Baby Got Books

Some last minute tickets to see Ira Glass of NPR’s This American Life program at Atlanta Symphony Hall fell into our laps late yesterday afternoon. Since the tickets came with a pre-arranged baby-sitter, it was a no-brainer. We knew that the appearance wasn’t going to be a live radio show, so we weren’t sure what to expect.

Glass presented an hour long lecture about story telling and why he thinks that radio works so well for telling “human-sized” stories. It was a great lecture, filled with humor and recorded examples from the show. I haven’t had time to fully integrate my new story telling techniques into this post, however. It was a very cool way to spend a Sunday night with friends. Do check him out if he comes to a city near you.

Some Links:

• An episode, Habeas Schmabeus, about the Guantanamo prison camp just won a Peabody Award. The episode will keep you up nights. Listen to it here.
• Watch the first episode of the TV show here.
• This American Life spoofed at The Onion.

Speaking of Peabody, there is this strange resemblance…

As those of you who feverishly follow this blog know, I was the fortunate recipient of a couple of autographed books (gratis) a number of weeks back — Dreaming of Gwen Stefani, and Small Town Punk. I posted on Gwen Stefani earlier, and I had the pleasure of finishing Small Town Punk, by John Sheppard, this week.

I would have finished Small Town Punk (and posted on it) earlier, except I’m a dope and accidentally left my copy (did I mention it was autographed?) on a plane as I was a mere fifty pages from the finish line. So I had to track down another copy and forge the author’s signature on the front page.

Anyway, this was a fun book. I was initially a little slow on the uptake and didn’t quite get the characters at the beginning, but in no time I was along for the ride with them and enjoying the heck out of it. Sheppard’s main character/narrator, Buzz Pepper, is a little bit Holden Caulfield-esque, had Caulfield grown up in Sarasota, Florida, in the eighties. He’s not afraid to cuss, and he has no warm and fuzzy feelings for the Establishment. One difference between them being that Buzz actually has a couple of friends (Dave and Albino) and is close to his sister, and following the dynamic between all of them is a blast. They like to smoke, lie to their parents, badmouth the Pizza Hut where most of them work, and look down on the rest of the world as they try to capitalize on every opportunity they come across to score someone’s meds and pop pills.

Examples of Buzz’s attitude are represented by the following excerpts:

I’d already [broken into the jukebox at the Pizza Hut] dozens of times, replacing the more noxious songs with punk singles. Hated Youth, Roach Motel, Voodoo Idols, Street Kidz, the Panics and Lethal Yellow replaced Phil Collins, Michael Jackson, Tommy Tutone, the Oak Ridge Boys, REO Speedwagon and Kenny Rogers. The top forty shit went to the inside floor of the machine after spending some time Frisbee-skipping across the parking lot.

Or:

I hated Tolkien. All he wrote was ponderous escapist bullshit that bore no resemblance to real life. Evil is too evil to be actually evil. And good is impossibly good. And it’s written like a high school history textbook, so that the d*cks who read it can pat themselves on the back for being smart.

I expected this book to be along the lines of King Dork, another recent fave, but they are very different (although both use the word “ramoning” at some point). Both of the main characters are sort of outcasts, but they’re completely different kinds of outcasts, with completely different outlooks on life and their peers. And while I’m not sure Buzz and I would have hung out much together, he, like Chi-Mo from King Dork, is a guy you can’t help rooting for.

The Royal Society has announced its shortlist for the 2007 General Prize for Science books. The longlist included a book called Bang! The Complete History of the Universe by Brian May, et al. If you said, “Wait. The guitarist from Queen?” Give yourself 10 points.

You may have missed this if you weren’t stuck in an airport yesterday like I was watching Headline News repeat the story approximately 100 times. Stephen Hawking, astrophysicist, paralytic, and author of A Brief History of Time experienced weightlessness in the zero G “vomit comet” airplane ride.

