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November 2, 2010
Shorties (The National, Hilary Mantel, and more)
Neil McCormick profiles The National.
I think the National are one of those groups (like REM and Radiohead in their moment) who have stumbled into a zone where the magical confluence between genuinely poetic language and the songcraft of melody, arrangement and performance creates something actually greater than the sum of its parts. The rise of High Violet reminds me of how albums like REM’s Automatic For The People and Radiohead's The Bends just sort of floated up to the pop surface, with a texture of originality and depth and melodious purposefulness that was all but irresistible to anyone exposed to it, with the result that very left-field arty bands became household favourites.
Author Hilary Mantel shares a hospital diary post at the London Review of Books.
Lambda Literary lists 10 LGBT teen novels that tackle teen suicide and bullying.
The Paris Review blog features an essay by Emma Straub on real estate agents.
Lambda Literary lists 10 LGBT teen novels that tackle teen suicide and bullying.
Crib Notes interviews Sam Fogarino of Interpol.
Tablet reviews Saul Bellow: Letters.
The Quietus interviews Howe Gelb about the new Giant Sand album, Blurry Blue Mountain.
Cartoonist Jeff Lemire talks to the London Free Press about his graphic novel Essex County, which was just named one of Canada's 40 notable books of the past decade.
Pitchfork interviews Brian Eno about his new album, Small Craft on a Milk Sea.
NPR reviews the Library of America edition of Lynd Ward: Six Novels In Woodcuts, the most beautiful book of the year in my opinion.
On sale at Amazon MP3: the new Elvis Costello album, National Ransom.
Thought Catalog interviews author Tao Lin.
Singer-songwriter Nick Lowe plays a tiny desk concert at NPR Music.
At Jewcy, Adam Levin, author of The Instructions, kicks off a series of guest posts.
Win a copy of the Dead Snow DVD and S.G. Browne's novel Breathers: A Zombie's Lament in this week's Largehearted Boy contest.
Follow me on Twitter and Stumbleupon for links (updated throughout the day) that don't make the daily "Shorties" columns.
also at Largehearted Boy:
previous Shorties posts (daily links from the worlds of music, literature, and pop culture)
Atomic Books Comics Preview (highlights of the week's comics & graphic novel releases)
daily mp3 downloads
Largehearted Word (highlights of the week's book releases)
Try It Before You Buy It (mp3s and full album streams from this week's CD releases)
weekly music & DVD release lists
