http://www.litficreview.com Reviews, Comments, Opinions & Interviews Tue, 20 Jan 2009 01:09:16 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en I’ve been sitting on this review for a few days now because I felt that once I wrote, it, I would be forced to leave the book behind and move on to another project. I didn’t want to do that. While others have seen fit to compare Ms. Lee’s debut ... http://www.litficreview.com/2009/01/the-piano-teacher-by-janice-yk-lee/ Something I rarely do is read other reviews before writing my own. But with this book, I honestly felt as if I had little choice. And, before I begin, I should say that the reviews I read were ALL favorable. My voice, though, is not raised in praise; to the ... http://www.litficreview.com/2009/01/never-tell-a-lie-by-hallie-ephron/ A Mind at Peace is a movingly haunting symphony. Set to a backdrop of age-old Ottoman music and verse, it is the story of a country’s struggle to hold onto meaning and philosophic insight gained from centuries of traditions and customs while careening toward the comfort of wealth through acceptance ... http://www.litficreview.com/2008/12/a-mind-at-peace-by-ahmet-hamdi-tanpinar/ Back in September, I made note of the fact that good, old Barney Rosset was to be honored at the National Book Awards ceremony. He was, and now there's a fantastic article on him in Newsweek. It's long, and well wroth the read. http://www.litficreview.com/2008/12/great-newsweek-article-on-barney-rosset/ This week the publishing industry has been rocked by HMH laying off more staff, Random’s restructuring, and Penguin’s announcement of salary freezes for those earning over $50,000. But I looked outside this morning, and the truth is that the sky is not falling. In fact, I’m beginning to believe the ... http://www.litficreview.com/2008/12/taking-the-bad-with-the-good/ Here we go! Sony has revealed that it has sold 300,000 of its digital e-book Reader globally since the device was launched in October 2006 and that it is working on a wireless version of the product to rival Amazon.com's Kindle. Sony’s unit retails for $300, which, in my opinion, ... http://www.litficreview.com/2008/12/sony-e-book-reader-going-wireless/ Last week a Publisher’s Weekly report that Harcourt Houghton Mifflin (HMH) had put a freeze on acquiring new books sent a tremor through the book world. But as the matter has begun to shake out, it seems the report was a bit overblown—or, at least that’s what is being heard ... http://www.litficreview.com/2008/12/it-makes-you-wonder/ Late yesterday, TechCrunch reported the following: Update on the Kindle 2: It was scheduled to be released in October in time for this holiday season, but Bezos himself reportedly pulled the plug for last minute changes to the software. Our sources now say it’s tentatively scheduled to go on sale in ... http://www.litficreview.com/2008/11/kindle2-news-from-techcrunch/ Defining the Novel in Northanger Abbey, Ms. Austen said: A work in which the greatest powers of the mind are displayed, in which the most thorough knowledge of human nature, the happiest deliniation of its varieties, the liveliest effusions of wit and humor are conveyed to the world in the best ... http://www.litficreview.com/2008/11/from-jane-austen-in-1818/ I picked this up from Publisher’s Weekly this morning: "Marcella Edwards at PFD has secured a new deal for William Trevor in the UK and the US. Rights for a new novel and a long-awaited collection of stories from one of Ireland’s most celebrated writers have been sold to Tony Lacey ... http://www.litficreview.com/2008/11/something-new-from-william-trevor/