The Dungeon Master
by Sam Lipsyte
The Dungeon Master has detention. We wait at his house by the county road. The Dungeon Master’s little brother Marco puts out corn chips and orange soda.
Marco is a paladin. He fights for the glory of Christ. Marco has been many paladins since winter break. They are all named Valentine, and the Dungeon Master makes certain they die with the least possible amount of dignity… (finish this story at The New Yorker)
This week, to kick off the celebration of our freedom to read, we are doing a mini News This Week segment on Banned Books Week. Check out the links below and learn a little more about censorship in America.
The absurd logic behind some of the most famous banned books.
10 banned books you might not expect.
Laurie Halse Anderson’s Speak is in the midst of a heated censorship debate.
Howl, which was the subject of an obscenity trial following its publication, opens (as a film) during banned books week.
See the top 10 most frequently challenged books of 2009.
See a map of book challenges in the US.
A collection of rare books were given back to the Justice Department.
Douglas Coupland coins some words and designs a monument.
Zadie Smith will write for Harpers.
10 Young Adult novels you won’t want to miss.
Jonathan Franzen talks about The Corrections.
A lost library is reassembled.
Virgin America will include e-books for its in-flight entertainment service.
2 of J.K. Rowling’s manuscripts will be on display at a bookstore.
Kate Winslet will do a mini-series of Jams M. Cain’s novel Mildred Pierce.
A Utah bookseller becomes the President’s guest.
On the potential of interactive fiction.
Women dominate the Dylan Thomas shortlist.
Dave Eggers and Marlon James win the Dayton Literary Peace Prize.
Tao Lin parodies Jonathan Franzen’s Time cover.
Andrew Marr’s latest book stops traffic.
Oregon’s overly broad obscenity laws are overturned.
Danielle Steel insists she doesn’t write romance novels.
Longtime Village Voice critic, Jill Johnston, dies at 81.
Halfway to Noah Means
By J.A. Tyler
Halfway to Noah means that the boards he is using are working and the garden is getting its water and the moss and mold starting to build on the underside of the ark, the places where he began and what the ship has grown from, is becoming a deep and moveable root. Noah sees more birds today and knows that they know that halfway is closer to floating than any broken open roof or half moon that they will otherwise find. This is a flood and the deer pastured behind Noah’s working arms are waiting. They have felt the rain and the jarring of the earth when mechanized earthquakes shook each city to its bottom drawers. They know that this ark and Noah are the way to find new land, are the way to lift their hooves until the water has receded… (read the rest at Annalemma)
Fantagraphics has acquired and will publish Ah Pook is Here (finally).
The Amsterdam airport opens a new library.
The publishing community rallies to support an editor with cancer.
eBay sellers beat the Department of Defense by selling uncensored copies of Operation Dark Heart.
Haruki Murakami’s newest novel has a featured spread in a Chinese men’s health magazine.
Watch clips from the Spider-Man Musical.
It’s Roald Dahl day! and Month!
Roald Dahl is remembered in pictures.
Philip Ardagh picks his top 10 Roald Dahl books.
Oxford University Press releases an ambitious Chinese-English dictionary.
Salman Rushdie speaks out in support of the mosque and Islamic Cultural Center near ground zero.
President Obama writes a children’s book.
Chuck Klosterman is using the iTunes model for essay’s.
The Vatican library reopens after a $12 million renovation.
Will Jonathan Franzen’s Freedom by the next and last book for Oprah’s Book Club? Yes it will.
See the Brooklyn Book Festival.
A lost Sir Walter Scott poem is found.
Co-founder of the Paris Review, Thomas Guinzburg, dies at 84.
Freakonomics Radio will launch this fall on NYPR and APM.
See some amazing bookplates.
Jack White creates a new kind of vinyl record.
David Foster Wallace’s unfinished novel will be published next year.
Philip Glass writes an Kafka opera.
Jane Yolen writes her 300th book.
Paul Auster talks to John Ashbery.
Author Barbara Holland dies at 77.
The British Library acquires a Ted Hughes poem and letter archive.
36 authors will write a novel together in 6 days.
Children understand irony at 4.
A collection of Oscar Wilde’s letters are discovered.
Thomas Wolfe will receive a medal for his contribution to American letters.
R.L. Stein’s Goosebumps heads to the silver screen.
A playlist for Murakami’s novel 1Q84.
An excerpt from Poisoning the Press reveals that Nixon’s White House explored the murder of journalist Jack Anderson.
For this week’s books in motion we bring you some clips on Cornelia Funke’s new book, Reckless. For fans, like me, of the Inkheart trilogy it’s seemed like ages to wait for a new novel from Cornelia Funke, and I have to admit I was beginning to wonder if she had abandoned Young Adult Fiction for her children’s mini-series. But, HOORAY! This is not the case! Reckless, is finally here! It tells the story of two brother’s and their adventure on the other side of a magic mirror that transports them into world seeped in fairytales and folklore. The story brings back the darkness so often lost in contemporary fairytales that hearkens back to Grimm brothers, sometimes making them even more frightening than the originals. Journey with Jacob and William Reckless as get stuck in a war between Man and Goyl (stone men) in a story about the love between brothers and true romance, and check out the video clips below.
Now Available At Logos!
Reckless
By Cornelia Funke
$19.99
On a post-apocalyptic bookstore film.
826LA auctions 37 picture book artist’s pieces to raise money.
The Man Booker Prize Shortlist is announced.
China Miéville’s The City and the City and Paolo Bacigalupi’s The Windup Girl tie for the Hugo Award.
Hit-Girl may play Katniss Everdeen in the film adaptation of The Hunger Games.
Tony Blair cancels his book tour to avoid eggs and shoes.
Jules Feiffer and Norton Juster collaborate for the first time in 50 years.
Bella Swan vs Katniss Everdeen.
Read an interview with Sarah Gruen.
Should swear words ever be in children’s books?
Peter Jason Rentfrow can tell what books you like by what you watch.
The most expensive books in the world are for sale.
On September 14th, the David Foster Wallace archives will open with a live webcast.
The problems with Google Books.
The New York Times plans to go out of print.
The Defense Department will buy all 10,000 copies of the first run of Operation Dark Heart.
Marin Scorcese will direct the film adaptation of The Invention of Hugo Cabret.
Jonathan Franzen picks his favorite 4 novels.
Top ten type faces of the decade.
The Oxford English Dictionary will not be printed again.
John Cusack will star in Raven, a film about Edgar Allan Poe.
A 6-year-old gets a 23-book deal with Strategic Book Publishing, but it may not be a very good deal.
Berlin is “bombed” with poetry.
Heart of Darkness is now a graphic novel.
JK Rowling gives £10million for multiple sclerosis research clinic.
Aug. 24 is probably not really the Bible’s anniversary.
Is the crime novel the only real social fiction?
Mockingjay sells more than 450,000 it’s first week.
There will be a sequel to Kick-Ass?
The Sandman is in the early stages of a TV adaptation.
Archie gets it’s first gay character.
Silvia Plath fans ask for a more fitting memorial.Novelist Vance Bourjaily dies at 87.
Last week the last installment of The Hunger Games, Mockingjay, came out and sold over 450,000 copies. For those of you not familiar with the Young Adult series, the games is a distopian series told from the perspective of a 16-year-old girl who is chosen to participate in government enforced game to the death. Beautifully written, suspenseful, and impossible to put down, this series has taken both the Young Adult and the Adult literary world by storm. Check out these interviews and trailers, and pick up your copies ASAP!
Hunger Games
Paperback
$8.99
Catching Fire
Hardcover
$17.99
Mockingjay
Hardcover
$17.99