Janet Maslin reviews that giant new Einstein book at the NYT.

And here’s Thomas Dolby.

Last night I heard Jonathan Lethem and Nathan Englander do a reading at the 92nd Street Y.  For clarification purposes, the dude on the cover of You Don’t Love Me Yet is definitely not Lethem.  Lethem did a great job reading one of the chapters by assuming the voices/personalities of his characters.  I have not read the book yet but as we have previously discussed, it’s about a nascent rock band in L.A.  During the Q&A, one of the questions referred to Lethem’s interview with Bob Dylan and asked what Lethem was currently listening to.  He talked a little about his love for music and then described how many people assumed he actually was a music critic since The Fortress of Solitude was semi-autobiographical.  He laughingly told how he got to jump to the top of the food chain and was asked by Rolling Stone to interview James Brown and Dylan even though he had absolutely no experience in this area.  Classic.

Nathan Englander also read from his newly released and first novel, The Ministry of Special Cases which took him 10 years to write.  He is definitely an interesting character - a real, “nebbishy” guy who was raised an Orthodox Jew and recently moved back to NY from Jerusalem.  He was clearly not comfortable doing the reading and speaking to an audience.  His voice throughout the reading was monotone and contrary to Lethem he did not give any insight into the characters.  That being said though, I found the writing much more engrossing than Lethem’s.  I read his first book of short stories, For the Relief of Unbearable Urges, which was reviewed by me here.  I look forward to reading his new book which is set during Argentina’s “dirty war” with a protagonist named Kaddish (which is the Jewish prayer of mourning).  So far the limited reviews have been positive and a main character named Kaddish is reason alone to pick up the book.

My one disappointment with the evening was that my question which was whether the ring in Fortress of Solitude actually had superpowers was not selected.  If you have read this book - please comment on your thoughts around the “super ring.”  It has always been something that remains a mystery to me. 

Andre Codrescu has a strange post at the NBCC blog as part of their Campaign to Save the Book Reviewing.  Codrescu’s case seems lukewarm at best.  He suggests that we getting 12 or so smart people off of his cell phone directory installed as editors should take care of everything. (See how “aware” we are by checking out our little button down there on the bottom right.  No, down there.)  Meanwhile, The Millions blog says its a news business problem, and it will sort itself out when the papers get their act together.  I’m getting a little weary of the whole thing.  If they shut them all down, come here.

Margaret Atwood recently announced that the internet is killing the “browse” - the accidental discovery of books that comes from wandering around a book store.   I like wandering the aisles as much as the next guy.  However, Amy at Textual Tangents has a thoughtful response (i.e., she mentions us).

An excerpt of Huraki Murakami’s new book After Dark is available here. 

Cory Doctorow (BoingBoing) loves the new Lethem, You Don’t Love Me Yet (is that a 16-year old Jerry Seinfeld on the cover?)

The Guardian has a hilarious “digested read” of the “new” Tolkien.  Hilarity.

The Onion A/V club compiles a list of 15 things that Vonnegutt said better than anyone else.

It’s all post-apocalypse all the time here at BGB. After finishing Jamestown, I picked up the graphic novel DMZ (vol 1) by Brian Wood and Riccardo Burchielli on the recommendation of the new comic book guy at Criminal Records. As it turns out, he used to ride my bus in the morning, back in the day. Mass transit - bringing people together.

The basic plot is similar to Jamestown - only completely different. The US has become divided into warring factions, The United States and the Free States. Manhattan is a DMZ. It is a grim and intense fight for survival.

The story is told from the point of view of Matthew Roth, a young intern for a Fox News-like channel called Liberty News. He becomes stranded in the DMZ after going in to report on the conditions of the people living there. He’s the outside world’s link to the DMZ, and the DMZ is a crazy place to be. The interesting thing is that no matter how dystopian the pictures are, the DMZ is clearly recognizable as Manhattan. That slim plausibility is what makes the book work.

