11 Required Reading Books You Should Re-Read Now That You’re Older Madeleine Crum thinks you’d benefit from rereading these books that you were probably required to struggle through in English classes while growing up. I have actually reread several of these in recent years, and I agree with her assessment that they have much more […]
The Best Births In Literature In honor of the birth last week of Britain’s Royal Heir, The Atlantic compiled this list of the five best birth scenes in literature. Are there any others you’d add to this list? Literature’s Fight Club Katherine Hill, author of the recently published novel The Violet Hour, admits: I have
The top 10 classic spy novels From Joseph Conrad to John le Carré, intelligence historian Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones picks the fiction that best reveals the secrets of espionage “So my selection of novels reflects the interests of a historian, and draws on both domestic and foreign espionage. They are “classics” in being of some antiquity, 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
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
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
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
For Your Holiday Gift-Giving Now that the winter holiday gift-giving season has officially arrived, here are a couple of items to keep in mind: Holidaze, Book Riot’s Pinterest Board 100 books for holiday gift-giving, courtesy of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Media Elite: The Best Literary Cameos Ever Committed to Film Though an author’s film cameo
Some interesting takes on the literary world this week. Out of Touch: E-reading isn’t reading Slate caused quite a stir recently with its publication of this excerpt from Andrew Piper’s recent book Book Was There: Reading in Electronic Times (University of Chicago Press, 2012): Amid the seemingly endless debates today about the future of reading,
Yes, there were stories in the news this past week other than the U. S. election. Author Philip Roth says he is done with writing An icon—or iconoclast, depending on your point of view—of American literature casually announced that he won’t be writing any more books. He admitted to a French magazine that he hasn’t
