June 2010
-
Books For The Summer Travel Itch
Now that it’s summertime, one in three people who shop at my bookstore are looking for travel guides, phrase books, travelogues or history books about some enticing destination. Yesterday a woman bought a Russian phrase book. I told her that…
-
The Candidate In Bloom
A short story from Doug Dorst’s forthcoming collection, The Surf Guru, our Rumpus Book Club pick for July.
-
The Self-Interview
Gina Frangello has a great “self-interview” over at TNB. And that’s not just because she gives our editor some serious love. The whole self-interview series is actually fantastic. Check out Rumpus hero Steve Almond’s self-interview along with Antonya Nelson, Billy…
-
Infinite Genji
First it was Infinite Jest and now readers will be tackling the world’s oldest novel this summer, Tale Of Genji. I want someone to have a summer of The Recognitions next. Or Don Quixote or Crime And Punishment. Or maybe…
-
On The City And The City
“‘No two persons ever read the same book,’ the writer and critic Edmund Wilson said. Let me expand that sentiment outward into the geography of experience: it seems increasingly clear to me that no two persons live in the same…
-
The Rumpus Gets More Love
“The impressive writing makes The Rumpus stand out. Rick Moody’s Swinging Modern Sounds column matches up against any music blog, and its staff and roster of contributing authors always come through with insightful commentary, regardless of the topic. Books, comics,…
-
Summer Rereading
“I think about forgotten gestures, the multiple signals and words of grandparents, lost little by little, not inherited, fallen one after the other from the tree of time. “Tonight I found a candle on a table, and as a game…
-
What He’s Poised to Do
A new collection of stories by New Yorker staff writer Ben Greenman moves from Chicago to North Africa to… the moon.
-
No Sugar Today
Dearest sweet peas, There’s been a tiny bit of trouble in Sugarland—nothing disastrous or tragic, just enough of something that I wasn’t able to write a column this week. I’ll make it up to you next week with a special…
-
Ben Greenman Reads in San Francisco
Tonight author Ben Greenman will be reading from his new collection What He’s Poised to Do at City Lights Books at 7pm. He will be joined by the excellent Oscar Villalon. See you there!