I thought that the story was compelling, and I may check out subsequent editions. You can check out the first chapter for yourself here.

In related news:  Whether you’re a comix enthusiast of just comix-curious, you may want to check out a seminar this Friday, April 27 from 5-6 PM at the Ponce de Leon Branch of the Atlanta-Fulton County Library.  James from Criminal Records (the guy who used to ride my bus) will present Introduction To Graphic Novels and Comics.  Free and open to the public.  Check it out. 

I’m in Cincinnati for the week. I’ve already been to Skyline Chili twice.  I need to get out of here before I have a heart attack.  Here are some items of potential interest:

• The Onion A/V Club has a lackluster review of Jamestown.  My mileage varied considerably.  Maybe they were joking.
• KCRW’s Bookworm interviews Vikram Chanda about his book Sacred Games.
• The Raw Shark Texts had a very cool debut/reading in Toronto.  Now I’m really jealous that the author’s tour is not coming here.  Rats. (thanks, Ragdoll)
• The Millions blog has posted a walking tour of New York’s independent book stores.  I am filing this away for my trip to NYC this summer. 
• This American Life recently aired one of my favorite episodes ever (mp3).  The episode explained why being an astronaut isn’t all its cracked up to be; John Hodgman details how his life has changed being the “PC guy” in those apple ads; and Sarah Vowell tells the historical tale of a reluctant explorer. 
• Jessa Crispin at Bookslut says that anything that’s not White Walls by Tatyana Tolstaya is boring.
• Omnivore’s Dilemna author Michael Pollan writes about our crappy food in the New York Times Magazine (thanks, Weezie).

In other news, there is talk of a demonstration - with signs and everything - in front of the AJC building to protest the decision to eliminate their book editor.  I’ll keep you posted.

Even though The Places In Between by Rory Stewart is not a post-apocalyptic novel, it certainly is the story of survival in extreme conditions.  Rory Stewart, a Scotsman, walked across Afghanistan in early 2002 right after the fall of the Taliban and this tells the story of his adventure. 

My initial reaction to this book was that this guy must be whacked, and this opinion did not change by the end of the book.  I am all for adventure but he walked in the middle of the winter through the most remote area of Afghanistan on unmarked roads, without a map, and would just arrive in these villages and sleep on the floors of the villagers huts.

The book was fascinating because I did not know much about the history, religion, geographic landscape, or the politics of Afghanistan but now feel a little more knowledgable than I was.  However my fascination was matched by frustration because Stewart discusses Afghanistan as if the reader knows the country as well as he does. 

Each village is run by a different tribe with different religious and political beliefs.  Halfway through the book, I was so confused between who was who and which village were descendants of Genghis Kan versus the Shia or Sunnis that I somewhat gave up trying to figure it out.  There is one map at the very beginning of the book that I kept having to flip back to but even that didn’t help much.  I think that if Stewart had given an introductory chapter on the history of Afghanistan and who ruled when and how it evolved to its current situation, it would have been much easier to understand and appreciate all the characters he met along the way.

My other disappointment in the book is that you never really got to know Stewart.  What motivated him?  Why did he make this trek?  The preface begins with

I’m not good at explaining why I walked across Afghanistan.  Perhaps I did it because it was an adventure.”

I would have thought that by the time he wrote the book that he would have figured out his motivation and perhaps allowed the reader to get to know him better.

The other aspect of the book which fascinated me was the hospitality afforded Stewart.  Apparently there is a basic Muslim concept that you must open your door and provide food and a place to sleep to any traveller.  In every village, Stewart found a house/mosque to sleep in and was provided a meal.  Could you ever imagine that happening in the US?  If someone knocked on your door and said they were walking across the country and could they sleep at your house for the night - you would slam the door on them and probably call the police.

