Charles Simic A still from the 1925 film Chess Fever When my mother was very old and in a nursing home, she surprised me one day toward the end of her life by asking me if I still wrote poetry. When I blurted out that I still do, she stared at me with incomprehension. I had to repeat what I said, till she sighed and shook her head, probably thinking to herself this son of mine has always been a little nuts. Now that I’m in my seventies, I’m asked that question now and then by people who don’t know me well. Many of them, I suspect, hope to hear me say that I’ve come my senses and given…
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Most Topular Stories
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Why I Still Write Poetry
nybooks.com: Recent items15 May 2012 | 12:15 pm -
Daily Dose for Wed, May 16: The Villain's Guide to Better Living
Powell's Books: Overview16 May 2012 | 1:00 amThe Villain's Guide to Better Living by Neil Zawacki Reviewed by Caroline from Seattle, Washington. -
Charlaine Harris Announces the End of the Sookie Stackhouse Series
ReadersRead.com Book Blog14 May 2012 | 5:14 pmBestselling author Charlaine Harris announced on the Facebook page that the Sookie Stackhouse series is finally coming to an end. Charlaine said, "Save the date...the final Sookie Stackhouse book, Dead After After, will be on sale May 2, 2013!" The last book will be the 13th book in the series. Sookie's adventures are the basis of the hit HBO series True Blood which stars Anna Paquin as Sookie, as vampire Eric Northman and Stephen Moyer as Bill Compton. The twelfth Sookie Stackhouse book, Deadlocked, was just released. Photo: Penguin Group Permalink | Recent Headlines | Facebook | Our News… -
How Amanda Palmer Built An Army Of Supporters: Connecting Each And Every Day, Person By Person
www.publetariat.com15 May 2012 | 6:00 pmThis post originally appeared on techdirt on 5/4/12. Following the massive success of her Kickstarter experiment, we asked Amanda Palmer if she wanted to write a quick guest post about why she thought the offering was so successful. Here's what came back, including a bonus bit from Sean Francis, who has helped Amanda for years on the tech/social side of things. read more -
Harvard and MIT point to online learning future in higher ed
Online Learning Update15 May 2012 | 5:10 pmBy the Boston Globe (Editorial) What value the certificate ends up having — if any — will be up to the market. But the fact that online classes are new and unfamiliar doesn’t mean they won’t eventually be recognized as meaningful. Now, having MIT and Harvard involved in online education makes it a lot more likely the classes offered by edX will be rigorous, and that the credentials it awards will be taken seriously. The long-standing higher-education formula — four years at a high-cost residential college — has served many students well, and will continue to do so. But…
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nybooks.com: Recent items
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Why I Still Write Poetry
15 May 2012 | 12:15 pmCharles Simic A still from the 1925 film Chess Fever When my mother was very old and in a nursing home, she surprised me one day toward the end of her life by asking me if I still wrote poetry. When I blurted out that I still do, she stared at me with incomprehension. I had to repeat what I said, till she sighed and shook her head, probably thinking to herself this son of mine has always been a little nuts. Now that I’m in my seventies, I’m asked that question now and then by people who don’t know me well. Many of them, I suspect, hope to hear me say that I’ve come my senses and given… -
The Loves of Lena Dunham
15 May 2012 | 8:15 amElaine Blair Girls a television series on HBO created by Lena Dunham Mark Seliger/HBO Lena Dunham as Hannah Horvath in Girls There are many reasons to love Lena Dunham’s HBO television show Girls, and some of them have nothing to do with sex, but I’m going to begin with the sex scene in the second episode that most critics have mentioned and described with some amount of repugnance or lament. It’s one of the most complicated and intelligent sex scenes I’ve seen. -
In Defense of the New York Public Library
13 May 2012 | 8:15 pmRobert Darnton Anne Day The Rose Main Reading Room at the 42nd Street branch of the New York Public Library; photograph by Anne Day from the new edition of Henry Hope Reed and Francis Morrone’s The New York Public Library: The Architecture and Decoration of the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building. It is published by Norton. Few buildings in America resonate in the collective imagination as powerfully as the New York Public Library at Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street. The marble palace behind the stone lions is seen by many as the soul of the city. For a century it provided limitless… -
Fear and Literature
11 May 2012 | 7:30 amTim Parks Christopher Anderson/Magnum Photos A man driving through Catia, a violent slum in Caracas, Venezuela, 2005 Is the novel a space of intense engagement with the world, of risk and adventure? Or is it a place of refuge, of hanging back from life? The answer will be all too easy if we are living in a country that does not allow certain stories to be told. For Solzhenitsyn writing novels was indeed a serious risk. But in the West? In my last piece in this space I considered the idea that our personalities are formed in communities of origin where one particular polarity of values or… -
The Myth About Marriage
9 May 2012 | 10:30 amGarry Wills Palazzo Massimo alle Terme A Roman sarcophagus depicting a bride and groom (center), 270-280 CE Why do some people who would recognize gay civil unions oppose gay marriage? Certain religious groups want to deny gays the sacredeness of what they take to be a sacrament. But marriage is no sacrament. Some of my fellow Catholics even think that “true marriage” was instituted by Christ. It wasn’t. Marriage is prescribed in Eden by YHWH (Yahweh) at Genesis 2.24: man and wife shall “become one flesh.” When Jesus is asked about marriage, he simply quotes that passage from…
