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Powells.com From the Author – Lori Leibovich

I will admit, I’ve spent some time in the playground juggling sandwiches and children with Lori Leibovich. She lives but a Vlad Guerrero toss up the avenue from me, but when I saw her book in the window of our local Barnes and Noble (where she and some of the writers are appearing soon) it was the title that grabbed me.

In this essay, part of the ever surprisingly useful Powells.com newsletter, she explains what it’s all about. Sounds like fun.

The Silence of the City

Who hasn’t had a Talk of the Town piece killed? This site wants to know, and is happy to publish the dead. I get a funny feeling reading these pieces, not because they aren’t of interest (they are), but because I feel I can tell maybe that they aren’t quite NYer quality. Do the writers disagree, and publish to show how arbitrary taste can be? Or do they have that same sneaking suspicion I do, but still feel these not-quite-Talk stories should see the light of day anyway?

Katrina: The Big One Or Just a Warning Shot?

Our American history of flood control and public works is fraught with problems, which the onslaught of Hurricane Katrina made clear. Michael Grunwald’s book The Swamp, about the Everglades, tells the story about how this massive marshland was drained, and how a couple of hurricanes can be blamed for a good part of the draining. This Washington Post Outlook story explores the parallels between two big Florida storms of the 20s, and the situation in New Orleans today post Katrina.

Literary Novels Going Straight to Paperback – New York Times

I’m not sure how big a story this is. There have always, in my memory, been books I wanted to read that first became available in paperback. But the details here, about costs and royalties and the economics of publishing, will be of interest to all writers (and those wondering how much money writers make).

Sins of Commission?

Michael Grunwald’s The Swamp is making news.

POD-dy Mouth

A masochist tries to find the good stuff in the world of print on demand publishing. You have to wonder why she does it, and wonder that she’s consistently interesting.

Books: The Illywhacker (Seattle Weekly)

After the James Frey tempest it seems almost too civilized to read Peter Carey’s explanation for the fictional elements of his non-fiction travel book, Wrong about Japan.

Getting seduced by Lab Lit–

Books are wonderful things, and fortunately for authors they keep on being discovered long after the initial work is done. WhipPoorWill explains why The Tapir’s Morning Bath is such good reading.

That Which Does Not Kill Me Makes Me Stranger – New York Times

Though Dan Coyle has written THE book on Lance Armstrong, he doesn’t have inside info on Armstrong’s cancelled wedding with Sheryl Crow this past weekend. But in Play, the NY Times new sports magazine, Coyle explains ultra long distance biking star Jure Robic, who will bike 3,000 in nine days, spend the last three in a frighteningly delusional hallucinatory state, and take home enough money to pay his crew.

Then do it again three weeks later. Everyone hopes Armstrong enters the race this year, maybe because then the prize money will actually mean something. In the meantime Coyle helps us wonder about the meaning of such extreme performance and the limits of the human body and mind.

The St. Joseph-Benton Harbor Herald-Palladium visits with some of the folks who knew James Frey back in high school, when he was living the roots of A Million Little Pieces. Funny thing is, most remember the depressed loner being voted class clown and break dancing on talent night.