The books coverage at The New Leader was often smart, and sometimes provocative, so I was sad to see the 82-year-old magazine cease publication last year. Now it’s been revived online — although someone really needs to learn html — and a correspondent points me to Brooke Allen’s dismissal of the latest Pynchon and Mailer as “late-period self-indulgence.” (Page 15.) . . .
Dispirited by the world of Second Life, Jenny Diski hopes “our alternative selves, in at least some of those infinite parallel worlds the quantum physicists tell of, are doing better.” (Thanks, Xian.)
A Larry Brown tribute album will feature many Mississippi acts — including the late author. The concert coincides with publication of his last novel. (Thanks, HC.)
H.G. Wells’ melancholic autobiography reflects his lifelong preoccupation with questions of sex, rationality, and fairness.