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Powell's Books: Overview
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Daily Dose for Wed, May 16: The Villain's Guide to Better Living
16 May 2012 | 1:00 amThe Villain's Guide to Better Living by Neil Zawacki Reviewed by Caroline from Seattle, Washington. -
Daily Dose for Tue, May 15: Gaia's Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture (2nd Edition)
15 May 2012 | 1:00 amGaia's Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture (2nd Edition) by Toby Hemenway Reviewed by Sarah from Portland, Oregon. -
Daily Dose for Mon, May 14: The Art of Racing in the Rain
14 May 2012 | 1:00 amThe Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein Reviewed by K from Portland, Oregon. -
Daily Dose for Sun, May 13: Lives Like Loaded Guns: Emily Dickinson and Her Family's Feuds
13 May 2012 | 1:00 amLives Like Loaded Guns: Emily Dickinson and Her Family's Feuds by Lyndall Gordon Reviewed by Judy from Norman, Oklahoma. -
Daily Dose for Sat, May 12: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close: A Novel
12 May 2012 | 1:00 amExtremely Loud and Incredibly Close: A Novel by Jonathan Safran Foer Reviewed by Marybeth from Mesquite, Texas.
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ReadersRead.com Book Blog
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Charlaine Harris Announces the End of the Sookie Stackhouse Series
14 May 2012 | 5:14 pmBestselling author Charlaine Harris announced on the Facebook page that the Sookie Stackhouse series is finally coming to an end. Charlaine said, "Save the date...the final Sookie Stackhouse book, Dead After After, will be on sale May 2, 2013!" The last book will be the 13th book in the series. Sookie's adventures are the basis of the hit HBO series True Blood which stars Anna Paquin as Sookie, as vampire Eric Northman and Stephen Moyer as Bill Compton. The twelfth Sookie Stackhouse book, Deadlocked, was just released. Photo: Penguin Group Permalink | Recent Headlines | Facebook | Our News… -
Fifty Shades of Grey is Now Amazon.com's Bestselling Book of 2012
12 May 2012 | 4:00 pmWell, that didn't take long. Fifty Shades of Grey has just passed The Hunger Games to become as Amazon's #1 bestselling book of 2012. The list only counts paperback and hardcover books, not ebooks. The second through fourth spots are still held by the three books in The Hunger Games trilogy. For ebooks, The Hunger Games trilogy still takes the top spots. All three books are available for loan for free from Amazon.com for Amazon Prime members. Photo: Random House Permalink | Recent Headlines | Facebook | Our News Feeds -
Tony DiTerlizzi Talks A Hero for WondLa on CNN
9 May 2012 | 12:00 pmA Hero for WondLa is the second book in author Tony DiTerlizzi's Search for WondLa's trilogy. The series follows Eva Nine's adventures on the planet Orbona. Eva discovered she is not the only human in the world in the first book. Eva was rescued by a boy named Hailey who led her to the colony of New Attica, where humans of different shapes and sizes appear to live in peace and harmony. In the new entry in the series, Eva discovers something sinister is going on in the idyllic colony. Both of the book in the series contain artwork that features Augmented Reality. DiTerlizzi talked with CNN's… -
The Art of War Graphic Novel Tells of a Violent Future
7 May 2012 | 1:00 pmHarper Perennial, an imprint of HarperCollins, has announced it will publish The Art of War: A Graphic Novel on July 31, 2012. The graphic novel was written by Kelly Roman and illustrated by Michael DeWeese. It is edited by Will Hinton. The graphic novel, adapted from Sun Tzu's The Art of War, tells of a violent near-future when financial markets are militarized and China is the dominant economy. The book took six years to write and illustrate, with most of the pages hand-painted on watercolor paper. A 50-page sample of the graphic novel can be read on the book's website. The following book… -
New Library of Congress Book Features Historical Presidential Campaign Posters
5 May 2012 | 7:00 pmPresidential campaign posters are featured in a new book, Presidential Campaign Posters From the Library of Congress. Drawn from the Library's collection of more than 100,000 posters covering a wide variety of subjects, 100 ready-to-frame campaign posters about politicians from Andrew Jackson to Barack Obama are included in the book. Each of the posters is backed with historical commentary and additional artwork from their respective campaigns. Media analyst Brooke Gladstone in the book's preface, "Political art is nothing less than an illustration of the skirmishes and stalemates that…
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www.publetariat.com
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How Amanda Palmer Built An Army Of Supporters: Connecting Each And Every Day, Person By Person
15 May 2012 | 6:00 pmThis post originally appeared on techdirt on 5/4/12. Following the massive success of her Kickstarter experiment, we asked Amanda Palmer if she wanted to write a quick guest post about why she thought the offering was so successful. Here's what came back, including a bonus bit from Sean Francis, who has helped Amanda for years on the tech/social side of things. read more -
When Publishing Goes Wrong...Starring Undead Press
15 May 2012 | 6:00 pmThis post, by Mandy DeGeit, originally appeared on her blog on 5/14/12. You all know I’ve been ranting about my first ever publication coming out for the last little while… “She makes me smile” was picked up by Undead Press (Anthony Giangregorio) to be published in their anthology called Cavalcade of Terror and the book was released May 1st 2012. [Publetariat Editor's note: strong language after the jump] read more -
How Do Daily Ebooks Sold Figure into Amazon and Barnes and Noble Sales Rankings? Theresa Ragan Has The Scoop!
