Neuromancer: the birth of an SF classic
“Author William Gibson and his editor, Malcolm Edwards, recall how a seminal SF work came to publication”
Neuromancer came out just as I was seriously making the transition from academic reading to popular reading. I’d read almost no science fiction at the time and was curious to try it out. I remember finishing the book and thinking, “It’s a hero’s quest with a futuristic setting.” Some things change, and sometimes they remain the same.
‘Hillbilly Elegy’ is back in the spotlight. These Appalachians write a different tale
Vance’s political advancement has once again brought up the criticisms that surrounded his memoir’s 2016 publication. Some things change, and sometimes they remain the same.
25 Books That Shaped the 1950s
Many of these books came out when I was on the cusp of adulthood. Almost all of them—including The Catcher in the Rye, which now seems to generate more grousing than acclaim—have been influential since their publication.
The curious incident of the author who couldn’t read or write: Mark Haddon on long Covid and overcoming five years of brain fog
“A heart bypass in 2019 followed by a Covid infection left the novelist unable to read a book, let alone write one. Five years on, he recalls the steps that have helped him back on the right path”
This sounds like a truly awful experience. I hope his current progress continues.
Evan S. Connell at 100: Ever the Elusive, Surprising, and Singular Conjurer
“Steve Paul Remembers a Quiet Giant of American Literature”
Steve Paul, author of Literary Alchemist: The Writing Life of Evan S. Connell, remembers the American writer best known for his 1959 novel Mrs. Bridge. In addition to fiction, Connell also wrote “two volumes of historical essays, and a pair of book-length experiments in language, philosophy and time-hopping scrapbook narratives that looked like, but did not exactly read like, poetry.”
Many high school students can’t read. Is the solution teaching reading in every class?
Every teacher at her San Diego charter school, Health Sciences High and Middle College, teaches students literacy skills, regardless of the subject. That’s because so many students arrive at the school struggling with basic reading, some scoring at the first- or second-grade level, said Douglas Fisher, a school administrator.
The goal is for high school graduates to attain “reading levels ready for college.”
China Miéville Is Back
Patrick Redford discusses The Book of Elsewhere, a recently published collaboration between actor Keanu Reeves and British writer China Miéville. Redford describes Elsewhere as “his [Miéville’s] appreciation for dialectical thinking, or a kind of spooky duality: the introduction of two seemingly mutually exclusive things that are, upon reflection, actually interdependent.”
The Hidden Racism of Book Cover Design
In Canadian publication The Walrus, Tajja Isen discusses “[t]he publishing industry’s troubling reliance on visual stereotypes.” Book covers are often the result of “brute-force market logic” that may either ignore or clash with the author’s concept of the work.
‘We all read like hell!’ How Ireland became the world’s literary powerhouse
“The small island has produced Nobel laureates and Booker winners and hosts a booming writing and publishing scene. What’s the secret to its success?”
For The Guardian, Kate McCusker goes to Dublin “to find out why Ireland, a country that you can drive the length of in a few hours, punches so far above its weight when it comes to literature.”
© 2024 by Mary Daniels Brown
“We all read like hell!”
I included this article just for that quotation! (The fact that I have Irish ancestry on both sides didn’t influence me at all . . .)
😃