These two links were bouncing around the internet last week, and are fun to revisit:
Brooklyn Magazine published the Literary Map of the United States. Take a look and see how well you think each state is matched with a representative book (I’m OK with my resident state being represented by Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar, though I’d prefer to be attached to Ariel, personally). It makes for a very fun new reading list, if nothing else.
In New York Magazine, Kathryn Schulz writes a very amusing piece, “America’s Strange Love Affair with the Word Czar,” voicing the collective bemusement at the use of the word “czar” for federal appointees. Try saying it multiple times: Ebola Czar. Ebola Czar. Ebola Czar.
Some fun but out of the 53 books, not a single Latino author or writer of Asian descent. Just sayin’.
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Very true! Although the intro paragraphs state that they tried to break the mold with their choices, it’s a stodgier list than one would want. I also wish they had not stuck so closely to novels, since many plays can also capture the spirit of a place.
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