California Literary Review

Puttin’ Off the Ritz: The New Austerity in Publishing: For decades the New York publishing world promised a romantic life of fancy lunches, sparkling parties, sophisticated banter and trips to spots like the Caribbean to pitch books to sales representatives. If the salaries were not exactly Wall Street caliber, well, they came with a milieu that mixed cultural swagger with pure Manhattan high life. [NYT]

French check-out girl becomes best-selling author: A supermarket check-out girl has become a best-selling author in France by writing about her irritating customers. [Telegraph]

Traditional fairytales ‘not PC enough’ : Parents have stopped reading traditional fairytales to their children because they are too scary and not politically correct, according to research. [Telegraph]

This year’s list of words that should be banned: Lake Superior State University in Michigan has unveiled its 34th annual list of words that should be banished from our vocabularies this year, a selection of which we set out below. [Guardian]

Still Paging Mr. Salinger: Mr. Salinger hasn’t been photographed in decades now and the neighbors have all clammed up. He’s been so secretive he makes Thomas Pynchon seem like a gadabout. [NYT]

Samuel Huntington: Samuel Huntington, who has died aged 81 of complications associated with diabetes, was one of the most controversial of American political theorists. [Guardian]

Donald E. Westlake, Mystery Writer, Is Dead at 75: Donald E. Westlake, a prolific, award-winning mystery novelist who pounded out more than 100 books and 5 screenplays on manual typewriters during a career of nearly 50 years, died on Wednesday night. He was 75. [NYT]

Christmas Essay Was Not His, Author Admits: Mr. Walsch’s story was nearly identical to an essay by a writer named Candy Chand, which was originally published 10 years ago in Clarity, a spiritual magazine, and has been circulating on the Web ever since. Mr. Walsch now says he made a mistake in believing the story was something that had actually come from his personal experience. [NYT]