14 May 2012 | 6:00 pmThis post, by D.D. Scott and Theresa Ragan originally appeared on The Writer's Guide to E-Publishing on 5/14/12. Happy Monday, WG2E-Land!!! Gosh, I sooo wish I’d come across this superfab scoop when I’d first started out in Indie Epublishing, but since I came across it this past week, I just had to share it with y’all!!! read more -
Plan a Book Launch Party for an Ebook
14 May 2012 | 6:00 pmRecently an author asked me "How do you stage an in-person book launch with a novel that's published as an ebook? How do you autograph a computer screen?" Here are some suggestions for doing a live book launch event for an ebook: read more
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Online Learning Update
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Harvard and MIT point to online learning future in higher ed
15 May 2012 | 5:10 pmBy the Boston Globe (Editorial) What value the certificate ends up having — if any — will be up to the market. But the fact that online classes are new and unfamiliar doesn’t mean they won’t eventually be recognized as meaningful. Now, having MIT and Harvard involved in online education makes it a lot more likely the classes offered by edX will be rigorous, and that the credentials it awards will be taken seriously. The long-standing higher-education formula — four years at a high-cost residential college — has served many students well, and will continue to do so. But… -
Online Learning: Weatherford: Online Universities Key to Increasing Florida’s College Graduates
15 May 2012 | 5:06 pmBy JOHN O’CONNOR, WUSF Florida’s next House Speaker says increasing the number of college graduates will require online universities. Online schools won’t replace traditional universities, Rep. Will Weatherford said, but make higher education more accessible and affordable. Online learning and online classrooms, he said, is the key to growing an educated community, a strong nucleus of young people who have earned post-secondary degrees and a pool of smart people attractive to top businesses or companies looking for new places to locate. -
NYU Dean to Devote His Sabbatical to Expanding U. of the People
15 May 2012 | 5:01 pmBy Peter Monaghan, Chronicle of Higher Ed Dalton Conley’s research on how social and economic opportunities are distributed has prompted him to get involved in bringing college-level teaching to students who need an education that costs next to nothing. “Spreading education to populations that currently don’t have access to it might do some good in the world,” he says. That reasoning led Mr. Conley, a prominent sociologist, to accept the post of dean of arts and sciences at the online University of the People, which has access as its motivating rationale. The… -
Innosight Institute Releases Updated ‘Blended Learning’ Definition and Models for Implementation
14 May 2012 | 5:10 pmby Innosight Innosight Institute – a non-profit think tank co-founded by innovation expert Professor Clayton Christensen of Harvard Business School – today released the report “Classifying K-12 blended learning,” which defines the emerging phenomenon of mixing online learning into brick-and-mortar schools. “Today, more than four million students are participating in some kind of formal online learning program, often blended into the traditional schoolhouse” The white paper is co-authored by Innosight Institute Senior Education Research Fellow Heather Staker and Executive Director… -
Why Flip The Classroom When We Can Make It Do Cartwheels?
14 May 2012 | 5:05 pmBY: Cathy Davidson, Fast CoExist Adding some technology to the educational process is one thing, but truly revolutionary learning experiences take a deeper sort of innovation, which you can see at a program at Duke working for change in Haiti. We all know what a traditional college classroom looks like: students in rows stare glassy-eyed at the professor who drones on, paying more attention to the equations he’s writing on the board than the students he’s supposed to be teaching. No wonder many are proposing using digital technology to “flip” the classroom. In flipping, students do…
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Books
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'Kickstart Shakespeare': Of Sonnets, Beer, And Online Fundraising
16 May 2012 | 12:15 pm"It was written for the masses," says the director of a New York organization raising money to bring Shakespeare's work to new audiences.» E-Mail This » Add to Del.icio.us -
Just What's Inside Those Breasts?
