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Trying to catch up on my reading. In an examination of David Hajdu’s The Ten-Cent Plague and Michael Chabon’s Maps and Legends, Michael Saler declares that the War between the States (of fiction, that is, literary and genrefied), is over. Almost over. Well, the end is in sight. (“The rise of fan fiction and comic book culture,” [...]

For those of you interested in judging books by their front covers, PRINT Magazine chronicles a trend with legs (“One Leg Leads to Another,” by Steven Heller). (Thanks, Dan!)

And, just in time for Father’s Day . . . Harper Entertainment is betting that it’s not just young boys who are interested in retro, clip-arty activity books–their fathers may be, too:   This one, however, makes me kind of sad, and not only because my poor book-loving father never taught me how to flush a radiator:

Or should that be Another Bad-Boys’ Book? I’m just going by the cover here. But this trend is getting dangerous:

So Janet Maslin reviewed Bright Shiny Morning writing in the style of her subject (“Little Pieces of Los Angeles, Done His Way,” New York Times): He wrote a book but it was bad, liar bad, faker bad, it got him in trouble. A million little pieces. It was the name of the book. It was also [...]

Inspired by the excruciating ruminations of Lisa Chellman, I finally started a list I’ve been meaning to make for a long time. I think you’ll quickly discern the theme: Audubon’s Elephant, by Duff Hart-Davis (2004) Caesar’s Column, by Ignatius Donnelly and Walter Rideout (1960) Cleopatra’s Nose, by Daniel J. Boorstin (1994) Cleopatra’s Nose, by Judith Thurman (2007) [...]

If you missed Terry Gross’ ”Fresh Air” interview of the always-fascinating Charles Ardai yesterday, you can check it out online. Although much of the information about the Hard Case Crime publisher was familiar to me from my own interview three years ago (I’m proud to say that Booklist recognized HCC’s potential appeal long before the mainstream media [...]

Over at Under the Covers, Lisa Chellman is trendspotting (and I’m reproducing her list, with links to the books we’ve reviewed): The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane The Secret Life of Sparrow Delaney The Puzzling World of Winston Breen The Daring Adventures of Penhaligon Brush The Very Ordered Existence of Merilee Marvelous The Extraordinary Adventures [...]

On Galleycat, Emily Gould tracks a dangerous new trend (I adulterated this quote with links to Booklist reviews): Rudolph Delson‘s ‘Maynard & Jennica‘, Gary Shteyngart‘s ‘Absurdistan‘ and Benjamin Kunkel‘s ‘Indecision‘ all have something in common besides the frequency with which they’re spotted on NYC’s subways: These popular books all contain homages to hip-hop.  After reading [...]

I seem to remember a book written by 13 authors…oh, yes: Naked Came the Manatee (1997). And, in fact, Carl Hiaasen, Elmore Leonard, et al appropriated the concept from a practical joke called Naked Came the Stranger (1969). Now there’s an Internet start-up that’s hoping to turn a hoax and a lark into a business model. According to [...]