2011
-
The Last Book I Loved: Orphans
The last book I loved was Charles D’Ambrosio’s essay collection, Orphans—but in fact, I loved the book before I read it. Smitten with the small format, I plucked it from a bookstore shelf, coveting the somber jacket painting (by designer…
-
Notable New York, This Week 5/30-6/05
This week in New York writer Edna O’Brien and actor Gabriel Byrne at McNally Jackson Books, book party for Tracy K. Smith’s Life on Mars, Swoosie Kurtz reads Edith Wharton, George Clinton and PFunk, stargazing at the World Science Festival,…
-
Memorial Day Morning Coffee
Happy Memorial Day! We won’t be updating the site as often as usual today, as it is a holiday, but make sure not to miss Steve Almond’s “Musical Lamentation Offered on the Passing of Gil Scott-Heron.” Hope you have a…
-
Winter in America: A Musical Lamentation Offered on the Passing of Gil Scott-Heron
Gil Scott-Heron died on May 27, at age 62. As I write this, there’s no official cause of death. We’ll know soon enough. This is America, after all. Whatever the medical details suggest, I’m listing his official cause of death…
-
Sunday Afternoon Links
You’ve probably heard about PayPal founder Peter Thiel’s 20 Under 20 Thiel Fellowship, which will give 24 young people the opportunity to delay college (although some of the fellows have already graduated from college; they’re that smart) and instead take…
-
What Disasters Uncover
“After all, apocalypses like the Haitian earthquake are not only catastrophes; they are also opportunities: chances for us to see ourselves, to take responsibility for what we see, to change. One day somewhere in the world something terrible will happen,…
-
Books For Men Are Apparently By Men
“It is curious, though, that out of all 75 books every man should read, only one, not two or five or seventeen, but one of those books, A Good Man Is Hard to Find by Flannery O’Connor, is written by a…
-
The Rumpus Sunday Book Blog Roundup
“Men were assholes, women were victims; men were active, women passive. Given the choice, I would have preferred to be an active asshole. Instead, I kept writing.” — At Elle, Kate Christensen talks about the phrase “dick for a day,”…
-
The Rumpus Books Sunday Supplement
Happy Sunday! Rumpus Books had kind of a kick ass week. Come see what we’ve been up to.
-
Adam Mansbach on Gil Scott-Heron
I’ve been seeing tributes to GSH since the news broke last night, but this one stood out to me for some reason. Here’s a taste. “The fact that drugs took him under – and I don’t mean today, I mean…