16 May 2012 | 8:24 amIn her new book, Breasts: A Natural and Unnatural History, Florence Williams offers her take on why breasts are getting bigger and developing earlier, why tumors seem to gravitate toward the breast, and how toxins from the environment may be affecting hormones and breast development.» E-Mail This » Add to Del.icio.us -
'The Chemistry Of Tears' And The Art Of Healing
16 May 2012 | 4:00 amAfter a museum conservator's lover dies, she becomes consumed with reanimating a 19th-century silver swan automaton. Critic Heller McAlpin says that Peter Carey's new novel is part historical, part fanciful and completely wonderful.» E-Mail This » Add to Del.icio.us -
In Writing, Fuentes Shed Light On Poverty, Inequality
15 May 2012 | 9:01 pmCarlos Fuentes, one of the most influential Latin American writers, died Tuesday at a hospital in Mexico City at the age of 83. He was instrumental in bringing Latin American literature to an international audience, and he used his fiction to address what he saw as real-world injustices.» E-Mail This » Add to Del.icio.us -
Remembering Mexican Writer Carlos Fuentes
15 May 2012 | 2:41 pmRobert Siegel talks to literary critic Alan Cheuse, a writing teacher at George Mason University, about the legacy of Carlos Fuentes. The Mexican writer died Tuesday at the age of 83.» E-Mail This » Add to Del.icio.us
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Holy Kaw!
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Mammals may not get to cool climates in time
16 May 2012 | 12:09 pmNine percent of the Western Hemisphere’s mammals—and up to 40 percent in some regions—may not be able to outpace climate change. “I think it’s important to point out that in the past when climates have changed—between glacial and interglacial periods when species ranges contracted and expanded—the landscape wasn’t covered with agricultural fields, four-lane highways and parking lots, so species could move much more freely across the landscape,” says Joshua Lawler, associate professor of environmental and forest sciences at University of… -
Time of year matters for vitamin D risk
16 May 2012 | 12:08 pmWhen considering a patient’s blood vitamin D levels, it may be best to consider a lower threshold for concern, as well as the time of year. "In evaluating health risk," the University of Washington researchers conclude, "season-specific targets for Vitamin D blood concentration may be more appropriate than a static target when evaluating patients health risk." Full story at Futurity. More research news from top universities. Permalink | Leave a comment » -
The (not so correct) anatomy of sea life
16 May 2012 | 11:52 amMarine biology, scharine schiology. Pleated Jeans skips scientific facts for its series of sea life diagrams. Via Pleated Jeans. (H/T @laughingsquid) Laughing is good for you. Permalink | Leave a comment » -
The mechanics of eclipses [infographic]
16 May 2012 | 9:11 amWhen the moon passes in front of sun, as viewed from Earth, the eclipse that occurs is visible from a narrow path on Earth that corresponds to the location of the moon's shadow. During a total solar eclipse, this path is known as the path of totality. WARNING: Never look directly at the sun during an eclipse with a telescope or your unaided eye. Severe eye damage can result and scientists use special filters to safely view the sun. Via Space. The view from space. Permalink | Leave a comment » -
Clean air improves heart health, Olympics show
16 May 2012 | 8:39 amUsing the 2008 Beijing Olympics as a lab, researchers found evidence that even short-term reduction in air pollution exposure improves a person’s cardiovascular health. “Beijing is one of the most polluted cities in the world, and the Chinese government had proposed to reduce pollution levels to be comparable to other Olympic host cities,” says USC Professor Junfeng (Jim) Zhang. “We wanted to take advantage of such a huge intervention and look at what happens to people biologically.” Full story at Futurity. More research news from top universities. Permalink |…
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Mashable!
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The Facebook IPO Timeline
16 May 2012 | 12:32 pmIf the Facebook IPO were a real person, we certainly wouldn’t blame it for posting braggy status updates. This infographic, created by our friends at mbaonline.com, imagines the road leading up to the decade’s most-anticipated initial public offering, as if it were documented on its own Facebook Timeline. As a Facebook user, give yourself a pat on the back for helping the company make it this far. You are one of 900 million, and you spend an average of 20 minutes per day surfing the network. That means Facebook’s usership logs 16,000 years of combined time on the platform… -
Facebook Fans Get to Pick Bonus Levels in ‘Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater HD’
16 May 2012 | 12:06 pmActivision is polling fans via Facebook on which levels will be included as additional downloadable content on Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater HD. Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater HD is a rebuilt version of the classic games. It features seven levels from the original Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, released in 1999, and Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2, which came out in 2000. Players will be able to skate all over classic levels such as “Warehouse” and “Mall” that have been rebuilt using the old maps. Starting Wednesday afternoon, fans will be asked to pick which of their favorite Tony… -
Facebook IPO Gets a Boost: 84 Million More Shares For Sale
16 May 2012 | 11:15 amJust days away from launch, Facebook is continuing to make last-minute changes in its IPO plans. On Wednesday, Facebook announced that an extra 84 million shares will be added to its stock pool for sale. The extra shares will come entirely from insiders and early investors, according to the Associated Press. Facebook and its current stockholders will offer more than 421 million shares in the IPO. The company has raised the price range of its stocks to $34 to $38, up from $28 to $35. If the shares trade on the higher end, Facebook could raise $16 billion when it goes public. Some of the early… -
18 Mashable Family Photos