I did enjoy the book and definitely learned more about Afghanistan and realized how similiar it is to the current Iraq situation.  In fact, in late 2003, Stewart was appointed to be a provincial governor of the Maysan province in Southern Iraq as part of the coalition govenment.  He just published a book, The Prince of the Marshes: And Other Occupational Hazards about his year long experience as a governor and the reviews I’ve seen said that the book offers great insight into the chaos in Iraq. 

The Atlanta literary scene’s battle with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution is not an isolated incident.  Across the country, newspapers are “redesigning” book sections and/or eliminating book reviews from their papers.  The National Book Critics Circle has drawn a line in the sand and says its time to fight back.  They’ve launched the Campaign to Save Book Reviewing.  As part of this campaign they’ve set up an online petition where you can voice your concerns about what is happening in Atlanta. (Over 1000 signatures so far!).  The Campaign also has a list of five things that you can do, wherever you live, to keep book reviews and literary news in our nation’s papers.  Visit the NBCC blog at the link above and get involved. 

Also: Wordsmiths’ Russ has an excellent post on the Atlanta Literary Community.  Check it out.

Joseph Skibell’s 1997 novel, A Blessing on the Moon, is an allegorical tale of spiritual and religious rediscovery as experience by a Polish Jew who is murdered by the Nazis early in World War II. The book opens with Chaim Skibelski (a historic person; Skibell is his grandson) standing before an open pit with the other Jews from his town. German soldiers stand behind them and mow them down, one-by-one. Skibelski feels something at the back of his head and falls into the pit. He is still aware, though, and, in a panic, clambers out of the pit and runs back toward the town.

Chaim is, of course, dead, but he does not realize this at first. The book is the story of his life after death and the disappearance of the moon.

The plot covers 50 years, although much of that time is elided because Chaim no longer has a sense of time. He still feels, though, both physically and emotionally, and his body in death retains its wounds. He can see himself and can interact with the living world, although only the occasional living person–a drunken man and, more importantly, a tubercular girl–can see him. He goes through a variety of experiences, first with the dying girl, and then with her family and others in the town, before starting on a long march with the other Holocaust victims from his town. Chaim’s journey, of course, is allegorical, and parallels the development of Jewish spirituality in the shadow of the Holocaust.

The book is well written and poetic with dashes of humor. I’m not normally one to read books that deal with the supernatural, but I finished A Blessing on the Moon easily.

(Disclosure: Joseph Skibell teaches creative writing in the English Department at Emory University, where I work.)

(Mea Culpa:  I did something this morning to cause Herman’s post to disappear.  My bad.  Many apologies, Herman: ed.)

L’il Cayenne drew a name out of a hat last night, and the randomly selected winner of a FREE super-deluxe Canadian edition of Steven Hall’s The Raw Shark Texts is…..Frank. Frank we’ll be contacting you to arrange delivery.

The blog Largehearted boy has a regular feature called Book Notes. The idea is to have authors write about the songs that they feel relates to their recently published books. It’s a great idea, and I’m completely green with envy for not coming up with it myself. The most recent Book Notes features Steven Hall. Hall says that he’s compiled “a list of songs that helped me find and hold onto the mood of the story and songs which I’ve heard since which feel very close to what I was trying to get down on paper.”

Lastly, I wanted to update everyone on the outcome of our post “The Fruits of Slander.” Steven Hall offered to send us a special “kitten blood edition” after our delicate sensibilities were offended (wrongly, as it turns out) on behalf of bloggers everywhere. I’m here to report that Mr. Hall is not only a man of his word, but a friend to bloggers big and small - a gentleman and a scholar. Here’s what the signature page of the special kitten blood edition looks like:

Today’s Panel: Writers on Writing

Tomorrow’s Panel: Janitors on Janiting

See more goodness at BookLust.

