Monthly Archives: March, 2010
Eating Their Words
Most of the world knows about April Fool’s Day, and that’s fine. But it’s also Edible Book Day. Since 2000, events all over the world on or around April 1st have been organized to celebrate the birthday of Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, author of the seminal 1825 cookbook La Physiologie du Goût (The Physiology of Taste) and [...]
Pocket Review: The Hunger: A Story of Food, Desire, and Ambition by John DeLucie
Anybody craving a juicy, rare exposé on the New York restaurant scene? John DeLucie, chef of The Waverly Inn, delivers just that in his memoir, The Hunger: A Story of Food, Desire, and Ambition. Though the author admits in an atypical self-effacing moment that, “There is a reason why they keep chefs in the kitchen,” [...]
The Tournament of Books: Neither Fair nor Balanced, Which is Why We Like It
The drama that is the Tournament of Books is ratcheting ever tighter, with the Semifinals recently finished and the Zombie Round about to start. It’s such a paean to taste, the ToB. I’ve had a few discussions lately where people have accused it of being silly, of holding up such apples-and-oranges books against each other [...]
The 2009 Diagram Prize: Hyperbolic Hyperbole
All right, am I the only person on earth who doesn’t think the winner of the 2009 Diagram Prize for the year’s oddest book title is that weird? Granted, Crocheting Adventures with Hyperbolic Planes sounds a bit disjointed on the surface. But as anyone who’s ever spent time mooning over Ernst Haekel’s Art Forms in [...]
Word Tasting at Sesquiotica
There are a number levels to the joys of social media as they apply to the bookish community. You have your more academic discourse, and the dissemination of reviews and resources, and a lot of generally civilized conversation about literature. And then there’s the truly geeky. A childhood reading habit is a solitary pursuit, and [...]
Novel Readings
We are pleased to welcome the newest member of Open Letters Monthly’s blogroll, Novel Readings: Notes on Literature and Criticism. Proprietor Rohan Maitzen teaches Victorian Literature at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and the blog is is a thoughtful offshoot of her work and interests. She takes on literature across the spectrum—most recently a [...]
Crafty in Baltimore
At Like Fire we’re big fans of book art, both about books and using them as material—no, nothing’s sacred. And though we couldn’t make it down to Baltimore for the recent American Craft Council show, Bookforum’s Omnivore points out that local Baltimore blog Read Street took last week to highlight some of the more bookish [...]
Two Great Tastes: Electric Literature and Significant Objects
Apologies for the annoying snowclone, but it really is delicious to see two of my favorite online entities collaborating. All this week Electric Literature will be guest-curating at Significant Objects, contributing both writers and the objects themselves (as the site’s photographer called it, “a big box of weird”). If you’re not familiar with Significant Objects, [...]
The End of Publishing, or the Beginning?
Most of the time wordplay is just that: a diversion. But every once in a while it serves to highlight an idea above and beyond the fun part. Dorling Kindersley UK, publisher of those great Eyewitness Books my kid loved so much when he was little, has come up with a great little video on [...]
Strata: Stuart Carroll
As Professor of Early Modern History at the University of York, London-born Stuart Carroll has written numerous books, including the acclaimed Martyrs and Murderers: the Guise Family and the Making of Europe, and has twice been awarded the Nancy Roelker prize for the best essay on early modern French history. In other words, he has [...]
