Blog

My favorite books, and other highlights, of 2010

My favorite newish book of the year is (surprise) the Autobiography of Mark Twain, and I wrote about it for Salon, where there are also best of 2010 contributions from my friends Laura Miller and Laura Lippman, and from other writers, including David Grann, Ted Conover, George Pelecanos, Dave Eggers, Elizabeth Kolbert, Anthony Shadid, James Fallows, and Rebecca Traister. And . . .

Read more



Franzen’s Paris Review interview

“The material was so hot that it deformed the writing whenever I came at it directly.” The Paris Review excerpts parts of the forthcoming interview with Jonathan Franzen.

Read more



Muriel Spark almost wasn’t a novelist

Muriel Spark turned to novels late and easily could have ended up not writing them at all. Good thing her friend Tony Strachan “positively nagged me about the waste of my talent.” (Thanks, Amitava.)

Read more




Categories

Newsletter Signup

Subscribe to my free newsletter, Ancestor Trouble.

Newsletter

You might want to subscribe to my free Substack newsletter, Ancestor Trouble, if the name makes intuitive sense to you.