- An interview with China Mieville kicks off his guest-blogging stint at Omnivoracious.
- Kevin Brockmeier's 50 favorite short stories in the Oxford American–several of my own favorites are included. (I do love Terry Bisson's "Bears Discover Fire," but "The Two Janets" is actually my fave from that collection. And, yay, the whole collection is on google books here, and I've handily bookmarked the Janets page for you. It starts: "I'm not one of those people who thinks you have to read a book to get something out of it. You can learn a lot about a book by picking it up, turning it over, rubbing the cover, riffling the pages open and shut. Especially if it's been read enough times before, it'll speak to you." Also, happy to see stories by Dora Goss and Kelly on there.)
- New Megan Whalen Turner book, A Conspiracy of Kings, coming in April 2010. Yay! (Via Monica.)
- Over at NPR, some indie booksellers offer summer reading recs and Eduardo Galeano's Mirrors is one of them. All this newfound Galeano discussion is such a wonderful thing. AND NPR also has a piece on a the Dictionary of American Regional English, including a fabulous list of terms. (Last link via Maud.)
- Jeff Ford's "How They Tried to Make Me Hate Reading" goes in the short list of posts that will always make me happy, from now until the end of time. You must read it. Of Silas Marner in the sixth grade: "If Rumsfeld had known of it, they seriously would have put this to use at Guantanamo." Hee.
- The new issue of Conjunctions, "Impossible Realism," edited by Brian Evenson and Bradford Morrow, looks great. There's a new Liz Hand story in it, "Hungerford Bridge," which is one of a handful that are up online. To my knowledge, the term "New Wave Fabulists" only became common after Peter Straub's guest-edited Conjunctions in Fall 2002, but definitely took on a life of its own. I would be kind of joyous if "Impossible Realists" catches on.
- Finally, let the excellence of these proposed films wash over you.