The Book Bench
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Climate Change Fiction
I’m With the Bears, a collection of short stories on climate change, is due for publication this October. Published by Verso—who describes it as “an aim to bring our probable future within the grasp of our comprehension”—the project’s proceeds will…
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What’s the Catch?
Catch-22 turns 50 today. What better way to celebrate than perusing this article. It discusses why the novel has inspired such “divergent” reactions. In teasing out the reasons, the article takes us back into the intricacies of Heller’s work and…
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Emergency Thinking
“One of the things that has seduced people into giving up on their own actions is the claim of emergency—the government will often make the spurious claim that because certain things require very fast action, there is no time for…
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The Impersonal Book Review
Macy Halford writes on the book review, and our inclinations towards immersing ourselves in the opinions of our friends and trusted personalities. But alas, we can’t really know someone through their book recommendations, and this shouldn’t impede our ability to…
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The Thirty-Second Story
Inspired by “Jeopardy!,” this Book Bench article explores “the thirty-second story.” The anxiety-inducing nature of composing a memoir in thirty seconds is explored through discussion with former contestants of the show and by imploring other Book Benchers to compose their…
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The Diaries Of Roland Barthes
At The Book Bench, a moving exploration of Roland Barthes’ diaries, focusing especially on his unique handwriting: “Reading someone’s handwriting can be incredibly intimate and revealing, perhaps especially in an age of e-mail and texting. The confines of font streamline…
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What Happened During The Blackout
Just when I thought I was unique, just as I’ve been spending the last six-odd months editing a short story about the misadventures of retail workers during a city-wide blackout (Santa Cruz, circa 2002) I read today that actually everyone…
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The Rumpus Book Blog Roundup
Greetings! Your humble guest-editor Michael is back in the saddle for another round of negotiating the highly-addictive world of the book blogs. I had an interesting week, where I had time to contemplate my imminent move to Bernal Heights and…