The Family Cayenne went to check out Walter Isaacson lecture about Einstein last night at the Jimmy Carter Library in support of his book Einstein: His Life and Universe. Fascinating lecture. I usually bring my camera to these things to give some flavor of the event, but I forgot it. It’s too bad, because the Carter Center grounds are beautiful. Anyway, Isaacson refrained from telling a racy Einstein story, because he saw a kid walking around in the back - that would be L’il Cayenne. She’s famous.

We received another explanation of that bowling ball on the trampoline to explain the General Theory of Relativity. We learned that Einstein was not the best teacher. His last living descendant is an anesthesiologist at a plastic surgery practice in Beverly Hills. Who knew? It wasn’t a complete rehash of the NPR interview, and Isaacson was a lively speaker. I’m glad we hustled down there on a school night.

In other, unrelated news: Don’t forget to enter our FREE Raw Shark Texts giveaway extravaganza. You gotta play to win. L’il Cayenne will draw a name out of a hat, and we announce the winner on Monday.

I stumbled across a link the other day to a story about Edward Norton gearing up to take a stab at playing David Banner (The Incredible Hulk) in an upcoming movie. OK, no big deal. Until I read the last sentence in the story: “Norton will next be seen in his own Motherless Brooklyn, about a detective with Tourette’s Syndrome…” According to the IMDb, Norton will play Lionel Essrog, one of the all time great characters EVAH. I need a release date so I can secure the services of the babysitter now.

The Los Angeles Dodgers have opened an all-you-can-eat section in the outfield stands for $40/ticket. It should be called the “everything that’s wrong with America” section. Neal Pollack (Alternadad) has the story at Slate.

The UK is opening a Dickens-themed amusement park. No word on if you need an E-ticket to enjoy the street urchin sweat shop ride.

Jonathan Lethem, copyfighter.

The Orange Prize short list has been announced. The list reads:

• Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
• Arlington Park by Rachel Cusk
• The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai
• A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers by Xiaolu Guo
• The Observations by Jane Harris
• Digging to America by Anne Tyler

It looks like I’m going to have to pick up Half of a Yellow Sun at some point.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, our local newspaper, has decided in its infinite wisdom that it no longer needs a book editor. Presumably (although it hasn’t been said) this means that the paper will run reviews/stories from the wire services rather than locally written pieces. That sucks - especially considering that the paper has an American Idol/”local radio station drama” beat in its online edition.

Zach from Wordsmiths’ is leading the local response. His recent blog post details why a local book editor matters and what you can do to help. Don’t just wish that we had a better local book scene - make it happen.

Point of order: Zach’s post quotes an NBCC blog post that calls Atlanta the 15th most-literate city in the U.S. If the NBCC had checked with us first, they’d know that we’re #3 (tied with D.C.)

The Village Voice review for Jamestown by Matthew Sharpe called the novel “Jackass for the Jacobean set.” I am intimately familiar with Jackass, but I had to look up who exactly the “Jacobean set” might be. That should tell you on which side of that particular cultural divide I end up on. The book was in my mitts before I saw that review, so I had committed to checking this one out well before they started talking Jackass. So there.

Jamestown was also mentioned in a recent L.A. Times trend piece about the bumper crop of post-apocalyptic literature, along with some book by a guy named Cormac McCarthy. I haven’t read The Road yet, and I’m feeling more and more like the rube for having missed it before all the awards came rolling in. However, I have read Jamestown, so I feel pretty good about having adequately covered my post-apocalyptic bases.

Jamestown is set in the unspecified future. The Brooklyn Company and The Manhattan Company are at war. The Chrysler Building is crumbling to ruins in the rear view mirror of an armored bus full of settlers bound for Virginia. John Smith and John Rolfe are among the settlers. Does some of this sound familiar?

When the ragtag group gets to Virginia, they find a community of red-skinned savages from whom they hope to obtain oil, food, and otherwise exploit. The chief of the savages is a huge man named Chief Powhatan whose daughter is called Pocahontas. Powhatan’s psychiatrist and chief adviser is Sidney Feingold. Most of that also sounds familiar.

