Book ark...

Today's the last day to visit Ivy's Books & Curiosities/Murder Ink...truth be told, there's not much left—a couple of shelves of fiction, a few cards, a scattering of mystery stuff. I did find a book by Michael Avallone (unprecedented!), whom Francis M. Nevins has written eloquently about—a sort of lower-rent Keeler with a taste for wild simile—but the title in question was a novelization of some forgotten war movie, and so I let it be...

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You've probably seen and maybe listened to this—Slate's Audio Book Club features three critics talking about The Emperor's Children.

I've never listened to one of these before—it's a good idea, but I can't say I was crazy about the execution. I found myself agreeing most of the time with the voice that I think belongs to Meghan O'Rourke, and having issues/mentally defending the book vs. the other two speakers....One thing that bugged me was the perceived need to categorize the book (as a satire, or whatever), and then criticizing it for not fitting into these possible molds. I could understand the impulse, but at the same time I felt it was needlessly reductive.

Anyway, here's my cell-phone rendition of the cover: