Weekend Bites: The Whale Reviewed, Hitchens on Animal Farm, Shields on Colbert, PJ Harvey Doing Zoetrope, and More

Philip Hoare’s The Whale is reviewed. Christopher Hitchens revisits Animal Farm. David Shields meets Colbert Great Gatsby meets the NBA playoffs. New issue of Agriculture Reader is out.  We interviewed the people behind it for their last issue. Kevin Sampsell made a bunch of videos of AWP. Bookworm interviews Elif Bautman. PJ Harvey is designing an upcoming issue of Zoetrope: All Story. Another guide for living like Holden Caulfield. Neutral Milk Hotel + ukulele =’s great happiness.

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Bites: Zadie Smith, Obama Bowing, Studs Terkel was a Watched Man, Pondering Proust, End of the Decade Lists, New Moon vs. Gilmore Girls, and More

SF Chronicle and L.A. Times both review Zadie Smith’s Changing My Mind.  The Millions comment on the reviews “non-committal, guarded praise” and go on to call it “wunderkind jealousy”. The Guardian says of Smith, “criticism is a bodily pleasure“. Time Out New York weighs in on Changing, name drops a bunch of other great writers while doing so.  End up liking the book. Lit. The FBI kept an eye on Studs Terkel, considering him a “suspected communist”.  Surprised?  Saul Bellow […]

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Bites: Don Amazon, young adult steampunk, 2666 gets the paperback treatment, Johnnie Walker kicks Glenn Beck to the curb, 3rd Ward home cookin’, and more

“Amazon’s a modern day Don Quixote.” (Thanks Gawker) Lit. So now book bloggers have to report the books they get for review or face an $11,000 fine.  Ed Champion ain’t gonna stand for it! Is the term”young adult steampunk” at all related to The Pains of Being Heart song “Young Adult Friction”?   (Thanks Boing Boing) HTML Giant really likes writer Sarah Manguso A little book named 2666 is now in paperback. Lit Kicks does an eloquent job of summing […]

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Bites: Neil Young, Kind of Blue turns fifty, Mad Men officially “darn good”, David Foster Wallace, and more.

By Jason Diamond Neil Young didn’t really enjoy Woodstock it would seem. “It was exactly fifty years ago today to the minute that the first member of the general public tried to use Miles Davis’ jazz classic Kind of Blue to get laid.” (Thanks The Awl) The Millions weighs in on Mad Men, and says it’s “darn good.” The Scowl interviews writer Dave Reidy. Conversational Reading continues on David Foster Wallace. At this point, I’m willing to admit that Colbert […]

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