My Nanny’s Nanny
I have become the nanny. I hope my nanny is getting some good writing done.
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Posts by: Diksha Basu
What I Was Doing While You Were Breeding by Kristin Newman
Diksha Basu reviews What I Was Doing While You Were Breeding by Kristin Newman today in Rumpus Books.
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I Am an Executioner by Rajesh Parameswaran
Diksha Basu reviews I Am an Executioner by Rajesh Parameswaran today in Rumpus Books.
...moreHell on Earth
Former Poet Laureate Charles Simic grapples with the current global situation in the New York Review of Books. The world is going to hell in a hurry. At my age, I ought to be used to it, but I’m not. Perhaps ignorance is bliss, I say to myself, and think of people I know who […]
...moreJunot Díaz Plans A Holiday Vacation
Summer isn’t over yet. Read what Junot Díaz, Donald Trump, and others have planned before the weather turns cold. And may we all be as lucky as Junot: Once on a beach in Jamaica, right before an October storm swept in, I fell in love. She had hair like all your best things combined. It […]
...moreNever Judge a Book by Its Blurb
Book blurbs are the new books covers. And at the Guardian, Nathan Filer says you shouldn’t judge a book by either: Cover blurbs aren’t reviews. They’re advertisements. No space for balanced, nuanced positivity. Nothing can be interesting; it must be fascinating. Good isn’t good enough; it must be great. With today’s post came “an epically […]
...moreSummer Days Are Here
It’s Friday! And it’s the summer! Are you sitting in your cubicle feeling the same joy Kassia Miller writes about at McSweeney’s? And when it’s summer in the office, I get to break out all my favorite summer clothes: my lighter-weight wool pants, conservative button-up shirts with cap sleeves instead of long sleeves, and my […]
...moreThink (and Think Some More) Before You Speak
Notably, there are a few verbal tics that we mistakenly think index insecurity, even though they don’t. These (mostly feminine) quirks—uptalk, vocal fry—are often subtle expressions of power, innovativeness, or upward mobility. In fact, Adam Gopnik recently wrote about how verbal fillers like “um” and “you know” underscore a speaker’s conscientiousness, her sensitivity to the […]
...moreCritics vs. Copies
Have you actually read Knausgaard or have you only read about Knausgaard? The sales numbers don’t seem to support the phenomenon that this Norwegian writer has become. For the New York Review of Books, Tim Parks tries to understand the correlation between the critics and the copies. Well, as of a few days ago UK sales […]
...moreBaijiu on the Rocks
Baijiu is a distilled firewater somewhat like vodka crossed with a non-apple Calvados, with a distinctive nose. Have you tried baijiu, the world’s most consumed liquor? Chances are high that you have not even heard of it. Let novelist and travel writer Lawrence Osborne enlighten you.
...moreNights to Remember
I offer all of this not by way of aimless self-revelation, but as a way of provoking you to remember your stories about similar incidents in your life, stories about the night, and who smoked what and who was doing who mixed in with outside events, such as the politics of your time, mixed in with […]
...moreReturning to Poverty
Slate has a haunting photo essay called “Living Below the Poverty Line in Troy, New York.” The photographs are by Brenda Ann Kenneally, who grew up in Troy. She left when she was 17 after a pregnancy and abortion and problems with drugs and the law.
...moreHold Nothing Back
Worried you are too young to be working on a memoir? Worried you are revealing too many deep dark secrets and your relatives will disown you forever? Author Gary Shteyngart, 41—which he says is 74 in Russian years—shares some words of wisdom: Which leads to the first question a memoirist must ask: What should I […]
...moreNew Orleans Decoded
Tempted to move to New Orleans? It seems as though more and more writers are heading there these days. At the New York Review of Books, Nathaniel Rich—who moved to the city in 2010—explores the history and culture of New Orleans through books by Richard Campanella and Sheri Fink. About Campanella’s book, Rich writes: He had learned, as […]
...moreSuffering for Our Entertainment
Piper Kerman, author of the memoir Orange is the New Black, is a vocal spokesperson for the rights of prisoners. But, asks April Bernard on the New York Review of Books blog, does the successful Netflix show that is based on the book, do the same? Or does it trivialize the plight of prisoners and turn […]
...moreIn Conversation with Geoff Dyer
Geoff Dyer knows no boundaries, especially when it comes to genre, and that’s what makes him such a fascinating author to follow. He’s written fiction and nonfiction—without revealing which is which—about taking drugs in Southeast Asia, jazz, photography, and even women in sundresses, and now has a book out about life aboard an aircraft carrier. At the LA […]
...moreBill Gates’s Favorite Author
The car I drive to work is made of around 2,600 pounds of steel, 800 pounds of plastic, and 400 pounds of light metal alloys. The trip from my house to the office is roughly four miles long, all surface streets, which means I travel over some 15,000 tons of concrete each morning. Once I’m at the […]
...moreHow to Open a Book
It can be tricky. Let Electric Literature help you figure out the best way to open a new book. There are several different ways to open your next book. Try, for instance: The Precious: A favorite of collectors who want to keep their books in as near mint condition as possible, The Precious involves only […]
...moreThe Economics of Book Festivals
These days, you can’t throw a book without hitting a book festival. The Jaipur Literature Festival, the world’s biggest literature festival, is reported to have had 200,000 attendees this spring. In Britain alone, there are over 350 book festivals a year. For Financial Times, Carl Wilkinson looks at the economics behind these festivals. Who makes […]
...moreTravel Writing for Summer Reading
The New York Times Book Review recently published a summer reading special issue. In it, the terrific British travel writer and novelist Lawrence Osborne has an essay on travel writing, along with some summer reading recommendations. He writes about books by John Waters, Iain Sinclair, and Tim Butcher and ruminates on what we look for […]
...moreDeath Rituals and Grief Rituals
Death is messy and time-consuming and exhausting for the survivors. Death is confusing and maddening. At Blunderbuss Magazine, Essay Liu, a Taiwanese writer, documents her father’s death and the rituals in the days following. Translated by Kevin Tang. Day three, 5 AM: coffin laying ceremony. The funeral home prepares bricks of tissue paper, paving a […]
...moreThe Writer’s Writer
Karl Ove Knausgaard, the handsome Norwegian writer, is traveling through the U.S. giving talks and readings and interviews. It’s as good a time as any to start reading his 6-part autobiography, My Struggle, especially if you are a writer. As the New York Times reports, Knausgaard’s American counterparts are all raving about this writer—Jeffrey Eugenides, […]
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The Widow’s Guide to Sex and Dating by Carole Radziwill
Diksha Basu reviews THE WIDOW’S GUIDE TO SEX AND DATING today in The Rumpus Book Reviews.
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Wave by Sonali Deraniyagala
Diksha Basu reviews WAVE by Sonali Deraniyagala today in The Rumpus Book Reviews.
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