The NY Times compiles a nice collection of books ads. What surprised me were the ads featuring the authors smoking. Apparently smoking is totally literary.

Girl Detective (one of my favorite Minnesota readers) reviews Anthony Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential.

The Rake’s Max Ross reviews Chris Adrian’s short story collection A Better Angel.

Minn Post covers local-author Steve Thayer and the problems he ran into getting his forthcoming novel The Leper published because, “nobody wants to read about a leper.” Set in St. Paul’s Harding High school, the books tells the tale of a teacher who contracted leprosy after serving in WWI.

The Strib did a nice piece on the David Carr book The Night of the Gun, interviewing many of the local folk who were characters in the memoir. I just finished the book and spent a lot of time guessing who the people were (Carr generally refers to people by first name only), and it was nice to see how often I was right. Go me! The PiPress also reviews the memoir. (P.S. MN Speak has a thread going, but there isn’t so much discussion yet more talking about the proper way to refer to the release of a new book).

While looking for something I can’t remember, I dug up this old piece from Critical Mass, John Updike’s rules for reviewing books.

One of my favorite authors, Mary Gaitskill, edited this year’s Best New American Voices collection, and she has a new collection herself coming out in March, Don’t Cry. To say that I’m excited would be an understatement.

The Strib’s got a round-up of new books by local authors including new Loft Education Director, Brian Malloy.

The Friends of the Minneapolis Public Library has released their Talk of the Stacks event calender. This year’s talks include Pulitzer-prize winner Marilynne Robinson and National Book Award winner M.T. Anderson.