culture,” dragging down the quality [...]

In a scenario that will sound familiar to U.S. readers, Scottish novelist Andrew O’Hagan has said that popular English TV hosts Richard and Judy treat their book club followers as if they were “stupid” (”Richard and Judy ‘treat their readers as stupid,’” by Senay Boztas, The Observer):
‘We have an industry where we have a Richard and [...]

Sir Salman “Scruffy” Rushdie (sorry, I just can’t help myself, it’s too cute), whose name is frequently evoked in the Jewel of Medina affair (note to the Ian Fleming estate: great title for a Bond film), has weighed in (”Rushdie condemns cancellation of Muhammad novel,” by Hillel Italie, AP)
“I am very disappointed to hear that [...]

. . . or at least that’s the headline I imagine the British tabloids using. Sir Salman Rushdie has threatened to bring a lawsuit against his former police bodyguard, Ron Evans, because of certain passages in Evans’ memoir, On Her Majesty’s Service (”Rushdie anger at policeman’s book,” BBC). The author of The Satanic Verses, however, [...]