"Have you ever been on a poetry pilgrimage?"

Samuel Beckett

MARCEL THE SHELL WITH SHOES ON

Oprah’s Book Club 2.0: Exclusive Webisode of the Week

Oprah and Wild author Cheryl Strayed are discussing what state of mind she was in after four weeks alone on the Pacific Crest Trail.  Watch the video »

Six Words on the Jewish Life

"Found Jewish princess. Good-bye succulent pork."

"Didn't get Seinfeld 'til met in-laws."

"Moved to Israel. Rest is history."

Watch videos of Walter Mosley, Deborah Kopagen Cohen, Anthony Giglio, and more from  Six Words on the Jewish Life Show at 92YTribeca in NYC.

Take a break from reading and watch this video.

Nathan Englander talks with Zadie Smith at the Matawi Fundraiser

Nathan Englander begins his conversation with Zadie Smith by recalling the two novelists’ first encounter, at the Capri Festival “ten thousand years ago,” and the visible reverence Smith showed for David Foster Wallace, who, along with Jonathan Franzen and Jeffrey Eugenides, was also in attendance. In the conversation that follows, the two discuss the heralded Infinite Jest author (as well as Saul Bellow, George Eliot, and James Baldwin) and topics ranging from seeing yourself as other to morality in writing. The conversation took place at the School of Visual Arts’ intimate Silas Theatre in Manhattan. Hosted by Matawi, proceeds from the event went to benefiting the organization’s Dadaab Young Women’s Scholarship Initiative, which increases access to educational opportunity for refugee women and girls on the Kenyan/Somalian border. (Runs about 45 minutes, with audience questions beginning at 30.)

Megan Kelso

Artichoke Tales is a coming-of-age story about a young girl named Brigitte whose family is caught between the two warring sides of a civil war, a graphic novel that takes place in a world that echoes our own, but whose people have artichoke leaves instead of hair. Influenced in equal parts by Little House on the Prairie, The Thorn Birds, Dharma Bums, and Cold Mountain, Kelso weaves a moving story about family amidst war. (taken from Fantagraphics Books)

Video & Photo Slideshow Preview

Word for Word

Visit the Bryant Park Reading Room channel on Youtube to see highlights from our Word for Word series.

Cormac McCarthy on James Joyce and Punctuation

Cormac McCarthy discusses his style of punctuation. Modeled on the sparse style of James Joyce, Cormac's books are free of quotation marks, semicolons and most other grammatical marks.

Watch the story behind the story

Little Bee: A Novel

Chris Cleave

White Readers Meet Black Authors

Book trailer for newest Pynchon novel

Inherent Vice

by Thomas Pynchon

The Given Day

The Given Day: A Novel 

by Dennis Lehane 

Set in Boston at the end of the First World War, New York Times bestselling author Dennis Lehane's long-awaited eighth novel unflinchingly captures the political and social unrest of a nation caught at the crossroads between past and future.

Click on this link for a video trailer introducing the book.

Rivka Galchen

Atmospheric Disturbances

 by Rivka Galchen

I have recently become obsessed with video book trailers, and had to share the link to this sweet one, I stumbled upon today. This is an impressive debut from a new novelist that has been compared to Proust and Pynchon. A must read! 

About the Author

Rivka Galchen received her MD from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, having spent a year in South America working on public health issues. Galchen recently completed her MFA at Columbia University, where she was a Robert Bingham Fellow. Her essay on the Many Worlds Interpretation of quantum mechanics was published in The Believer, and she is the recipient of a 2006 Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers' Award. Galchen lives in New York City. This is her first novel. (Powell's Books)

Video:

http://www.powells.com/biblio/1-9780374200114-0

Philip Roth

Exit Ghost

by Philip Roth

*This was just released in Hardcover on October 1. I am in the middle of The Plot Against America and plan on tackling this one next. I guess you can say I have been obsessed with him lately and can't stop reading his work, oh well. Enjoy.

check out this interview: http://www.amazon.com/gp/mpd/permalink/13911:13908/102-7713575-4473757

Week Thirty Five, Book Forty Seven

The Comfort of Strangers

by Ian McEwan

Review:

Yes, another Ian McEwan book I have read. Why? I cannot put into words how awesome of a writer I truly believe he is and will continue to be. I am falling more and more in love with his poetics every time I pick up his books. It is funny, I am actually in the middle of a mystery, that I am struggling to finish and I knew that I would not have a book read for this week, so I picked up The Comfort of Strangers on a whim. Needless to say, I read it in two days and probably could have read it in one evening. The setting is Europe and all clues point to Venice, but never confirmed to you the reader. Mary and Colin are on holiday away from her kids and a pretty bland life in the states. While out on the town, the two run into a local man who befriends them and becomes the "stranger" in this gothic tale. You cannot imagine what happens next. I think I can safely say that McEwan is becoming my favorite author of all time. Wow, please forgive me Mr. Vonnegut and Mr. Twain. Below is an interview with McEwan about his childhood that I found fascinating, he also briefly talks about On Chesil Beach and the movie version of Atonement. Enjoy!