BNA_Daily | December 21, 2009
Patricia Highsmith wrote dozens of psychological thrillers over the course of her career (The Talented Mr. Ripley being the most famous), and her capacity for developing such disturbing characters has long intrigued critics and readers. In The Talented Miss Highsmith: The Secret Life and Serious Art of Patricia Highsmith, Joan Schenkar digs into the late [...]
BNA_Daily | December 18, 2009
What do you do when your friend asks for a truly terrible book for the holidays? How much do you really understand about Afghanistan? And, most importantly, what is Stephen King’s favorite book of 2009? Answers below!
Just in time for Christmas, Shelf Life addresses a question of book-giving etiquette you may have asked: if you’re, [...]
BNA_Daily | December 18, 2009
The late author Dominick Dunne earned his reputation critiquing the rich and famous for Vanity Fair, and his journalistic endeavors then informed his fiction. His 1988 novel People Like Us satirized New York’s wealthy, and now the characters are back in Dunne’s final novel, Too Much Money, released earlier this week. AP writer Mark Kennedy [...]
BNA_Daily | December 18, 2009
In today’s news, we say goodbye to Kirkus reviews, discuss the eternal question of how to put a price tag on art, and find out what Jon Scieszka thinks about the current state of kid lit. Enjoy!
Last week the Nielsen Company announced the end of Kirkus magazine, which reviewed approximately 5,000 books per year. The [...]
BNA_Daily | December 11, 2009
As Tolstoy said, “every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way,” so do novels of familial discontent ever get old? Maybe, but not in Rachel Sherman’s debut novel, Living Room. Living Room tells the story of Abby, a teen trying to fit in with the dangerous in-crowd, and her mother and grandmother, who both [...]
BNA_Daily | December 11, 2009
We’ve avoided it for as long as possible, but the plethora of “Best Books of 2009″ lists can no longer be ignored. There seems to be a list for every age group, genre, and topic, so we’ve picked a few to focus on. And if “Best of” lists aren’t your thing, there’s a “Worst of” [...]
BNA_Daily | December 9, 2009
Pop-ups! Paper dolls! Superheroes! And no, this post isn’t all about kids. Luckily for adults everywhere, publishers have realized that pop-ups and graphic novels never cease to entertain, and they’re churning them out for readers of all ages. Unfortunately, we don’t have this same technology, so you’ll have to read today’s news in boring black-and-white…
BNA_Daily | December 9, 2009
It’s Friday, so take a break with The Nervous Breakdown, adjust your holiday gift lists with another recommendation list, and discover which crime writer specializes in murder in your area. Enjoy!
There are a lot of literary websites online, but The Nervous Breakdown is a unique blend of community, blog, and literary magazine. Developed by author [...]
BNA_Daily | December 3, 2009
Though Alice Munro hinted that her 2006 story collection The View from Castle Rock would be her last, she’s back at age 78 with Too Much Happiness. Leah Hagen Cohen of the New York Times writes, “From the beginning, Munro has staked her claim on rocky, rough terrain,” and Too Much Happiness is no exception. [...]
BNA_Daily | December 3, 2009
In today’s news, discover short stories by European writers, an alternative to the “best of 2009″ book lists, and the concerns parents have about how the “Twilight” series portrays relationships.
Each year we can read a new anthology of best American short stories, but what about stories from other continents? Aleksander Hemon has teamed up with [...]