The set up is genius. Sharpe couches our uncertain future in the myths of our past. Coupled with a fantastic sense for the absurd, this book is funny to boot. Can Cormac say that? Didn’t think so.

The scenes where the settlers interact with the savages are truly inspired. Clearly the “indians” have the upper hand, but they enjoy toying with the settlers. The settlers, all city dwellers, have no idea how to get clean water, how to get unspoiled food, how to build a settlement - but that doesn’t stop them from assuming superiority over the Indians. (It turns out that the Indian’s red skin is actually 100+ SPF sunblock.)

The novel is also brutal. The violence and language are not for the delicate. I think that it is this aspect of the novel that lead the Village Voice to throw out the “Jackass” comparison. However, the brutality is not gratuitous nor is it fishing for easy laughs. I think in a post-apocalyptic world manners, decorum, and good sense may be the first victims. In the novel, the brutality is a mirror showing us our true selves with our modern comforts stripped away. Let’s face it, it’s an increasingly short trip to Lord of the Flies.

These themes made me think - always a dangerous proposition. In this country, those of us in cities often look down on those in rural areas as ignorant rubes. What do they know? I mean other than how to provide food for all of us, build houses and barns, get clean water, be stewards of the land, etc. They probably know that it would be bad to build a settlement next to a malarial swamp. But other than that…? How screwed would we be if our future survival depended upon the city mouse contingent for basics like food and water? Dude, I need to you to grow some corn for a few thousand people…

The book also includes the tragic love love story of Pocahontas and John Rolfe. Rest assured, their relationship is no less complicated or doomed in the future than it was in the past. Unlike Cormac McCarthy, Sharpe’s vision of the future has no place for familial or romantic love.

My reading of the end of the book really drove home a central theme - how we’ve become prisoners to the things that we take for granted. How much would we be willing to sacrifice to have a roof over our heads and food in the fridge? How many of our ideals have we already given up to maintain a status quo? That’ll keep you up at night.

I thought that this book was brilliant. I’ll be pissed if it doesn’t get some recognition during award season, although there may be some apocalypse fatigue by then. Who knows? With our current Administration and kids killing each other, our taste for apocalyptic literature may be just beginning.

I have not read any of author, performer, director Miranda July’s books (she wrote, directed, and starred in Me and You and Everyone We know). If her web site is any indication of her style, I will definitely be checking out her new book No One Belongs Here More than You. No really. Go back and click on that web site link. (Thanks to the Criminal Records newsletter/e-mail for the link.)

CBC has a nice article about the marketing behind The Raw Shark Texts. Post-modernism and The Simpsons are featured in the story. Speaking of CBC and Raw Sharks, you can win a FREE copy of the book by entering our contest here. (High five to Ragdoll for the link.)

Kurt Vonnegut on The Daily Show. (Thanks, Herman.)

An embarrassment of riches. Some things that are happening in Atlanta in the next two weeks:

• Thursday April 19, Walter Isaacson will be reading at the Carter Center Library at 7PM.
• Also on April 19 at 7, Poetry at Tech features readings by Van Jordan and David Kirby at Georgia Tech - it is National Poetry Month.
• Author, historian, and Pulitzer winner David McCullough (1776, John Adams) will be giving a lecture at Emory University on April 24 at 7PM. It may be worth attending just for the free parking in the Peavine Deck.
• Ira Glass will be at Atlanta Symphony Hall on April 29th at 7PM doing the This American Life thing.

Among others, Emory University professor and poet, Natasha Tretheway.  This is someone I’ve actually spoken to.  I’ve sorted her mail.  And she just won the Pulitzer Prize for her book of poetry, Native Guard.  Nice lady.  Great prize.  Congratulations!

The thing about living in a “transitional” neighborhood is that you can rely on encountering plenty of “characters.” These are the people that everyone in the area knows by sight, if not by name. When you live in a transitional urban neighborhood you often get to regale your suburban friends with amazing tales of city life featuring these characters who they will come to “know” over time.

