July 18, 2006
LBC Says: Read This!
The Lit Blog Co-Op has made its summer 2006 selection. Hop on over to the site to find out which book got lit bloggers all excited.
May 30, 2006
LBC Says: Read This!
This week, the Lit Blog Co-Op will be discussing its spring 2006 Read This! selection, Television, by Jean-Phillippe Toussaint, translated from the French by Jordan Stump. Check it out.
April 25, 2006
Ticknor discussion
This week, the LBC is engaged in a discussion of Sheila Heti's short novel Ticknor, which was nominated by MG pal Mark Sarvas. Of the book, Mark writes:
When George Ticknor's Life of William Hickling Prescott was published in 1864, it received rapturous notices, and reviewers were quick to point out that the long-standing friendship between Prescott and Ticknor made the latter an ideal Boswell. Sheila Heti, whose debut short story collection, The Middle Stories, was published in this country by McSweeney's, has pulled this obscure leaf from the literary archives and fashioned a mordantly funny anti-history; a pungent and hilarious study of bitterness and promise unfulfilled.I recommend you stop by the site to read LBC members' discussion.As a fretful Ticknor navigates his way through the rain-soaked streets of Boston to Prescott's house ("But I am not a late man. I hate to be late."), he recalls his decidedly one-sided lifelong friendship with his great subject, a friendship that Heti has estranged from its factual moorings. Unlike the real-life Ticknor, this one is an embittered also-ran, full of plans and intentions never realized — coveting his friend's wife, writing letters that never get answered, working on essays destined to be rejected — always alive to the fashionable whispers behind his back.
April 17, 2006
LBC Spring Pick
The Lit Blog Co-Op has made its spring 2006 'Read This!' selection: Jean-Philippe Toussaint's Television, translated by Jordan Stump. Tune in all week to find which other titles were nominated, and to read nominators' posts.
February 13, 2006
This Week @ The LBC
This week, the Lit Blog Co-Op will be discussing Rupert Thomson's excellent Divided Kingdom. The author himself will be available to answer questions today between 3:30 PM and 5:00 PM EST. (Note to my neighbor: If you're done reading Divided Kingdom, can I have it back? My sister wants to read it.)
February 02, 2006
Glory Week the LBC
Elizabeth Crane, whose All This Heavenly Glory was a finalist for the Read This! program, gets the LBC treatment: Her collection is reviewed and discussed, she sits down for a podcast with Bat Segundo, she is interviewed by Dan Wickett, she posts about her book, and finally her editor, Reagan Arthur, also stops in. So hop on over there and take a look.
January 25, 2006
LBC Goings-On
Have you been reading the Lit Blog Co-Op this week? If you haven't, here's what you've missed: a podcast interview with Ander Monson, the author of Other Electricities, a discussion about the book, a review, and, finally, an appearance by the writer himself. Next week will be devoted to All This Heavenly Glory by Elizabeth Crane. So tune in!
January 20, 2006
LBC Unveils Final Nominee
The fifth and last nominee for the LBC Read This! selection is unveiled today: It's Rupert Thompson's excellent Divided Kingdom. Check out what the nominating blogger had to say about it.
January 16, 2006
LBC Pick
Regular readers of Moorishgirl will remember that the Lit Blog Co-Op, a group of nineteen bloggers with an interest in promoting good contemporary fiction, was due to make its winter pick public today. So hop on over there and find out what book had us all excited this season--maybe you'll consider it for your own book club, online or offline.
January 13, 2006
LBC Announcement
The LBC, a book blog cooperative of which I'm a member, is due to announce its Winter pick. Tune in on Monday morning for the announcement of the winner, and stick around for the rest of the week to find out which other books were considered.
September 27, 2005
Lit Blog Co-Op News
The last nominee was unveiled at the LBC site on Friday: Nadeem Aslam's lyrical and disturbing novel, Maps for Lost Lovers. This week, LBC members Dan and Derik are having a conversation about the merits of Steve Stern's The Angel of Forgetfulness.
September 21, 2005
Another Nominee Unveiled at the LBC
The LBC unveils its fourth nominee: Elizabeth Poliner's Mutual Life and Casualty. Hop on over there and see why the book was picked. (I liked it quite a bit, myself.) The LBC also gets a nice mention in a culture column at Business Standard.
