The Rumpus Book Blog Roundup

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And I’m back! Thanks very much to Michael Berger for filling in for me while I was gone! He did a damn fine job.

Lots has happened over the last few weeks: I went to LA for school, got educated, and watched many of my friends graduate.  I’ll be writing more about all that later. But most importantly, one of my closest friends had a baby three nights ago.  I had never been at a birth before, and all I have to say is, “Holy shit I almost believe in God now.” Oh, I also want to say, “I should be flogged for anything I have ever said or thought that could ever be construed as remotely sexist.” My friend and her baby are healthy and doing well, and I’m going to dedicate this book blog roundup to them — as well as to women and mothers everywhere — because I now firmly believe that women should be in charge of everything everywhere forever.

On Jacket Copy, evidence that men are just a little bit useless.

Sarah Statz Cords at BookNinja lists what she thinks is holding women back. “Three little things,” she says, “…are keeping us from true gender equality.”

Also at BookNinja, is it ever ok to burn books? Especially if the books try to teach parents how to select the sex of their baby?

Via Bookslut, Sharon Olds reads some funny toilet humor odes that manage to say something profound about the circularity of life. Also, she says shit a lot.

And “Twittering for maternal health.”

In other news, James Frey is now a childrens’ book author, some ideas to fix the publishing industry, The Millions says it is a great year for books, and a “flood” of Ghanain crime fiction.

Seth Fischer’s writing has twice been listed as notable in The Best American Essays and has been nominated for The Pushcart Prize by several publications, including Guernica. He was the founding Sunday editor at The Rumpus and is the current nonfiction editor at The Nervous Breakdown. He is a Dornsife PhD Fellow at USC and been awarded fellowships and residencies by Ucross, Lambda Literary, Jentel, Ragdale, and elsewhere, and he teaches at the UCLA-Extension Writer’s Program and Antioch University, where he received his MFA. More from this author →