Books
Movie Books – New Opportunities for Filmmakers?
Soomo Publishing aims to use multimedia to breathe life into learning. In this video they blend historical reconstruction in a pop video format (with lyrics from the hit Too Late to Apologize by One Republic) to engage students in the history of the American Declaration of Independence. It worked: to date the video has had [...]
Unconventional Autobiographies
Another literary list from Flavorwire: this time a list of inventive autobiographies that put bland celebrity offerings in the shade. Check out: The Box: Tales from the Darkroom by Gunter Grass, in which he fictionalizes accounts of his life from the perspectives of his eight children; My Prizes by Thomas Bernhard examines the life he [...]
Rewriting the Original
Flavorwire has compiled a list of authors who have rewritten classic stories (often with a twist) without ruining the original. Their examples include: On Beauty by Zadie Smith – a retellling of Howards End Weight by Jeanette Winterson – a reworking of the Atlas and Heracles myth The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski [...]
Book Themed Dinner Party Menus
Vinegar Hill House, a restaurant reached down a dark and deserted cobbled road at the far reaches of NYC’s trendy DUMBO district held an American Psycho themed New Year’s Eve Dinner. Not to be outdone, Flavorwire have come up with a number of literary dinners, such as: Dracula – featuring tomato soup and blood orange [...]
Secret Life of the Prison Library
Avi Steinberg describes life as a prison librarian at the Suffolk County House of Correction, Massachusetts. Prisoners would run to the library as soon as they were released from their cells, but the history of prison libraries is a troubled one. On one side they are thought to be a good thing – educating and [...]
American Ruins
Photographer Arthur Drooker’s photos of N. American buildings make them look as if they’ve survived (or decayed) since ancient times. He uses infrared photography to infuse an other-worldliness in industrial landscapes and dilapidated mansions. See them here.
Sick Memoirs
If you enjoy reading about other people’s illnesses you’ll enjoy the list of Sick Lit put together by Flavorwire. Among others, you can choose from books covering everything from cancer to depression and eating disorders: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby Cancer Made Me a Shallower Person by Miriam Engelberg It’s Not [...]
The Breakup 2.0
Something else to add to your Things To Do Before I Die list: break up with someone via social networking. Illana Gershorn interviewed 72 people about how they conduct their romances and break ups via voice mail, texting, Skype, Facebook and instant messaging to get a picture of how love is pursued, and terminated, online [...]
The Sheikh’s Batmobile
The Sheikh’s Batmobile by Richard Poplak takes readers on a tour of 17 Muslim countries in an exploration of how American pop culture has been embraced and reinterpreted – for example plastic surgery in Beirut, and a video game classified as a terrorist training tool. Read a review on More Intelligent Life.
White Faces on Books Featuring Black Characters
MobyLives investigates a complaint from young adult fiction author Justine Larbalestier, who wrote a book called Liar about a black girl called Micah, but found that the publishers had designed a cover showing a white girl with long, straight hair. It turns out that many publishers have found they can’t sell books with black characters [...]
