- Libraries and Edith Wharton: proven deterrents in the War on Terror.
- G.W. attempts to justify his five-week vacation by packing some impressive-sounding books that get to sit on his nightstand while he’s busy falling off a Segway or being attacked by pretzels or whatever.
- Tickets to this year’s New Yorker Festival, which includes readings from Zadie Smith and Ian McEwan, among others, go on sale August 25.
- The libel suit against Augusten Burroughs for his portrayal of a Northampton, Massachusetts family in his first memoir, Running with Scissors, has implications for all authors using their life in their work.
- Diana Wagman reviews Aimee Bender’s latest short story collection, Willful Creatures. (Bender reads from the book in Pasadena on Friday night.)
- Stephen Matchett rages against endless Austen remakes.
- Dorothy Parker’s famous quip about martinis serves as the jumping-off point for the argument that women actually do get drunk faster than men.
- A middle-aged anthropology professor, frustrated by her students’ failure to engage with their studies, goes back to college as a freshman and writes a book about it.
- The Big Gay Read: what’s Britain’s favorite gay novel?