Second: Diane Havens, the wonderful narrator of Iambik’s audiobook of Alcestis, answers five questions, some of which make me blush. Iambik is offering Alcestis at a 50% discount in June — enter the code “#jiam2011″ at when prompted at checkout.

Third: #YAsaves. I wish I had time to write up a full and thoughtful post about this, but since I’m swamped with moving preparations, course prep, and writing, I’ll just direct you to this excellent overview at Publishers Weekly and to Sherman Alexie’s heartbreaking and inspiring piece in the WSJ in response to Cox Gurdon’s classist stupidity. (It’s not just that Cox Gurdon dismisses teen readers who aren’t sheltered and privileged — it’s that she doesn’t even seem to know that other kids, less lucky kids, read. Or exist, for that matter.)

The Giver, Lois Lowry
Riddley Walker, Russell Hoban
The Knife of Never Letting Go, Patrick Ness
The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins
Battle Royale, Koushun Takami (film)
Feed, M. T. Anderson
How I Live Now, Meg Rosoff
Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro
Moon, Duncan Jones (film)

I’m trying to nail down the book list so that I can submit it to the Wooster college bookstore, but I’m stuck on one final decision — whether to take out The Knife of Never Letting Go, which pairs with Riddley Walker, and swap The Parable of the Sower into its place. There are elements of TKoNLG that I’d really like to discuss, the book’s engagement with gender and masculinity being the most obvious, and I wish Parable were a little shorter (and better edited). But I think the scope of Butler’s book matches up better with the scope of Hoban’s, and I’m leaning toward including it instead. Thoughts? Opinions?

Really what I need is another month in the course so I could teach TKoNLG along with His Dark Materials (and not just because they both have knives in their titles).

Speaking of fantasy stories set in the UK, you should read Zen’s: “起狮，行礼 (Rising Lion—The Lion Bows).”

If you haven’t donated to the Red Cross or another organization to support Japan’s relief effort, please do.

Some more cheerful (or at least distracting) links:

• Recommended to me by a friend: the Arvon Book of Life Writing.
• An interview with Ann Patchett about an essay of hers in Granta.
• Daniel Craig cross-dresses to make a point about gender inequality, with narration by Dame Judi Dench. (I’m not sure it’s the clearest visual argument I’ve ever seen, but who cares, it’s Daniel Craig in a dress.)
• An online exhibition of Isabella Stewart Gardner’s travel albums.
• The NYPL digital picture collection.
• A striking essay by Sherwood Smith about learning how to rewrite and get beyond the “easy phrase.”

And finally: Anthony Lane snarks about Oscar-worthy movies by predicting future winners. Here’s the best:

2013

“HOUSE”

After “The Queen,” “Elizabeth,” and “The Young Victoria,” which British queens remain to be explored? Step forward, Anne (played by a pitch-perfect Hugh Laurie), who reigned from 1702 to 1714, and who is now mainly associated with an elegant style of architecture and furniture. The last word in country-house period drama, with its soundtrack scored exclusively for cello, harp, and panpipes, and a controversial winner over David Fincher’s blistering, bang-up-to-date texting drama “Elimin8.” With Sir Michael Gambon, as Blenheim Palace, and a brief but scene-stealing turn from Dame Judi Dench, as a wingback chair with cabriole legs.

I’m so tempted to start casting my dissertation now. (Miranda Richardson as Martha Fowke Sansom!)

Also, remember that the Alcestis paperback giveaway on Goodreads ends March 15 — only a day or so left! I’ll post about this once more tomorrow, too.

The book I am reading: I’m about 3/4 of the way through The Ambassadors, which I’d tried once before and hadn’t gotten into. I love James, though I think I’m more comfortable with the middle period than his late style (I haven’t read The Golden Bowl or The Princess Casamassima yet, though). The Ambassadors is — well, it’s an entire book about whether one young man will choose to leave one place and go back to another, from the POV of a fifty-year-old friend of the family who overthinks everything. It makes me want to flee to Paris myself, or rather to the Paris in the book. It’s a ridiculous book, in some ways — it has essentially no plot and the majority of the action involves characters turning each other’s words around and emphasizing things when they talk — but it’s very beautiful, too. I’m really enjoying it.

The book I am writing: Killingly — my 1890s New England Gothic about a disappearing college girl and her unusual best friend. And I recently finished writing a book-length dissertation, which should count for something, I think.

The book I love most: I’ve seen a lot of people refusing to choose, and I sympathize. Today I would say Middlemarch. Tomorrow it might be Persuasion, or Portrait of a Lady, or Possession.

The last book I received as a gift: There is a wrapped book sitting downstairs waiting for me to open it on my birthday tomorrow. I’m trying to remember what book I was given most recently before this. Possibly a gluten-free cookbook from family at Christmas?

The last book I gave as a gift: Hermione Lee’s A Very Short Introduction to Biography, which is really charming and well-put-together.

The nearest book on my desk: The fantastic Memoirs of Laetitia Pilkington, A. C. Elias, Jr.’s 1997 edition from the University of Georgia Press. It’s two volumes totaling 845 pp., the second being only notes. LP is one of my dissertation subjects, and she’s probably the one I’d most want to invite over for tea. The gossip would be exquisite.

PS. Don’t forget about the Con or Bust auction entry for Alcestis — bidding ends on Sunday.

I don’t think I’ll be at Wiscon this year, unfortunately, since the combo of dissertation and job market is pretty much eating my spring. But I had a great time when I attended for the first time last year and I hope I’ll be able to go back in the future.

And to conclude this post, before I dive back into scholarly work: the Viking Answer Lady. You’re welcome.

This e-text is made available by the California Digital Library, which has a browseable and searchable index.

Also: don’t forget that my paperback Alcestis giveaway on Goodreads runs through March 15. Go here to enter and please do pass the link around.

I have brain-drain from lots of dissertation chapter editing, so it’s mostly links tonight:

• Paul Ford on the fundamental question of the Internet: why wasn’t I consulted?
• Advice about writing workshops from USC professors.
• The last unknown victims of the Triangle Waist Company fire have been identified.
• Memory palaces: the extreme sports version.
• A long and interesting interview with Alison Bechdel about memoir, memory, fiction, and narrative structure.
• One of the Stockett family’s maids files suit against Kathryn Stockett, author of The Help.
• Jesse Eisenberg’s Marxist-Socialist jokes and “manageable tongue-twisters” at McSweeney’s.

This week has been full of dissertation, but I took a break on Thursday night to go see Robyn at ACL Live as part of her Body Talk tour. If you like electro-pop and have a chance to see her, I highly recommend it. Somebody’s uploaded a few short videos from the show to YouTube; this is the best one. If you think you hear an echo, that’s the entire venue singing along. (Also, see this interesting documentary clip about the “dynamic textile” liquid art used in Robyn’s “Indestructible” video.)

I’ll post again soon with more literary links. I’m working on my laptop right now, and, as always, half the things I’ve been meaning to mention here are open in tabs on my desktop. Someday I’ll develop the habit of tagging things on delicious right away rather than leaving them open for a few days first. For now, I’ll just point out that Paul Lisicky will be reading at the Joynes Reading Room on the UT campus on Wednesday, February 23, at 7:30, and that UT Theatre & Dance is currently staging The Threepenny Opera.

To enter to win a copy, just log on to Goodreads and click the “enter towin” button. And please spread this link around! I’m happy to sign the copies before I send them to the winners.

Also, if you haven’t checked out Elizabeth Loupas’s guest blog post from earlier this week on her forthcoming The Second Duchess, please do!