I just read Salman Rushdie’s personal essay in the 17 September 2012 issue of the New Yorker about the first few months of his life after the fatwa against his life was issued upon the publication of The Satanic Verses. It is a moving, heartbreaking text that makes one realize how much of a heroContinue reading “Salman Rushdie on “The Rushdie Affair””
Tag Archives: New York City
Books Acquired Recently
Palahniuk, Chuck. Invisible Monsters Remix. New York: Norton, 2012. I am teaching the first edition (1999) of this novel in my Introduction to Literature course this coming semester, which gave me an excuse to buy the Remix (it is essential research!), a version of the novel in its original form along with commentary by Palahniuk.Continue reading “Books Acquired Recently”
Thoughts on the Weekly Reader
The news that Scholastic is shutting down its Weekly Reader elementary school newspaper (read more about it here: http://schoolsofthought.blogs.cnn.com/2012/07/25/the-last-weekly-reader/?hpt=hp_bn13) signifies the loss of another piece of my childhood. We would read through it each week in class for several years of my elementary school career (I want to say third grade and fourth grade, andContinue reading “Thoughts on the Weekly Reader”
In Praise of Street Food
Today there was an annual Independence Day street fair in my neighborhood. I love street fairs even though they are often hot and overcrowded because they always involve delicious street food! I grew up with high street food standards as a result of living in New York City, where the hot dogs are the best inContinue reading “In Praise of Street Food”
Books Acquired Recently: Theodora Keogh
Keogh, Theodora. The Fascinator. New York: Farrar, Straus & Young, 1954. —. My Name is Rose. 1956. New York: Signet, 1958. —. The Tattooed Heart. 1953. New York: Signet, 1954. Theodora Keogh is my latest literary obsession, so I’ve been buying her out-of-print books on amazon.com as I find them (several of her novels haveContinue reading “Books Acquired Recently: Theodora Keogh”
Why I Care About Sports
This post is for all you haters out there (you know who you are!) who mock otherwise-intelligent people like me for being sports fans. My colleagues in academia are often baffled when they find out that I follow sports. Part of this surprise is a form of classism: sports fandom is seen as blue collar,Continue reading “Why I Care About Sports”
Book Acquired Recently: James Tiptree, Jr.’s Her Smoke Rose Up Forever
Tiptree, James Jr. Her Smoke Rose Up Forever. San Francisco: Tachyon, 2004. Bought at amazon.com I read one of Tiptree’s short stories, “Houston, Houston, Do You Read?” about a year ago and loved it, and since then I’ve been looking for her (James Tiptree, Jr. is a pseudonym for Alice Sheldon) books in bookstores. SaltContinue reading “Book Acquired Recently: James Tiptree, Jr.’s Her Smoke Rose Up Forever”
Daniel Shank Cruz 