16 May 2012 | 10:47 amWhat does a family portrait look like when it represents a community of millions of people? For our photo challenge this week, Mashable readers sent us their photos, helping us to create a family portrait of our community. This past Sunday was Mother’s Day in the U.S. Sons and daughters found time to pick up the phone and call their moms, and many families enjoyed the day together. In honor of Mother’s Day, we asked you to show us a photo that represents family to you. At Mashable, we loved seeing your photos of family outings, newborn family members and canine best friends. -
Behind the Launch: A Promising, Yet Controversial Job Candidate
16 May 2012 | 10:31 amDiscuss the show on Twitter: #BehindTheLaunch In Mashable‘s new video series, Behind the Launch, we’re taking cameras behind the scenes at Vungle, an in-app video advertising startup. Last week, we met the the founders and saw them bring on Colin Behr to head up business development. This week, they courted big-name startup investors, such as 500 Startups‘ Dave McClure, DFJ Esprit‘s Krishna Visvanathan and AOL Ventures‘ Adam Smith. But Vungle needs to focus more on the core — developing the product instead of fleshing out press releases and a website…
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TechCrunch
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Why The Internet Doesn’t Make Us Care More About Politics
16 May 2012 | 1:30 pmAmerican politics used to be fun: frequent political carnivals in the 19th century would mix parties, parades, and political speeches in an endless stream of local civic life. As a result, America had an astonishingly high turnout, between 70-90%, in presidential and local elections. Yet, the Internet has never quite captured the emotional gravity of real-life engagement, and keeps tripping up multi-million dollar campaigns designed to inject life into an otherwise passive electorate. For example, take two technology initiatives that were widely predicted to dramatically increase democratic… -
It’s Time For A Larger iPhone
16 May 2012 | 1:27 pmThe Wall Street Journal reported this morning that Apple is currently ordering larger screens for the next iPhone. With the usual nonsense, the WSJ cited people familiar with the matter and stated these screens measure at least 4-inches diagonally. Production is set to begin next month, they say. The Journal better be right, though. A 3.5-inch screen is just too small now. At this point to say anything to the contrary is pure fanboi nonsense. The standard argument that consumers don’t want a large phone is tired and overused. Besides, it’s effectively proven wrong by the 20… -
More Google+ In Gmail: Improved Circle Integration, Circle Search and Quick Access To Contact Details
16 May 2012 | 12:44 pmThe folks over at Google just love their Google+ social network and more and more Google+ features have been creeping into Gmail lately as well. Today, Google is bringing even more of Google+ to its email client. With this update, Google is especially focusing on adding a deeper integration with Google+ circles. You will now, for example, see profile photos from people in your circles when you select a circle in the left sidebar. You can click on those images to search for email from a specific contact. In addition, if you really take your Google+ circles seriously, you’ll be happy to… -
Bitly Kinda Says It’s Not Raising $20M, But Sorta Hints That It Is
16 May 2012 | 12:42 pmIs link shortener Bitly raising $20 million in new funding? The Verge says it is. In response to my email, a company spokesperson denied The Verge’s story, but in vague enough terms that it could probably turn around and announce a new round in the next few weeks or months. Here’s what the spokesperson told me: Want to quickly let you know that they’re always discussing potential funding and stay in touch with potential investors on an ongoing basis. Though, this article is not based on any facts. I’ll work with the folks at bitly to connect with you for the next… -
Viacom Gives Up Fight Against Time Warner Cable, Adds Channels to TWC iPad App
16 May 2012 | 12:35 pmCustomers of Time Warner Cable have some reason to rejoice today, as the cable company has gotten the go-ahead to add channels like MTV, VH1, and Comedy Central to its live streaming iPad app. The addition comes after the channels’ owner Viacom has settled its differences and resolved litigation with Time Warner Cable. The legal fight erupted last year, after Time Warner Cable released its iPad app, which lets subscribers stream live shows to tablets inside their homes. While many networks grumbled about the app, Viacom was most vocal in rejecting the app, taking its distribution…
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ReadWriteWeb
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Startup Swingers: Swapping Founders to Generate Fresh Ideas
16 May 2012 | 12:00 pmRemember "swinging"? Two people in a committed relationship go to a party with a bunch of other people in committed relationships. They all separate, find new partners for the evening and get jiggy. It may sound lurid and gross, but it’s the cool new thing for startup founders. Swapping Ideas, Not Spouses First, let’s be clear. We’re not talking about sex. We’re talking about Founder Swap, a June 1 event in New York where teams from six different startups will get together, trade partners for a day and go home with an injection of fresh ideas. The tagline? “Like Wife Swap but for… -
Google Goes Back to What It Does Well: Finding Things
16 May 2012 | 10:00 amSurprise! Google has completely transformed the way search works again. But this time, it's a kind of search that would have made the old Google proud. Today, starting with U.S., English-language users, Google unveils the Knowledge Graph. Search now looks at the words of your query and identifies the things in it. You're not just searching the Web anymore. You're searching the world. From Words to Things Most of Google users' queries are ambiguous. In the old Google, when you searched for "kings," Google didn't know whether you meant actual monarchs, the hockey team,… -
Read/Write Daily: Bionic Eyes That Can See Clearly
16 May 2012 | 9:45 amToday's theme is improving on life. Nature did a pretty good job of engineering some hardy life forms. But now we're able to tinker with life ourselves. We're further along than you might think. Researchers have lifted the lid on turtle evolution, a perfect demonstration that technology is natural. But now we have our own genetic ideas. We're able to triple the physical endurance of mice in the lab. This paper shows that high-resolution prosthetic human eyes are possible! Here are slightly and greatly more accessible articles about these bionic eyes. We've also developed low-cost artificial… -
