3 Quick Questions With Mary McNamara

TV critic Mary McNamara‘s latest show biz-set mystery is The Starlet. Check out the star-studded cast in her answers to our quick questions!

Presenting Mary McNamara’s…

Favorite Book
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Favorite Movie
His Girl Friday

Favorite Music
Bruce Springsteen

And considering her profession, we had to ask:
Favorite TV Show
Doctor Who

And speaking of favorite things, watch Cheryl talk up her Small Press Pick, Seagull Press:

Doggone It

Rosecrans Baldwin, whose debut novel You Lost Me There comes out later this summer, has written a hilarious piece about the most commonplace cliché you never knew existed: “Novelists can’t resist including a dog barking in the distance.” And, Baldwin reveals, “Having heard the dog’s call, it seemed like I couldn’t find a book without one,” citing examples from works as diverse as William Faulkner‘s Light in August (“She did not answer for a time. The fireflies drifted; somewhere a dog barked, mellow sad, faraway”), Henning Mankell‘s The Eye of the Leopard (“She begins to tell him. The curtain in the kitchen window flutters gently, and a dog barks in the distance”), Harper Lee‘s To Kill a Mockingbird (“Ripe chinaberries drummed on the roof when the wind stirred, and the darkness was desolate with the barking of distant dogs”), Colum McCann‘s Let the Great World Spin (“The street throbbed around me. Nobody’s fault but my own. The bark of a dog flew by”), and Roberto Bolano‘s 2666 (“The window looked out over the garden, which was still lit. A scent of flowers and wet grass drifted into the room. In the distance he heard a dog bark”).

What is going on? Are writers everywhere suffering from some unknown canine obsession? And are we going to find dog-bark-hunting in our future reading simply too irresistible? You bet we are! We plan to keep track of any we uncover and may share them with you at a later date; we would love it if you did the same. Is this the best new party game or what?

3 Quick Questions With Cat Cora

Iron Chef Cat Cora was really cooking when she stopped by to gives us a demonstration of some of the recipes from her new book, Cat Cora’s Classics With a Twist. She was also kind enough to share with us the book, movie, and music that for her always hit the spot.

Presenting Cat Cora’s…

Favorite Book
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (Cora’s son’s middle name is Atticus)

Favorite Movie
The Big Chill

Favorite Music
Three-way tie: Billie Holiday, The Rolling Stones, and Bob Marley. (There’s a trio we wish we could see Cora cook for!)

Some Truths Less Commonly Acknowledged

Author Jay McInerney writes thoughtfully about his relationship with Jane Austen‘s work in this excerpt from his essay featured in A Truth Universally Acknowledged: 33 Great Writers on Why We Read Jane Austen. “We love Jane Austen through her heroines,” McInerney says. “Knowing so little about her, we worship her surrogates. And generally speaking, unless we are cranky scholars or celibate critics, we love and rank the novels according to our regard for the female principals. I can’t help finding my own response to the novels coloured by the degree to which I find the heroines attractive, although over the course of some 30 years of reading and rereading, I find my admiration shifting among the young ladies…” McInerney and Austen are not two writers we would naturally connect in our minds, which is why we love pieces like this.

Speaking of literary fannishness and odd connections: did you know that Harper Lee, whose classic To Kill a Mockingbird celebrates its 50th anniversary this summer, is a Mets fan?

3 Quick Questions With Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

Last December, our Brentwood store hosted the launch party for Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl’s debut novel, Beautiful Creatures, which became an instant bestseller and has already been optioned for a feature film. Though they’re busy on book tours, Kami and Margaret were nice enough to stop by to answer our quick questions.

Presenting Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl’s…

Favorite Book
(Both originally gave the nod to Harper Lee’s classic To Kill a Mockingbird—which will be celebrating its 50th anniversary this year—so while that remains the über-book, in the interest of diversity, we’re pleased to provide these individual faves.)
Kami: The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
Margaret: The Dark Is Rising by Susan Cooper

Favorite Movie
Kami: The Breakfast Club
Margaret: The Sound of Music

Favorite Music
Kami: Guns N’ Roses’ Appetite For Destruction
Margaret: The soundtrack to Spring Awakening

More exciting news: the title and release date of the next book in the Beautiful Creatures saga was recently announced—look for Beautiful Darkness on our shelves October 26th!

Technology & Literature – A Square Peg in a Circular Hole?

Various and sundry computer programs have been in use in schools to facilitate and evaluate reading comprehension since the 1980s. But there are numerous problems in applying mathematical algorithms to the decidedly unscientific world of literature.

Susan Straight writes in the New York Times about Accelerated Reader, a “reading management” software system that “helps teachers track student reading through computerized comprehension tests and awards students points for books they read based on length and difficulty, as measured by a scientifically researched readability rating.” Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is worth 44 points, whereas To Kill A Mockingbird is worth 15. Even more confusingly, I Like It Like That, a Gossip Girl novel, is worth 8 points and Hamlet — yes, Shakespeare’s Hamlet — is worth 7.

– Via New York Times Book Review.

Similarly, in Britain a proposed computerized system to grade student essays that could be introduced in the next couple years is giving poor marks to famous writers. Winston Churchill is “repetitive,” Ernest Hemingway and William Golding are dismissed as “below average” and Anthony Burgess is “confusing.” According to the system, none would receive an ‘A’.

– Via Times Online