In his hilarious collection of essays Me Talk Pretty One Day, David Sedaris describes trying to explain both the secular and religious aspects of the Easter holiday to a class learning French. The students come from many different countries, and most do not speak French very well at all. A student from Morocco is completely…
Read More "“The Rabbit of Easter, He Brings of the Chocolate”"
It's no secret that breaking into the best-seller ranks, especially in hardback sales, is becoming increasingly difficult for new fiction authors. This week, Publisher's Weekly reported on the top-selling hardcover authors in 2010. The big dogs dominated, and most have been successfully keeping others away from the kibble for several years. Airport kiosk favorite James Patterson…
Some of the hottest gifts this past Christmas were e-readers: Kindles, Nooks, iPhones, and iPads. The industry expected sales of e-texts to soar and they were not disappointed. In fact, the Association of American Publishers reports that sales took a mighty jump, up an estimated 115.8% in the month of January, and generated some $69.9…
"American history is a quagmire, and the more one knows, the quaggier the mire gets." — Sarah Vowell Sometimes it's fun to get into the muck of politics, so we thought that for President's Day this year, we would offer you some titles that offer insight, personality, behind-the-scences intrigue, and sometimes humor in consideration of…
Read More "Ten Presidential Ponderings: Memoirs, Biographies, and More"
You didn't think we here at eNotes would let Valentine's Day go by unnoticed did you? As soon as we came down off our sugar highs, we began composing our list of favorites. Here, by demand and consensus, are ten of Cupid's best pairings (at least in literature). 10. Petrarch and Laura. Ahh...Laura...the original "woman…
This past Saturday, the finalists for the National Book Critics Circle Awards were announced. Among the finalists are Johnathan Franzen for Freedom and Siddhartha Mukharjee for The Emperor of All Maladies. Along with the Pulitzer Prize (2010 winner, Tinkers by Paul Harding) and the Man Booker Prize (2010 winner, The Finkler Question by Harold Jacobson), the NBCC…
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I confess. There is a public library within walking distance of my house. I have lived here two years and have never ventured inside. This is not to say I never visit libraries, but the ones I tend to haunt are university collections. If I want a novel or another non-fiction work outside of my…
The pitifulest thing out is a mob; that's what an army is--a mob; they don't fight with courage that's born in them, but with courage that's borrowed from their mass, and from their officers. But a mob without any MAN at the head of it is BENEATH pitifulness. ~ The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Chapter 22 by…
Read More "History Belongs to the…Revisionists? A Cleaned-Up “Huck Finn” Is Coming"
