Stephanie McAfee’s Diary of a Mad Fat Girl (NAL, $15) offers a fascinating tale, but not between its covers. The girl-buddy cape, starring a sassy, overweight Mississippi teacher, brims with local color but is burdened by too much plot and too little nuance. With an endearingly flawed narrator in a conflicted relationship, this is chick-lit territory that many talented writers — Jennifer Weiner and Rebecca Wells among them — have explored far more deftly. Read full article > >

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New in paperback: Stephanie McAfee’s ‘Diary of a Mad Fat Girl’

The sports department realignment is complete, and I’ve been assigned my new rivalry partner. It’s Sally Jenkins . Sally and I will meet twice a year, home and away, in a sort of festivus that will include feats of strength: who can open a bottle of wine the fastest, plus, I don’t know, maybe a spelling bee and grammar quiz. She’ll kick my, ah, behind. I’m hoping we can throw in some wheat probing and grave dowsing so I have a fair shot. But chances are we’ll just wind up in some bar, gossiping and swapping titles of good books we’ve read. Read full article > >

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ACC can’t manufacture rivals, but it knows how to generate hate

The government is planning to create a national reading competition in England to encourage a love of books and boost children’s literacy.

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Contest to boost reading for fun

‘Guerilla of Time’ is 1,000 pages.

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Fidel Castro Publishes Memoirs

In honor of my daughter’s upcoming fifth birthday, I’m posting on her favorite topic: princesses. This is not a post that she would necessarily like, though, since it involves neither tulle nor a prince. (Good thing she can’t yet read.) Read full article > >

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“Cinderella Ate My Daughter” released in paperback: A Q&A with author Peggy Orenstein

Editors seldom earn much notice outside the world of publishing. Edward Garnett fostered the careers of Joseph Conrad and D.H. Lawrence, but, I suspect, far more people remember his wife, Constance Garnett, the first great translator of Chekhov, Dostoevsky and many other Russian writers. In this country, only one editor ever appears as a “Jeopardy!” answer: Maxwell Perkins, who worked with Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Thomas Wolfe. Read full article > >

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Review: ‘Tender Hour of Twilight’ revives glory days of publishing

On a day when valuation is in the news (ahem, Facebook ), let’s look at a new analysis of the economic worth of what we used to call “keeping house.” This week, the editors at Mint , the financial services Web site, released a breakdown of the value of different homemaker duties. They found that if the job were salaried, it would draw, on average, close to six figures: $96,261. Read full article > >

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A homemaker’s real salary

I remember hearing a joke on French radio in 1994. The rock singer Johnny Hallyday — not the brightest spark — was being sent up by a couple of comics. The one playing Johnny was asked what he thought of the conflict between the Hutus and the Tutsis. He replied that he liked U2’s latest album and he thought Dustin Hoffman was very good in the movie — so what was there to get upset about? Loud laughter. It was the sort of ghoulish playground joke that is made around the world as a knee-jerk response to some catastrophe, celebrity death or hideous accident, but it must have been aired before the full horror of the Rwandan genocide of 1994 was revealed. As the news began to emerge about what really had happened in the small central African country from April to July, it became clear that the world had witnessed another shocking example of man’s easy inhumanity to man. All jokes died on people’s lips. Read full article > >

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Book World: Naomi Benaron’s ‘Running the Rift’

Author defended paper at Hay Festival.

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Franzen: E-books Bad for Society

A tour of Springfield, Mass., where Ted Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss, was raised, suggests that some of the images from his books were inspired by things he saw growing up.

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On Education: Dr. Seuss Book, ‘Mulberry Street,’ Turns 75

Barnes & Noble, the giant that put so many independent booksellers out of business, now finds itself locked in the fight of its life, with Amazon.com lurking in the background.

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Barnes & Noble, Taking On Amazon in the Fight of Its Life

Once upon a time there were two princesses. The older sister was good and always did the right thing. She had a wonderful smile. When she grew up and became queen, she was going to single-handedly bring about a second Golden Age. Just like the first queen of the same name. Only better. Read full article > >

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“The Real Elizabeth” and “Elizabeth the Queen”

One of the raps on Mitt Romney is he’s not a natural. That he seems fake even when he’s rehearsed being real. One confirmation of this awkwardness may be in the way he is approaching his attacks on Newt Gingrich. Unlike Iowa, where he took the more traditional route of letting his super PAC do his dirty work, now he’s doing it, too. And not in the sunny persona of Ronald Reagan, who perfected the more-in-sorrow-than-in-anger approach. Instead, it is as if Romney has memorized the opposition research books and is reciting as many attacks as he can fit into a sound bite. (Sound bites are allowed to drag on when they are more negative.) Gingrich is bad on Fannie Mae, bad on health care consulting, ethics, can’t get nominated, can’t win. Bad, bad, bad. Read full article > >

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Romney’s attacks: Savvy or desperate?

One of the raps on Mitt Romney is he’s not a natural. That he seems fake even when he’s rehearsed being real. One confirmation of this awkwardness may be in the way he is approaching his attacks on Newt Gingrich. Unlike Iowa, where he took the more traditional route of letting his super PAC do his dirty work, now he’s doing it, too. And not in the sunny persona of Ronald Reagan, who perfected the more-in-sorrow-than-in-anger approach. Instead, it is as if Romney has memorized the opposition research books and is reciting as many attacks as he can fit into a sound bite. (Sound bites are allowed to drag on when they are more negative.) Gingrich is bad on Fannie Mae, bad on health care consulting, ethics, can’t get nominated, can’t win. Bad, bad, bad. Read full article > >

More here:
Romney’s attacks: Savvy or desperate?

One of the raps on Mitt Romney is he’s not a natural. That he seems fake even when he’s rehearsed being real. One confirmation of this awkwardness may be in the way he is approaching his attacks on Newt Gingrich. Unlike Iowa, where he took the more traditional route of letting his super PAC do his dirty work, now he’s doing it, too. And not in the sunny persona of Ronald Reagan, who perfected the more-in-sorrow-than-in-anger approach. Instead, it is as if Romney has memorized the opposition research books and is reciting as many attacks as he can fit into a sound bite. (Sound bites are allowed to drag on when they are more negative.) Gingrich is bad on Fannie Mae, bad on health care consulting, ethics, can’t get nominated, can’t win. Bad, bad, bad. Read full article > >

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Romney’s attacks: Savvy or desperate?