November 28, 2005

Harper’s Set to Name Its Next Editor - New York Times:

Harper’s Magazine is an intellectual hothouse that tends to grow its own. The magazine will announce today that Roger D. Hodge, 38, will succeed Lewis H. Lapham as editor in April, and Mr. Hodge is no exception. After being turned down for an internship in 1996, he got a call back a few days later and has remained planted at the magazine since, holding a variety of jobs, most recently serving as deputy editor.

Lapham was a liability to Harper’s. His essays have been way too predictably liberal. The editor of a magazine needs to surprise.

A Political Warning Disguised as Thriller - New York Times:

A Political Warning Disguised as Thriller

By MICHIKO KAKUTANI
Published: November 29, 2005

Here is the plot of the former counterterrorism czar Richard A. Clarke’s new book, “The Scorpion’s Gate”: there is trouble again in the Middle East, and the United States is on the verge of getting involved in another war. An arrogant, gung-ho secretary of defense and his eager-beaver under secretary are intent on regime change in a certain Arab country with huge oil reserves. They charge that this nation’s government has ties with Al Qaeda and is on the verge of acquiring nuclear weapons. The “SecDef,” who has a taste for pre-emptive wars and a simultaneous desire to reconfigure the armed services, is regarded with skepticism by many members of the uniformed military, but he enjoys the confidence of the president. When it becomes clear that intelligence estimates do not support the SecDef’s theories - and in fact suggest that his invasion plans could further destabilize the Middle East - a small band of intelligence analysts and military officers decide to see if they can thwart the rush to war.
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John Earle

Richard A. Clarke
THE SCORPION’S GATE
By Richard A. Clarke
305 pages. G. P. Putnam’s Sons. $24.95.
Readers
Forum: Book News and Reviews

In his much-discussed 2004 nonfiction bestseller “Against All Enemies: Inside America’s War on Terror,” Mr. Clarke criticized the Bush administration’s handling of the war on terror and its willful determination to go to war against Iraq, but this time he is not talking about real events - he is writing fiction.

Though Mr. Clarke’s fast, twisty plot could easily be turned into an implausible Tom Cruise action-adventure movie, “The Scorpion’s Gate” is less interesting as a Tom Clancy-esque thriller than as a kind of parable. Indeed its often absurd plot is primarily a vehicle for its author to lay out his views about the current Iraq war

I’ve been getting lots of searches on this book. I’m not planning to read it, though … sounds like not a very good novel.

Event - 29-11-05
Bond author Raymond Benson to teach film noir course in Illinois

James Bond continuation author Raymond will be teaching another Film Studies course at William R. Harper College in Palatine, Illinois this spring–FILM NOIR: AN AMERICAN GENRE, reports his official website.

The course will look at the fascinating style and sub-categories of film noir through a screening of eight films over eight weeks.

“Continuation author” not a strong enough credential …

grrm: Whew.Well, I’m back home again in Santa:

the New York and Ann Arbor signings each drew more than 600 people. Hot damn.

I was at the Ann Arbor reading. It was amazing. the line was so long I had to bail before getting my signed copy.

The Book Babes on Chasing the Almighty Dollar: Anne Rice, Harold Bloom, Religion and Bestsellers:

In the past decade, the entire book-publishing industry has discovered religion, in one way or the other. And the astounding success of The Da Vinci Code has simply added fuel to the printing press. Whether in the form of Dan Brown, Marilynne Robinson or a half-dozen other authors whose books are perched on my desk, mainstream publishers have learned that God-talk sells books.

You can bet that the folks at Knopf, who shepherded Rice through her vampires-and-witches phase, are chanting hosannas over the transformation that led to Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt.

Interesting pseudo-”think” piece by The Book Babes.

grrm: Aaaarrrgh!:

Finally got caught up on all the football games that Parris TIVO’d for me during my book tour. Yesterday I got to watch the Jets and Giants play live for the first time in six weeks.

Argh. You’d think with two teams, I’d at least have one kicker who could make a goddamned field goal. The Giants gave me three heart attacks, and the Jets added a fourth…

I take some solace from telling myself that, aside from the three missed field goals and all those false starts, the Giants played damn well against a tough Seahawks squad and are still in the thick of things.

As for my poor Jets, well, they should get a high draft choice, at least.

The New York football news has been pretty dismal this year. Maybe George will get tired of it and start writing …

Googlephobia - The War to Take Down Old Media:

Google may be the giant asteroid that is going to make the old-media dinosaurs extinct—but the publishing industry is trying to head it off.

Hey, baby, the asteroid’s already hit…

Personally, I’m thrilled about the opportunities in Google Book Search.

100 Notable Books of the Year | Ann Arbor District Library

NYT Book Review via the AADL.

Via http://www.thomaspmbarnett.com.

Experts: Introverted youth have deep roots for behavior - Yahoo! News:

Introverted children enjoy the internal world of thoughts, feelings and fantasies, and there’s a physiological reason for this. Researchers using brain scans have found introverts have more brain activity in general, and specifically in the frontal lobes. When these areas are activated, introverts are energized by retrieving long-term memories, problem solving, introspection, complex thinking and planning.

I knew it.