la times
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Drop the Book and Put Your Hands Where I Can See Them!
Turns out borrowing that Jodi Picoult tearjerker was an affront to the State. In many cities, those pint-sized homemade libraries of the “take a book, leave a book” variety are considered illegal obstructions.
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Austen Family Letters
The LA Times reports that unpublished letters and poems from Jane Austen’s family have been acquired by the Huntington Library. While none of the letters are from Jane Austen herself, the correspondence will still “provide valuable insight into Jane Austen…
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Satirical America
Has the US turned into a satire of itself? Consider how quickly Congress has gone from championing Freedom Fries to chastising President Obama’s absence from the Paris peace march. Over at the LA Times, David L. Ulin looks at why…
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Objectivism in Action at Texas Schools
Parents in one of the wealthiest towns in Texas are lobbying to get Ayn Rand into schools, and in a classic case of life imitating art (or art being chosen to reflect and enact a desired worldview, perhaps) they intend…
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LA Star Map: Graveyard Edition
Readers who visit Paris or London in the hopes of paying their respects to departed authors can do so in one fell swoop, with graves concentrated in a single, central location; visitors to LA, however, will have to do some…
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This Week in Short Fiction
The news of Michael Brown’s death cannot be ignored. When one of our young people dies from shots fired by a police officer, there will be sadness and confusion. There will inevitably be questions, and questions left unanswered will lead…
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Little Free Library Battle: 9-Year-Old vs. City Council
In Leawood, KS, a 9-year-old was forced to remove the Little Free Library he built in his family’s front yard because it’s considered an “illegal detached structure.” After he takes the issue to the city council next month, he may…
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Fool Me Once
April Fools’ Day provides the opportunity for a little bit of old fashioned fun. Jacket Copy has a rundown of some of yesterday’s literary pranks from across the pond.
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RIP Maggie Estep
Spoken word poet Maggie Estep has passed away. The Los Angeles Times has a wonderful write up of her life and career and how she shaped a whole movement. “In her early work, Estep was a downtown New Yorker who…
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A Portrait of Bernard Cooper
In a recent post at the LA Times, book critic David L. Ulin writes about Bernard Cooper’s forthcoming memoir, “My Avant-Garde Education.” Ulin also gives a remarkable portrait of Cooper as an artist. If you don’t think that’s radical, you might…
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Art as Ephemera?
David Ulin writes about Shelley Jackson’s new project at the Los Angeles Times. If you didn’t hear about her previous project, Skin, now is a good time to do so. Her new project is similar. The story is told one…