Any magic experts in the house? New age gurus? Does it take more than a day to learn astral projection? Tonight I need to break into two people so I can be at both Junot Diaz’s reading (can you hear the hymns of the seraphim? the trumpets sounding in Zion?) in midtown, and the New Stories from the South event . . .
Toobin’s The Nine claims Justice Souter frequently wept and nearly resigned from the Supreme Court after Bush v. Gore.
George Saunders’ new essay collection includes his introduction to The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Which is convenient, because what better excuse to talk Twain with a satirist? Below he answers a few short questions I sent along. Your books have a way of disappearing as soon as they reach my apartment, and, sure enough, someone absconded with my . . .
“Hello, Dude: Mark Twain and the Making of the American Idiom” is a chapter from Seth Lerer’s fascinating Inventing English.
At Front Porch Journal, Denis Johnson reads from Tree of Smoke. (More Johnson audio here.)