Blog posts
Submitted by Bethanne on Mon, 09/07/2009 - 9:31pm "Homer and Langley" by E.L. Doctorow
It is a truth universally acknowledged that a book critic should try to keep herself out of the review. Not only are personal details and observations generally useless and digressive – they can, at worst, intrude on the analysis that is meant to be kept true to standards as high as we can maintain them in the “chunk-y, list-y” age of journalism.
However, I cannot adhere to this particular protocol in reviewing E.L. Doctorow’s new novel “Homer and Langley” (Doubleday), because I was astonished at how different my read was from the one Michiko Kakutani of The New York Times had, detailed in her review last week.
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Submitted by Bethanne on Wed, 12/16/2009 - 2:01pm
The Book Maven's Top 10 Books of 2009
Choosing my Top Ten books of the year has been agonizing. I wish I had an office full of colleagues to argue with, but for this year at least the list is all my responsibility.
You'll note that many of these books appeared on The Book Studio in one way or another. For some, I conducted interviews with the authors; for others, I wrote reviews. That is not deliberate deck-stacking; it's a function of the fact that I try very hard to choose books that I believe will be strong -- but also books that intrigue me and that I want to read.
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