Columns

Anne Frank: Editor Extraordinaire

June 10th, 2016

On June 12, 1942, a little girl named Annelise Frank received a diary for her birthday. It was on the small side, covered in a red and white checkered fabric, and it would go on to contain some of the most famous diary entries ever written. 

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Beyond Dickens: 8 Picaresque Novels For The Modern Reader

June 9th, 2016

A solid definition of the picaresque novel is rather hard to come by. The term “picaro,” taken from a 17th century Spanish word, typically describes a low-born hero or rogue who uses his wits to wander through various branches of society without truly belonging to any of them, moving from adventure to adventure. The picaresque employs an episodic narrative structure that still works well today, even though many readers may associate it with the past. A dose of satire is the final part of the equation.

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Your Guide to the 2016 Tony Awards

June 8th, 2016

The 70th annual Tony Awards will air on Sunday, June 12 at 8/7c, live on CBS and will be broadcast to four continents. James Corden is hosting this year and presenters include: Barbra Streisand (her first appearance at the awards since 1970), Oprah Winfrey, Cate Blanchett, Steve Martin, Carole King, and Audra McDonald. This Broadway season featured a slew of powerful, diverse, and moving new and revival productions. Here's a rundown of what's up for Best and Revival Plays and Musicals. 

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Library Love: Incunabula – Dracula’s Bookshelf

June 7th, 2016

Header image via Royal Collection Trust Vlad Dracula, also known as the Impaler (1431-1476), was a regular guy who was also a warlord and three-time prince of Wallachia, a region of modern Romania.

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Three Books About... Junkies

June 6th, 2016

The war on drugs, a battle which had fitfully sputtered in a series of minor conflicts since around 1914, finally roared into life in 1968, when Lyndon Johnson, alarmed by the Summer of Love and anxious to distract an increasingly anxious population from the war in Vietnam, decided to bolster his appeal with Middle America by cracking down on illegal drug use. To justify this use of resources and manpower, he needed a shroud to shake at potential voters — a dreadful warning about what would happen if he didn’t act.

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How Important Is Word Count? 7 Writers Discuss Their Output

June 3rd, 2016

Anyone who’s read my previous columns exploring different facets of the writing life knows how interested I am in writing routines, rituals and habits. This month I’m investigating how much writers write and just how important a daily (or weekly) word count is to each author.

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10 Sexy-Ass Physical Books

June 3rd, 2016

There's really no other way to describe this list other than "book porn." Okay, I'll try a little harder than that: in an age where the availability and convenience of eBooks makes digital books an ideal option both for publishers and consumers, we have to be reminded every now and then just how intricate, sumptuous, and downright sexy physical books can be. Thus, here are ten books both past and present that more than meet this criteria. Enjoy.

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Book vs Album: 'Blood Meridian' vs 'The Last Pale Light in the West'

June 2nd, 2016

With the recent news that a Blood Meridian movie is NOT in the works, and the recent news that I'm sad about that, I decided to take a look at a different kind of adaptation. In 1985, Cormac McCarthy published Blood Meridian. 

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Dissembling The Loner: 5 Books About Outsiders and Introverts

June 2nd, 2016

Harper Lee's Boo Radley may take the cake as the most famous loner in literature, but books present the perfect entry into the minds of introverted people. Sometimes, they're the only way a particularly reclusive writer connects with the outside world. What motivates such behavior? Why do loners choose to be alone? They manage to draw our interest through the things that they withhold.

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What Works & What Doesn't: 'Showgirls'

June 1st, 2016

Welcome once again to What Works & What Doesn't. Last month, we took a look at the dynamics and general criteria of a solid Act I via Terrence Malick's debut feature Badlands. We'll be doing more or less the same for Act II, and this time around, we're going to look at a movie that almost gets it right, but doesn't quite hit the mark.

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