News Fri Aug 07 2009

Bookmarks

By Veronica Bond

• NPR's All Things Considered discusses the new graphic novel adaptation of Fahrenheit 451. Also, an excerpt of the graphic novel.
• The Library of America has just published a new volume of Philip K. Dick's stories, titled VALIS and Later Novels. The San Francisco Chronicle discusses Dick's life and the stories in the new volume, saying, "What this volume ultimately tells us is that Dick was not a science fiction writer, but instead he was our writer."
• A quartet of reviews of Philip Roth's Indignation: the Guardian, the Independent, the Telegraph and the Guardian again. (The Brits love themselves some Roth, huh?)
• Publisher's Weekly reports that Crocodile Pie, a children's bookstore in Libertyville, will close on August 14. Also of note (as previously reported), Borders on Michigan Ave. is slated for closure in January.
• The National Book Foundation recently remembered Saul Bellow's winning book Herzog. Blogger Ron Fields remembers it too, describing it as "a towering literary achievement that is at once a mundane account of an intellectual dealing with his wife's incomprehensible betrayal, and the tragic loss of his marriage and family life, and also a life-affirming manifesto about finding the strength and devotion to try to move on and rebuild one's life after a divorce."
• Catch a podcast of local lit blogger Pete Anderson reading his short story "One Son Resists" at this year's Emerging Writer's Festival.
• Also on Publisher's Weekly (you have to scroll down a bit), here are a couple of small reviews of Chicago-related reads, one by Dominic A. Pacyga titled Chicago: A Biography and the other featuring Adam Langer's upcoming book My Father's Bonus March, both non-fiction reads.
• Does reading about physics really get you going? The University of Chicago Press's recent publication, Fermilab: Physics, the Frontier, and Megascience might be for you. (Okay, I have to admit that learning more about the Fermilab does somewhat appeal to me.)
• A comparison of William Faulkner and Aleksandar Hemon.
• Half Deserted Streets give another glowing review of Audrey Niffenegger's Her Fearful Symmetry: "If you're a fan of her previous novel, you won't be disappointed with this next one." I'm very much looking forward to getting this, myself.
• We start with Bradbury and we end with Bradbury: a podcast of one sci-fi fan's thoughts on Fahrenheit 451.