Why the iPad Works for Writing
16 May 2012 | 8:02 amWhen the first iPad launched in 2010, critics were quick to lampoon the device for being geared too heavily toward content consumption. The criticisms weren't entirely without merit, especially considering that the first-generation iPad didn't even have a camera, and external media slots are still nowhere to be found. Over time, the iPad has evolved into something that's much more creation-friendly. It still doesn't compare to a desktop or laptop computer for many things, but it's great for quite a few others. Writing is one of them. I happen to write things for a living, but the… -
The Truth About Why Yahoo's CEO Got Fired
16 May 2012 | 7:02 amWhat's the takeaway from Yahoo's recent CEO fiasco? Don't lie on your corporate bio, for one, and make sure no one else has lied on your behalf. But the real lesson has nothing to do with falsified credentials. Sure, the world will remember Scott Thompson as the Yahoo CEO who got fired over a fake computer science degree, but the context is crucial: A battle with Yahoo shareholder Dan Loeb for control of the company. If not for Loeb, we may never have found out about Thompson's juiced resume, and he might still be CEO. The real lesson is: Beware the activist investor. Four months…
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book-blog.com
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Friend, Catherine: Sheepish
11 May 2012 | 7:44 amDa Capo, 280 pages1st published: 2011 TWEETABLE REVIEW: 3.5* A pleasant memoir about life, knitting, & middle age on a Minnesota sheep farm. The take-away: buy wool undies. amzn.to/K1XzRP I've scarcely read anything in 2012 due to busyness on various fronts, but I did manage to squeeze in Catherine Friend's memoir Sheepish. The book is a pleasant enough read about the author's life on a farm in Minnesota, where she and her partner Melissa raise sheep and the occasional llama. It is an update on the sheepish goings-on that Friend first wrote about in Hit by a Farm: How I Learned to Stop… -
McCall Smith, Alexander: In the Company of Cheerful Ladies
7 Apr 2012 | 2:38 pmAnchor, 256 pages1st published: 2005 Alexander McCall Smith's Botswana is rather like Andy Griffith's Mayberry, a world that may never have existed in fact, where people are generally decent and where, despite its problems, life is good -- particularly if one is lucky enough to be acquainted with Precious Ramotswe of the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency. It's a world I'm sorry to leave behind whenever I finish one of the books in McCall Smith's series. In the Company of Cheerful Ladies, the 6th installment in the series, finds Mma Ramotswe threatened by an unexpected source, for a wholly… -
Maberry, Jonathan: Dead of Night
6 Mar 2012 | 5:47 amSt. Martin's Griffin, 368 pages1st published: 2011 Desdemona Fox is a hard-as-nails small-town cop whose military experience--she saw active duty in Afghanistan--comes in handy during a zombie apocalypse. Dez and her father-figure partner J.T. are the first on the scene at ground zero, a funeral home in Stebbins, PA, where a deadly virus claims its first victim: after an encounter with a not-quite-dead corpse, Doc Hartnup is quickly zombified and lurching around infecting others. The pathogen is 100% infectious and spreads through the transmission of body fluids, which primarily means bites. -
Cumming, Charles: The Spanish Game
8 Feb 2012 | 11:30 amSt. Martin's, 338 pages1st published: 2008 Charles Cumming's The Spanish Game picks up Alec Milius's story six years after the events covered in A Spy By Nature. Since his career as a spy ended in failure, Alec has been living in exile, feeling guilty about what he's done--though I'm honestly not sure why he feels so guilty about it--and worrying that it might come back to haunt him. When the book opens he's in Madrid, still living as if he's on the job, taking precautions against tails and so on, but it's not clear initially whether he's being sensible or paranoid. I wanted very much to like… -
Cain, Susan: Quiet
5 Feb 2012 | 8:06 amPublisher, 352 pages1st published: 2012 In her book Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking, Susan Cain discusses introversion in the workplace and at home, covering such topics as the "extrovert ideal," which prevails in the U.S. and Europe, and the biology of introversion and extroversion. Cain is an introvert herself--though like many introverts she manages to pass as an extrovert when the situation requires. She thus approaches the subject with great sympathy and understanding. The book is quite readable and interesting, at least to this introvert. I enjoyed in…
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Bookslut
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Names and Statistics
6 May 2012 | 3:07 am(broadcast on Sveriges Radio, August 14, 2011) Today, at the moment of writing, it is July 23, 2011. I'm sitting alone in our flat in Malmö writing the manuscript for this summer program. It's raining, the sky is heavy and... -
Wholly Beautiful: Reading The Road to Reality
6 May 2012 | 2:41 amI’ve had this John Cooper Clarke poem running through my head as I clomp around the hot city, all the verses running together and switching order. “The bloody train is bloody late, you bloody wait you bloody wait, you're... -
A Conversation Between Daisy Rockwell and Lorraine Adams
6 May 2012 | 1:16 amBookslut columnist Daisy Rockwell's The Little Book of Terror, a new book of paintings and essays, was published in February by Foxhead Books. Rockwell, a frequent contributor (under the name Lapata) to the blog Chapati Mystery, regularly posts her... -
Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel
6 May 2012 | 1:09 ammantel hilary bring up the bodies -
Digital Ghosts: The Last American and Dapper John
6 May 2012 | 12:55 amJust before Christmas last year -- according to the LA Weekly -- Christopher Nolan, director of Inception, gathered together some of America's best-known filmmakers for a screening with an "ulterior motive." Nolan wanted to talk to them about how soon...
