While I focus on things other than blogging this month, I’m running a series on independent bookstores. Below Jim Hanas recalls working at Memphis, Tennessee’s landmark Burke’s Book Store, which was founded in 1875 and doubles as a publisher of local-interest titles. The shop nearly went out of business last year but has since relocated to a different part of . . .
Britain’s Peter & Jane books document mid-century suburban mores just as Dick & Jane do here. (Via.) Someone buy a set for Caitlin Flanagan.
“I heard one of the harrumphing elderly men say to his female partner, Kelman is not even a Scottish name, it is Jewish.” (See also Make yer point.)
Rupert Thomson fans agree on his talent, but that’s about it. We’ll argue for hours about which of his books are best. For me it’s a toss-up between The Book of Revelation and Divided Kingdom. Emma Garman likes The Insult, Soft!, and The Book of Revelation. James Hynes is partial to Soft! and Divided Kingdom (though his piece in the . . .
I found this Caliente Chili Co. clipping in my granny’s 1954 New Settlement Cook Book — the same one that includes the 30 days diet, which promises to make you, at the end of that time, the “Skinniest, Shittiest, Sexiest, Drunkest Bastard in Town.” Unfortunately this recipe for 2-alarm chili involves Wick Fowler’s prepackaged mix. Evidently Fowler started out distributing . . .