The Smart Set is a weekly feature, compiled by Lauren Cerand, that usually appears Mondays at 12:30pm and highlights the best of the week to come. Special favor is given to New York’s independent booksellers and venues, and low-cost and free events. Please send details to lauren [at] maudnewton.com by the Thursday prior to publication, with the event’s date in . . .
A car bombing in the Baghdad book market, “where intellectuals once gathered,” killed twenty people today.
In How to Write a Novel, Amitava Kumar reminisces about the many stages of his new book, Home Products.
A stealth addition to the reauthorized Patriot Act allows the Justice Department to boot U.S. Attorneys and appoint new ones without seeking confirmation from the Senate or the courts. The DOJ hasn’t wasted any time. Eight attorneys got the axe recently. They were replaced, as Dahlia Lithwick observes, “with folks more willing to dance to the White House pipes.” Michigan . . .
The Stranger‘s Brendan Kiley visits the swimming pool where Theodore Roethke drowned.