September 19, 2005
LBC Unveils Nominees
Last Friday, Lance Olsen's 10:01 was revealed be one of the five nominees for the LBC's fall Read This! selection. Today, the LBC toasts another nominee: Kirby Gann's Napoleon in Rags.
September 15, 2005
Read This! Fall Selection
The Lit Blog Co-Op has made its fall selection: Steve Stern's The Angel of Forgetfulness. The book was nominated by Daniel Green of the Reading Experience, and he explains his choice here. You can join the discussion of the book by posting comments.
Over the next few days, each of the other nominated titles will be unveiled. And each will be discussed in a week-long conversation between bloggers. Tune in!
July 07, 2005
Case Histories: Minority Opinion
The "Minority Opinion" over the LBC winner, Case Histories, was unveiled earlier this week, causing quite a bit of fracas in the comment thread.
May 26, 2005
Reagan Arthur on Case Histories
Over at the Lit Blog Co-Op site, editor Reagan Arthur talks about the selection of Case Histories for Read This!
So, no, CASE HISTORIES was not lurking shyly in the corner, waiting for someone to notice it – but I can tell you that despite all that good news and good fortune, it has not hit the New York Times bestseller list, and its sales, while certainly respectable, are not so stratospheric that the “Read This!” recommendation is the blog equivalent of sending coals to Newcastle. I get the sense that some readers are disappointed enough in the book's success and its corporate publisher that they'll give it a miss on principle, and that old maternal stand-by comes to mind: don't cut off your nose to spite your face! Borrow it from a friend, or the library -- I'm not interested in boosting our sales figures, only, like the estimable folks behind the LitBlog Co-Op, in sharing the rare satisfaction to be found in reading a great book.Agree? Disagree? Hit the thread with your comments.
BTW, while this doesn't have the same weight as the hallowed NY Times bestseller list, the selection seems to have at least some impact on online sales. Over at Powells.com's bestseller list, Case Histories is currently at #21.
May 16, 2005
Read This!
The wait is over! The Lit Blog Co-Op has finally announced its first pick for the Read This! book club. Go here for the unveiling!
April 21, 2005
LBC in the Press
The Book Babes devote their latest column over at the Book Standard to the LBC.
April 20, 2005
Lit Blogs in the press
The Village Voice has a brief piece about literary blogs, with mentions of worthy blogs like Maudnewton, the Elegant Variation, Beatrice, Bookslut, and several others, as well as movements within the blogging community, such as the Virtual Book Tour and the Lit Blog Co-Op.
Michael Orthofer offers up a critique of the article, as do Scott Esposito and Bud Parr. In general, I feel like the journalist (the aptly named--or perhaps pseudonymous?--Joy Press) is trying to raise opposition where there might not be any.
I was a tad surprised, upon reading the article, to find out that the VBT is a rather costly service (rates start at $1,500 for one-day coverage on the blogs). Ed has some interesting comments about this pay-for-placement service, much of which I agree with. I'd also like to state, for the record, that the authors who've guested on Moorishgirl in the past have done so entirely free of charge (and yes, it means I've read their work and like it enough to invite them over for a day.)
April 14, 2005
Further LBC News
The Associated Press has just run a piece about the LBC's plans for its Read This! selection.
While he won't reveal the inaugural nominees (there are five) until after May 15, he said that they include a novel in translation, experimental fiction and a graphic novel. Two of the books are from major publishing houses and three are from "pretty small houses," including Brooklyn-based Soft Skull Press.Only another four weeks to go before the announcement. Should be fun."I'm absolutely delighted," Soft Skull publisher Richard Nash wrote in an e-mail. "The Lit Blogs are now doing what e-mail and the Web couldn't pull off: connect writers to readers more smoothly."
Should the Soft Skull book be selected, he added, "we'll go to town promoting it" and the literary blogging community.
Another nominee is published by Pantheon Books, a division of Random House. Senior publicist Michiko Clark said that, while Pantheon is very excited to be among the picks, the house is taking a wait and see attitude.
April 13, 2005
More LBC Attention
This time, from Inside Higher Ed. Scott McLemee talks to Dan Green about the LBC's goals.
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