Jezebel: booknotes

Invincible Louisa

Sadie — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 18:30:00 EST

It must be said, devoted fans will already have known the "Five Things You Don't Know About Louisa May Alcott." But can you really hear enough about opium and transvestism? In short, we'll be watching the upcoming PBS biopic. [YouTube]

Sticks And Stones

Sadie — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 15:30:00 EST

Julie Powell: "Somehow, it seems to me, there's something particularly eye-opening about the pans for Cleaving...some way in which writing about the book seems to reveal as much or more about the reviewer as about the book being reviewed." [XX]

Wrestlemania

Sadie — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 15:40:00 EST

Late comedy auteur Andy Kaufman's career wrestling women, accompanied by mock-misogynistic rants, resulted in a lot of hate mail. And now, those screeds (with Polaroids!) have been gathered into the book Dear Andy Kaufman I Hate Your Guts [WSJ]

Ex Libris

Sadie — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 18:40:00 EST

A scientist has analyzed the "old book smell" based on tomes' volatile organic compound emissions. The results, published in the journal Analytical Chemistry, involve the word "lignin" and, misleadingly, do not involve any Moby Dick perfume whatsoever. [NYT]

Gothic Archness

Sadie — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 15:30:00 EST

Amazing, Friday-the-13th-apropos news: Edward Gorey's "lost" book, The Recently Deflowered Girl: The Right Thing to Say on Every Dubious Occasion, has been reissued - and released - by Bloomsbury. And Emily Post just rolled in her grave. [NYT]

Munro Pulls A Heigl

Sadie — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 09:30:00 EDT

Alice Munro has taken her new collection "Too Much Happiness" out of the running for Canada's prestigious Scotiabank Giller Prize, which she's won twice before - thereby ending literary nerds' hopes for a showdown with Margaret Atwood. [NYT]

Classics

Sadie — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 18:30:00 EDT

It makes a certain kind of aesthetic sense that Ruben Toledo should illustrate "Penguin Classics Deluxe Editions" of Pride and Prejudice, Wuthering Heights, and The Scarlet Letter. Now, if we can just get his wife to costume them...[Nylon]

Girl Power

Sadie — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 17:40:00 EDT

A tipster just drew our attention to the awesome digital version of one of our favorites: 1903's Three Hundred Things A Bright Girl Can Do (not to be confused with Three Hundred and One Things A Bright Girl Can Do, A Hundred Things a Girl Can Make or 211 Things A Clever Girl Can Do.) Among 298 others, she can do "joinery" and taxidermy! [GoogleBooks]