FDR books on Obama’s nightstand: Turns out, according to his press office, there are two books on Roosevelt that Obama has been studying: “FDR,” by Jean Edward Smith, published by Random House in 2007, and “The Defining Moment: FDR’s Hundred Days and the Triumph of Hope,” by Jonathan Alter, published in 2006 by Simon & Schuster. [Chicago Tribune]
Forgotten Authors No.14: Richard Bach: Back in 1970, though, students were prepared to read a book exploring the life philosophy of a seagull. Richard Bach’s Jonathan Livingstone Seagull smashed the bestseller records. The slender, square tome was to be found poking out of backpacks the world over. It concerns an anthropomorphic seagull that yearns to fly higher instead of just worrying about where its next whiting is coming from. [Independent]
Enough With the Sweet Talk: This brings us to the least-discussed subject in the world of belles-lettres: book reviews that any author worth his salt knows are unjustifiably enthusiastic. [NYT]
Susan Sontag: ‘It was so beautiful when H began making love to me’: Mr Rieff also spoke of how similar Sontag’s teenage persona was to the mother he later knew. “I don’t think she changed that much – that was one of the things that struck me most when I was reading the diary. Her curiosity and voraciousness are there, I don’t think that was any different when she was 15. She was remarkably the same in that sense.” [Independent]
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