This past week was particularly rich in literary-related stories. Here’s a selection chosen for its variety. Elizabeth Wein’s top 10 dynamic duos in fiction Some characters just have to exist in pairs: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, Tweedledum and Tweedledee, Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, Thing 1 and Thing 2. Elizabeth Wein’s excellent novel Code Name Verity […]
Learning to learn: the heart of reading Ally of Scoop.it (the curation service that I use for Literature & Psychology) describes how she went about learning to read for deep meaning. She based her strategy on an article by Maryanne Wolf, the John DiBiaggio Professor in the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Development at Tufts, and
The Werewolf Novel as Post-9/11 Political Allegory? If you’ve hung around Notes in the Margin for a while, you probably know that I usually don’t review fiction about vampires, werewolves, or zombies. I understand that lots of people see these entities as metaphors for society, or for the human condition, or perhaps for political and
Authors weigh in on their favorite page-to-screen adaptations The opening of the latest film version of The Great Gatsby has focused interest on adaptations of books into movies. Here authors Dennis Lehane, Chuck Palahniuk, Judy Blume, Bret Easton Ellis, Warren Adler, and Kelly Oxford discuss “the times Hollywood got it right.” A Nigerian-‘Americanah’ Novel About
Books —> Film The latest adaptation of Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby is garnering most of the attention in this category right now, but there’s other news as well. Here’s some news on upcoming films: Will Baz Luhrmann’s noise dampen ‘Great Gatsby’s’ joys? “Seattle Times movie critic Moira Macdonald revisits the book’s melancholy beauty prior to
Amazon Buys Goodreads. Just in case you missed the day’s hottest literary topic. . .
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Scientific Explanations for Why Spoilers Are So Horrible Like Jennifer Richler, I have the most recent season of Downton Abbey tucked away on my DVR, though I haven’t gotten around to watching it yet. But because of the internet and, especially Twitter, I already know what big plot turns I’ll find when I do sit
How Literature Saved My Psyche: Attending a Book-Themed Therapy Session at the Center for Fiction Just read this. That is all. Nicholas Royle’s top 10 first novels Clever Nicholas Royle: First Novel, my seventh, is all about first novels (and other stuff). My narrator, a creative writing tutor, tries to help students write their debuts
Feeling Bookish? The big book event of the last week was the arrival of Bookish. “We know books,” the site declares. Its announced purpose is to allow readers to search, discover, read, and share information about books. Created by publishing giants Penguin, Hachette, and Simon & Schuster, the site will work with USA Today to
Hogwarts Is in Your Head, Harry: Conspiracy Theories About Literature Emily Temple weighs in over at The Atlantic: Sherlock Holmes and Watson are lovers, Winnie the Pooh is a mental-illness allegory, and other theories that might forever alter your favorite books. There was a pretty fascinating article over at Salon earlier this month, in which
