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Join NOW!Colson Whitehead’s new novel, The Underground Railroad, was announced as an Oprah’s Book Club selection on the day of its release. Speaking to Michelle Dean in the Guardian, Whitehead discusses his reaction to the news: “I called her back and she said: ‘Oprah.’ I said: ‘Shut the front door,’ because I didn’t want to curse. She said: […]
...moreI thought, why not write the book that really scares you? At the New York Times, Jennifer Schuessler talks with Colson Whitehead about his new book, The Underground Railroad, which features the underground railroad literalized as a railroad, underground.
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I was four years old when my mother taught me to lie. There were certain instances, she explained, when lying was acceptable, when it wasn’t even lying, really.
...moreIt’s strange, how you go from a being person who is away from home to a person with no home at all. The country that is supposed to want you has pushed you out. No other country takes you in. You are unwanted, by everyone. You are a refugee. One day when we were walking […]
...moreWhen Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg decided to launch a book club, book publishers were hoping the billions of Facebook users would translate into book sales. But the numbers are in, and Zuckerberg is no Oprah: BetaBoston reports that though The End of Power sold out on Amazon, it only sold 13,000 copies. By contrast, Oprah averaged […]
...moreThe first meeting of the Facebook book club was a little like Fight Club: nobody talked about it. Perhaps it was Zuckerberg’s choice of book—The End of Power by Moisés Naím—or maybe he simply doesn’t have the cultural cachet of Oprah, but Zuckerberg’s post only garnered 240 questions and 137 comments. That might seem like […]
...moreFacebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has launched a new book club, and it already has 80,000 members. Some people are hoping Facebook’s reach will make this a powerful tool akin to Oprah’s book club, once known for driving tens of thousands in book sales. The first book Zuckerberg has selected for the club is The End of Power […]
...moreDo aliens, once in love, ever break up? You’d have to hope so. It would be kind of creepy, all these aliens living monogamously to like age 9,000, making love in that slow, telepathic way they have. And afterward, they do that “brain meld” thing and put their “teeth” back in. Eek. Let’s give him […]
...moreIn Oprah, the author writes that her consumption of books may be absurd, but that, at least, summer is a good time to have pathological reading habits. I would like to say in my defense that I don’t really get the appeal of YOLO. I live many times over. Hypothetical, subterranean lives that run beneath the relative […]
...moreOprah is reviving her book club. Her first pick? Cheryl Strayed’s Wild! Hooray for Sugar! “I want to shout it from the Web. In fact, I love this book so much and want to talk about it so much, I knew I had to reinvent my book club.” Hey Oprah, we’re gonna let you finish, […]
...moreJunot Diaz, winner of the Pulitzer for my favorite book of the last few years The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, has written a pretty inspiring tale of frustration and perseverance in O Magazine about the process of writing his novel. (Sidenote: The Rumpus linking to O? Is this a first?) And as I […]
...moreWhat would happen if Glenn Beck had to appear before Judge Judy? Jezebel has the answer. A poet from the Bronx sues Oprah…for one TRILLION dollars. Fox News is really just performance art masquerading as a news station, right? Right? Bob Herbert on the Sodini killings: “We profess to being shocked at one or another […]
...moreIn case you missed it, the other day Oprah did a show about moms “breaking the silence” about motherhood. Moms talked about their secret lives and feelings. They talked about embarrassing incidents mainly involving their children’s bodily fluids. I don’t know. This whole secret-lives-of-mothers thing seems a bit passe. All you have to do is read […]
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