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The Book Deal: A Publishing Blog for Writers and Book People
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Launching a successful blog tour
23 Apr 2012 | 1:57 pm“When I was first starting out, I dreamed of being sent on a book tour. I’d travel around the world—at my publisher’ expense, of course—and hit the major bookstores, where I’d do readings and signings for standing-room-only audiences,” says Jackie Morse Kessler, the author of a four-book YA series with Houghton/Graphia: Hunger, Rage, Loss and the upcoming Breath. “Then reality hit. My publisher wasn’t sending me anywhere. If I wanted to do a book tour, it would be out of my own pocket.” Reinventing the book tour Out with the glitz and glam, and in with the blog… -
Book marketing & publicity: Advice from three experts
29 Mar 2012 | 9:47 pmA smart marketing consultant can be the secret weapon in an author’s campaign to market and promote a book. That’s according to Adrienne Biggs, one of three experts interviewed for this post. Since not all authors are experienced or even comfortable selling themselves, professional consultants can help with customized marketing strategies to reach your targeted audience of eager readers. I surveyed three veteran book marketing pros and here’s what they said about the changing world of promotion and publicity. First, their credentials: Cindy Ratzlaff describes herself as a brand… -
The Viagra Diaries: A self-publishing mega success story
26 Mar 2012 | 11:08 pm“Barbara Rose Brooker is fearless. The Viagra Diaries does for single seniors what Helen Gurley Brown’s Sex and the Single Girl and Erica Jong’s Fear of Flying did for the women’s sexual revolution in the sixties and seventies.” – Entertainment Tonight It’s a blurb to die for, and well deserved. I’ve known Barbara for more than twenty-five years and worked with her on several books, including The Viagra Diaries. She’s a dynamo, an anatomizing social satirist and commentator with a keen ear and profound empathy for everyone she writes about. She’s been in the… -
Creating a compelling narrative voice
16 Mar 2012 | 6:19 pmHow does an author of memoir or personal narrative transform a naked self into a compelling voice that tells a story readers can’t put down? This question arises frequently in my work as a developmental editor. One of best books on this technique is The Situation and the Story: the Art of Personal Narrative by Vivian Gornick, author of the memoir Fierce Attachments about her struggle to be independent of her mother. In The Situation, Gornick shows how to pull from the raw material of a writer’s life and create a “truth-speaking narrator” to tell the story. I underlined my own copy so… -
Growing a short story into a novel
5 Mar 2012 | 4:19 pmDo you have a short story work-in-progress that just doesn’t want to fit into 10,000 words or 25 pages? Is it bursting at the seams? Does it feel incomplete and frustrating to read? Then you may have a recalcitrant short story that could be transformed into a successful novel. A case in point A writer client of mine, a young author who had already published a collection of short stories, came to me with a new work of about 12,000 words that was giving her a hard time. “I can’t fold in the backstory, and every new scene seems to require more characters and relationships.” Our editorial…
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Litopia
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Don't Stop Thinking About Tomorrow
14 May 2012 | 1:57 amHow do you feel about the future? Fifty years ago, most views would probably have been rosily optimistic: our faith in science to solve the most pressing problems was mostly untarnished, and our belief in politicians to take wise and beneficent decisions not quite threadbare. Today, the clouds of doubt assail us from every quarter. Not, though, as far as Bálint Szent-Miklósy is concerned. An unreconstructed optimist, tonight's guest is a distinguished futurist; formerly president of the World Future Society, and the founder of Futurific Leading Indicators Magazine. His forecasts are upbeat… -
Nigel West - Spies, Lies & Chocolate
8 May 2012 | 1:52 amThis special video edition of Litopia After Dark features acclaimed espionage writer and expert, Nigel West. "His information is so precise" writes The Sunday Times "that many people believe he is the unofficial historian of the secret services." Nigel's controversial books invariably hit the headlines. His greatest coup was tracking down the wartime double agent GARBO, who was reported to have died in Africa in 1949. In fact, Nigel traced him to Venezuela, and they then collaborated on the bestseller GARBO. Topics covered include the Profumo affair, the bizarre death of MI6 employee Gareth… -
The Porn Supremacy
5 May 2012 | 2:49 pmIn the week that Microsoft bought a fifth of Barnes & Noble’s digital businesses, and we learned that e-books sales grew 360% in the UK last year, we thought at The Naked Book we’d ignore all that - and focus on 'mummy porn'. Why? Well, it was the public wot did it. Four pence in every pound spent on a book last week went on the adventures of Anastasia Steele and the manipulative billionaire Christian Grey: whose dangerous couplings take place in E L James' Twilight-inspired trilogy Fifty Shades of Grey, Fifty Shades Darker, and Fifty Shades Freed. The erotic hits are revitalizing a… -
Said The Cabbie To Jeremy Hunt...
