Jonathan Franzen's new novel Freedom doesn't come out until next Tuesday, but it's already big, big news in the publishing world. Franzen's first novel The Corrections was a smash hit (and won the National Book Award for Fiction... and was nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award... and was picked as an American Library … Continue reading Barack and Helen–Fans of Freedom
real world
Sideronym, Metonym, or Tautonym? You Decide
From Oxford University Press'blog comes word of a nifty little quiz for word lovers everywhere. It tests you knowledge of the "-nyms." Sure you already know synonym and antonym. But how about exonym or chironym? Those really separate the tyros from the adepts.Take the quiz here. (Check out this list at http://www.wordnik.com if you need … Continue reading Sideronym, Metonym, or Tautonym? You Decide
Companion Animals
The indispensable blog A Journey Around My Skull has posted an excellent article about literary pets. Among the animals listed are Flannery O'Connor's peacocks, Carl Sandburg's goats, and Edith Wharton's dogs (at right). William S. Burroughs, Ernest Hemingway, Mark Twain and T. S. Eliot, on the other hand, were all cat people. Go figure.You can … Continue reading Companion Animals
Musings from Magers and Quinn 