Literary Criticism

Taproot woos fans of Dorothy L. Sayers in upcoming ‘Gaudy Night’

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Taproot woos fans of Dorothy L. Sayers in upcoming ‘Gaudy Night’ | The Arts | The Seattle Times Seattle Times theater critic Misha Berson provides some background on Dorothy L. Sayer’s ground-breaking character, Harriet Vane: And what was groundbreaking about both “Strong Poison” and “Gaudy Night”? The brilliance and fierce independence of a witty, learned […]

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Monday Miscellany

Book Recommendations, Literary Criticism, Monday Miscellany / By /

Some weeks seem slow in terms of good book-related reading, while others, like this one, throw one interesting article after another my way. I’m guessing the reason is not so much a function of what everyone else is writing as it is of how much effort I put forth to find good material to recommend.

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Monday Miscellany

Author News, Awards & Prizes, Fiction, Film, Literary Criticism, Literary History, Monday Miscellany, Publishing, Reading / By / / , ,

Here’s what I’ve been reading this week: Why the Best Mysteries Are Written in English From the pen of Otto Penzler: It is an inarguable fact that virtually everything of interest and significance in the history of detective fiction has been written in the English language, mainly by American and English authors. This is not

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Monday Miscellany

Author News, Book News, Literary Criticism, Monday Miscellany, Publishing, Writing / By / / , ,

Your Favorites: 100 Best-Ever Teen Novels A while back NPR asked readers/listeners to vote on their favorite YA novels. 75,220 people voted, helping to whittle the list of 235 finalists down to the top 100. In addition to the list of winners, this page includes links to explanations of what exactly constitutes YA literature. A

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Monday Miscellany

Fiction, Film, Literary Criticism, Literary History, Monday Miscellany, Writing / By /

The Heroine in the Drawing Room Cynthia Crossen, books columnist for the Wall Street Journal, contemplates the meaning of the phrase domestic fiction, a genre often sneered at: Domestic fiction, like all literary genres, can be bad, and bad in an especially cloying, attenuated and dreary way. I call bad domestic novels Hallmark fiction, and

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Monday Miscellany

Book Recommendations, Fiction, Literary Criticism, Monday Miscellany / By /

The Best Stephen King Book: Readers’ Picks Readers have spoken. The Stand won in a landslide as Stephen King’s most popular novel. If your King favorite is something else, check the pie chart here to see how it stacked up. New & Forthcoming: The Algonquin Reader Download Algonquin Books’ big list of books due out

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Monday Miscellany

Author News, Fiction, Film, Literary Criticism, Monday Miscellany, Reading, Writing / By /

Here’s what caught my eye over the past week:  ‘I Am The Cheese’: A Nightmarish Nail-Biter: The most chilling book I’ve ever read is Robert Cormier’s I Am the Cheese. In this piece, which is almost as compelling as the novel itself, author Ben Marcus remembers how reading the book affected him as a 12-year-old

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Monday Miscellany

Book Recommendations, Literary Criticism, Literary History, Monday Miscellany / By /

This week’s link round-up: The 42 Best Lines from Douglas Adams’ The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Series: I’m sorry that I missed Towel Day on May 25, the annual celebration of the life and work of Douglas Adams, but I’ve put it on the literary calendar so I won’t forget next year. In honor

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Monday MIscellany

Awards & Prizes, Book Recommendations, Literary Criticism, Literary History, Monday Miscellany / By /

A Coalition of Dunces The Pulitzer Prize committee refused to award a 2011 prize for literature despite the nominations of three novels by the judges. The Morning News has a good summary of the issue. And in Time magazine’s entertainment section, writer Lev Grossman explains Why I’m Okay With There Being No Pulitzer for Fiction

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Monday Miscellany

Author News, Literary Criticism, Literary History, Monday Miscellany / By /

The 10 Most Disturbing Books Of All Time In my younger days if I heard a book or movie was disturbing or hard to handle I generally took that as a challenge. Most books generally turned out to not be too bad, but occasionally I’d come across something that would leave me with a sick

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