“devastatingly poignant with a dash of humor”
Rumpus Book Club member Mandy Boles, a.k.a. The Well-Read Wife, shares her review of October book club selection The Middlesteins. (She even calls our Book Club awesome. What a charmer.)
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Caroline Kangas
130 posts
Caroline Kangas calls both Seattle and San Francisco home (though she currently resides in the latter). She recently received a mouthful of a liberal arts degree from the University of San Francisco and can be found selling pirate supplies at 826 Valencia or wandering the streets with her diva of a french bulldog, Elle.
“Terrible things happening to orphans over and over again”
That turned out to be a very fortunate pitch for Lemony Snicket. The Chronicle reports on Daniel Handler, San Francisco native and future contributor to Letters for Kids. Topics discussed include: a…
Report from the HMS Bounty
“The risks have become legend, and the language for intense emotions—whether love or loss—are borrowed from the extremes of life at sea.” The Paris Review Daily posts the story of…
Ebook Bundles Sneak New Authors to Readers
Or, at least, they could if the “humble indie bundle” scheme gains momentum. The Guardian reports on a new method of pay-what-you-can — bundled ebooks that are advertised to “support…
The other other Borges
“The other one, the one called Borges, is the one who skates at the Place de la Concorde on blocks of ice.” A D Jameson at HTMLGiant satirizes Jorge Luis Borges’s…
The Blame Game
Scientists have been putting the blame on almost everyone when it comes to climate change and subsequent natural disasters. In L’Aquila, Italy, however, the tables have turned as six scientists…
[Male] Trouble
Berlin will be hosting a conference discussing the changing roles of men, titled “Men’s Policies: Contributions to a Gender Equitable Society.” German Family Minister Kristina Schröder explains her reasoning for hosting…
Ask “What is it?” not “Why is it happening?”
How do we respond to art that seeks us out rather than the other way around? Whether it’s a storytelling mural, a simple tag on a trashcan, or more performative,…
Retelling of Captain Ahab’s Manic Quest
Did Herman Melville hook you? As part of an effort to reintroduce the world, as well as introduce new generations, to Moby Dick, artist Angela Cockayne and writer Philip Hoare have organized…
“The FBI’s antics were a sideshow. The main drama was elsewhere.”
The FBI’s quest to undermine that which it does not understand is nothing new. While Steve Wasserman’s review of Subversives: The FBI’s War on Student Radicals, and Reagan’s Rise to…
A Sports Novel from Across the Pond
The Millions explores a different series of sports writing in this in-depth essay on “Cricket’s Rich Literary Vein.” Elizabeth Minkel looks specifically at just a couple books but broadly explains…
“necktie popcorn”
Housten Donham, at HTMLGiant, reviews Andrew Choate’s new book Stingray Clapping. While musing on the minimalist and “oddly pleasurable” pieces, Donham also comments on the current poetry scene. As a…