NovelGazer: The Best literature, books, novel, fiction, nonfiction, poetry posts from around the web

And so it goes

blogdig.net — 2009-07-10T04:03:52-04:00

First, thanks to everyone who has participated in the latest What a Girl Wants discussion. I've been thinking lately just what it means to be "white" and it's not as obvious as you might think. More on that next week though, when I've had a chance to collect my thoughts. Yesterday I had a long conversation with my agent, Michele Rubin, who reaffirmed her total coolness yet again. The Map of My Dead Pilots is still out there, sitting on the desks of editors everywhere, waiting for them to spend
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NovelGazer: The Best literature, books, novel, fiction, nonfiction, poetry posts from around the web
The Best literature, books, novel, fiction, nonfiction, poetry posts from around the web

Lowboy by John Wray ? sifting through the shadows of a very slippery customer ?

blogdig.net — 2009-07-10T02:12:01-04:00

Early one morning, sixteen-year-old Will Heller is seen heading into the New York subway. With each passing minute he ventures deeper underground and further from the world of light and reason. Meanwhile, above ground, Violet, the boy?s mother, reports Will missing and seeks the help of Detective Ali Lateef. They soon discover that Emily, Will?s [...]
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NovelGazer: The Best literature, books, novel, fiction, nonfiction, poetry posts from around the web

TT: T minus 15

blogdig.net — 2009-07-10T01:00:00-04:00

The Letter opens in fifteen days. This morning I fly to the West Coast (again!) to see two shows at the Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum. On Sunday I'll travel from Los Angeles to Santa Fe via Albuquerque, and from then until July 25 I'll devote virtually the whole of my time and energy to my first opera. Not all: I'll have to write three pieces while I'm in Santa Fe. Such is the life of a working journalist. But most of my Wall Street Journal copy is already filed and edited in advance for the
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NovelGazer: The Best literature, books, novel, fiction, nonfiction, poetry posts from around the web
The Best literature, books, novel, fiction, nonfiction, poetry posts from around the web

TT: The perfect film score

blogdig.net — 2009-07-10T01:00:00-04:00

June 20 marked the thirty-fifth anniversary of the original theatrical release of Chinatown, for me the best American film of the Seventies. I also think that Jerry Goldsmith's score, which lost out at the Oscars to The Godfather, Part II, is one of the half-dozen best film scores of the twentieth century. Many people know that it was written under severe time pressure, but few know the full story of how Goldsmith was brought in at the last minute to compose a new score for Chinatown. In this
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NovelGazer: The Best literature, books, novel, fiction, nonfiction, poetry posts from around the web

TT: Pericles' excellent adventures

blogdig.net — 2009-07-10T01:00:00-04:00

In today's Wall Street Journal drama column I report on my recent visit to the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, where I saw Pericles and Much Ado About Nothing. Here's an excerpt.* * *Hardly anybody does "Pericles," which was staged just once in the 19th century and remains to this day the least well known of Shakespeare's plays. If you want to embarrass a critic, ask him to summarize the plot and watch him start stammering. (It's happened to me!) Now that the recession has caused American
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NovelGazer: The Best literature, books, novel, fiction, nonfiction, poetry posts from around the web
The Best literature, books, novel, fiction, nonfiction, poetry posts from around the web

TT: Almanac

blogdig.net — 2009-07-10T01:00:00-04:00

"Insects sting, not in malice, but because they want to live. It is the same with critics: they desire our blood, not our pain."Friedrich Nietzsche, Human All-too-Human
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NovelGazer: The Best literature, books, novel, fiction, nonfiction, poetry posts from around the web

For Your Daily Dose of Useless Book Stats

blogdig.net — 2009-07-10T00:46:00-04:00

Middle-aged women: Pervy horndogs in spectacles.A poll of nearly 2,000 women aged between 45 and 60 found that romantic fiction was the most popular genre ? chosen by 35% of those surveyed. Nearly two thirds said they liked raunchy scenes in novels, and more than half described sex in books as ?titillating?.The bold is theirs. And just to make sure you were paying attention: “Reference books were the least popular.” Shocking, ain’t it. Oh, take a look at this. I’m too
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NovelGazer: The Best literature, books, novel, fiction, nonfiction, poetry posts from around the web
The Best literature, books, novel, fiction, nonfiction, poetry posts from around the web

blogdig.net — 2009-07-10T00:26:27-04:00

New Behind the Scenes of Half-Blood Prince Specials from Germany, Italy; New Clip of Potions Class
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NovelGazer: The Best literature, books, novel, fiction, nonfiction, poetry posts from around the web

blogdig.net — 2009-07-10T00:26:26-04:00

New Photos of Trio, Bonnie Wright in Entertainment Weekly
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NovelGazer: The Best literature, books, novel, fiction, nonfiction, poetry posts from around the web
The Best literature, books, novel, fiction, nonfiction, poetry posts from around the web

Bookish Revelations

blogdig.net — 2009-07-10T00:22:00-04:00

I can’t walk by a puppy without petting it; I can’t pass a plate of cookies without taking one, and there’s no way in the world I could possibly scroll by a post called Love Drunk Book Heads: What’s Your Most Revelatory Book Experience (minus the question mark at the end, making it more of an invitation to discourse than an icebreaker).The question comes from Jeff VanderMeer of Ecstatic Days, and springs from a survey he took in 2003, back when his Fantastic Metropolis
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NovelGazer: The Best literature, books, novel, fiction, nonfiction, poetry posts from around the web