“Dad Says He Saw You at the Mall,” by Ken Sparling
When Knopf originally published Ken Sparling’s Dad Says He Saw You at the Mall in 1996, it became a casualty of lousy timing.
...more
Posts by: Michael Jauchen
Tall, Slim & Erect, by Alex Forman
Three quarters of the way through Alex Forman’s multimedia paean to presidential minutiae, Tall, Slim & Erect: Portraits of the Presidents, you hit this candid entry from Harry Truman’s 1947 diary:
This great white jail is a hell of a place in which to be alone.
...more
Michael Jauchen: The Last Book I Loved, Miss Lonelyhearts
I read a lot in the bathtub.
This isn’t because I’m particularly drawn to cleanliness, but because I’m drawn to the readerly space that a hot tub of water can create. The stillness of a full bathtub—that sporadic spigot drip, the lazy drawdown of heat, the tiles’ passionless whiteness—spins a hive of deep focus for me.
...more