30 Apr 2012 | 9:53 amWhat with Leveson, Hunt, Murdoch... to say nothing of a double-dip recession... there's way too much bad news around... so enough already! When life gets excessively glum - it's time for us to dig out Litopia's infamous Ant Game... which is exactly what we've done tonight, for your aural bliss. We're delighted to be joined by Anna Raverat, whose first book Signs of Life is impressing everyone... and Simon Cheshire, too - author of the bestselling Saxby Smart private detective series, and the just-published and highly-recommended You've Got To Read This: A Beginner's Guide To Great Writers And… -
Philip Reeve: Spike & Spook Go To The Moon
28 Apr 2012 | 10:18 amPhilip Reeve is one of the godfathers of steampunk (although today he's somewhat allergic to that word) with his massively successful Mortal Engines series. One of the most enduringly popular of all YA authors, Philip's fans are everywhere - especially in our chat room tonight, as they bombard him with questions! His most recent book, Goblins, has just been published - and has been snapped up by Hollywood. If you love Philip's books or love steampunk, sci-fi or indeed write it - this show is a classic. Presented by Peter Cox with Dave Bartram and featuring the beguiling Ali Gardiner in the…
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Omnivoracious
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YA Wednesday: Cassie Clare Answers Your Questions
16 May 2012 | 10:25 amCassandra Clare is on fire right now--her penultimate novel in The Mortal Instruments series, City of Lost Souls, released last week and is getting rave reviews, and the latest book in the prequel series, The Clockwork Prince, just won the Teen Choice award, voted on by readers, in the Children's Choice Book Awards. A couple weeks ago we asked our Omni readers and Facebook followers what questions they had for this best-selling author and they came pouring in! Check out the exclusive video below to see some of those questions and Cassie Clare's answers. -
The Inquisitor’s Key: The Shroud of Turin and the Ultimate Game of “What if?”
15 May 2012 | 11:00 am(Omnivoracious is pleased to present this guest post from Jon Jefferson, the writer behind the New York Times bestselling Jefferson Bass “body farm” novels, for which Jefferson has partnered with forensic anthropologist Dr. Bill Bass. Jefferson is a veteran journalist, writer, and documentary filmmaker. His writings have been published in the New York Times, Newsweek, USA Today, and Popular Science, and broadcast on National Public Radio.) The latest Jefferson Bass novel, The Inquisitor’s Key, features series regular Dr. Bill Brockton, but is a bit of a departure. Inside a newly… -
Media Monday - Post Mother's Day Edition
15 May 2012 | 6:01 amAs you might imagine, Mother's Day was on the mind of many reviewers this weekend. Which seems about right. A belated happy Mother's Day to all mothers. And just a general happy day to everyone reading out there. The New York Times In the spirit of Mother's Day, the cover of the Sunday Review features two books about motherhood. As you might suspect, if we're talking motherhood books there are bound to be references to French motherhood. Judith Warner writes in her review, "Just as everyone was getting ready to throw out the Baby Bjorns and start practicing detachment parenting à la… -
"The Art of Intelligence" - A Conversation with Henry A. Crumpton
14 May 2012 | 1:00 pmIf you missed "60 Minutes" last night, then you didn't see the story on Hank Crumpton, which helped to send his new book The Art of Intelligence soaring up our best seller lists. During a twenty-four-year career, Crumpton spent time as the head of the CIA's global covert operations against America's terrorist enemies, including al Qaeda. In the days after 9/11, the CIA tasked him to organize and lead the Afghanistan campaign. As Scott Pelley points out in the "60 Minutes" piece, "he is known to U.S. Presidents, African rebels, and Afghan tribal leaders by just one name: Hank." You can see the… -
Ask Augusten Burroughs: Love After Infidelity--Plus Advice on Growing Up Gay
14 May 2012 | 10:00 amMemoirist turned self-help strategist Augusten Burroughs continues his guest advice columnist stint here on Omnivoracious--to kick off the release of his latest book, This Is How--with answers to two perplexing questions sent in by his readers: Can love outlast infidelity? And how can a gay guy find his way to the life he wants? Read on... Can a relationship really survive an infidelity? Or will someone in the relationship always be a pumpkin eater? —Anonymous Dear Anonymous, The question really isn’t can a relationship survive infidelity, but rather, should it survive, and do both…