One character on my street officially ran for Mayor of Atlanta as one of three candidates. He was on the ballot and everything. His campaign consisted of putting a sheet of looseleaf paper on his fence that said “vote for me for mayor.” He also approached me at a neighborhood function and told me that he was running. He didn’t talk to anyone else there. I believe that his vote count was in the single digits.

Another character on our street hangs signs on her fence that contain incoherent screeds about taxes, the C.I.A., terrorists, and the evils of gentrification. She is clearly insane. I’ve been meaning to make off with one of her signs and scan it for a blog post, but she scares me.

Then there are the shadier characters. Last Thursday, Mrs. Cayenne and L’il Cayenne were home during the day when they heard a knock at the front door. As she went to answer the door, my wife could see a face pressed up against the glass on the door looking into our house. That’s when the dogs started going crazy, and the shadowy figure began fleeing our porch.

When she got to the door, Mrs. Cayenne could see a lady crossing the street with a package under her arm. She yelled out to the woman asking if that was our package. Then she did the math and realized that the lady was taking our package. So Mrs. Cayenne started yelling at the woman to come back with our package and that she was calling the police. The woman yelled back that she was just carrying some paper and disappeared between two houses across the street.

As it turns out, the woman is not unknown to us. She is someone that comes and goes up and down the street who we refer to as “Cracky” - not to be confused with “Cracky on a bike,” who is a man. On a bike.

I guess she realized the gig was up, but our thief gave it a valiant effort. She came back across the street holding sheets of paper to show Mrs. Cayenne that was all that she was holding all along. Mrs. Cayenne was having none of it and demanded the package, reiterating that the cops were on their way. In the end, Cracky left and returned with the package.

The cops came, took a statement, went looking for Cracky, etc. I tell you all of this (and it is all 100% true), because of what was in the package. Our friends from Harper Collins Canada had sent us two copies of The Raw Shark Texts with the very cool and stylish cover below. You may not be able to tell from the picture below, but the cover does not have a dust jacket, and that shark is cut into the boards exposing the text below. It is very, very sweet.

When I e-mailed our HC-CA contact about the attempted theft, she was incredulous but noted that it was all “very First Eric Sanderson.” She assures me that will make sense after I read the book. So in keeping with that theme: a contest. Tell us your stories in the comments of brushes with ill-conceived crime, the characters in your neighborhood, or your other urban adventures. L’il Cayenne will draw a name out of a hat next Monday. A FREE copy of The Raw Shark Texts will be mailed to our winner.

Walter Isaacson is interviewed on NPR’s Fresh Air about his new book Einstein: His Life and Universe. Isaacson will be reading from his book at the Jimmy Carter Library at 7 PM on April 19 (Thursday). Get yourself a chai latte and listen to the interview on NPR’s Fresh Air - then check out the reading if it is your thing. I haven’t read any of Isaacson’s books, but come on, it’s Einstein. I’m 67% sure I’ll be there to check it out.

Wired has a nice piece on the lengths that authors, publishers, film makers, etc,. will go to avoid calling works “sci fi.” The late Kurt Vonnegut (how weird is that) said that he “was never happy with the label of ’science-fiction writer’, which he described as being put into a drawer that “serious” critics use as a urinal.” The Wired article mentions the “post-apocalyptic” novel The Road specifically, and I’ve mentioned how silly it was to not call Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go sci-fi. Get over it already.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution weighs in on the travails of Atlanta’s independent book scene. Their article says that Chapter 11 book stores will reduce its size to one location - Emory. That’s contrary to the word on the street, which had indicated that all of the stores would be closed. We’ll see how it plays out. I don’t think it looks good.

This week’s video: Watch Dan le Sac vs. Scroobius Pip and get your priorities straight (via VSL).

Updated: Visit Vonnegut’s web site.