authors

Lessons Learned From Maurice Sendak
parenting

Maurice Sendak: 5 Lessons the Legendary Author Taught Us

When I learned I was pregnant with my first child, I dreamed of decorating the nursery and picking out a layette.
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When I learned I was pregnant with my first child, I dreamed of decorating the nursery and picking out a layette. But what I really couldn't wait to do was fill the bookshelves with my childhood favorites. The first to be placed was a collection of Maurice Sendak books. Sure, every kid deserves a copy of Where the Wild Things Are, but it was the Nutshell Library that earned the place of honor on the shelf. I can still recite every poem from Chicken Soup With Rice and couldn't wait to lull my little one to sleep with Sendak's rhythmic words.

Perhaps that's why I feel like a relative — you know, that kooky uncle everyone has — has passed with the author's death this morning. Though Sendak bragged, "I never wrote a book where I taught a lesson," his influence on my and countless other parents and children's lives is immeasurable (and he is still as relevant today as he was when his original books were released — just check out his not-safe-for-children interview with Stephen Colbert from earlier this year). So though he may have been disappointed in this list, here are five lessons I'll take away from Maurice Sendak's library of work.

Chicken Soup With Rice: A Love of Poetry Pierre: Embrace the Stubborn Child Where the Wild Things Are: Take Risks In the Night Kitchen: Let Your Children Dream Really Rosie: Character Comes With Imperfection
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Bad Sex Award Winner Rowan Somerville For The Shape of Her
Books

Good Books Can Have Bad Sex

The 18th annual Bad Sex Award, which honors "crude or outlandish sexual passages in modern literature," was bestowed upon author Rowan Somerville for his sophomore novel The Shape of Her.
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The 18th annual Bad Sex Award, which honors "crude or outlandish sexual passages in modern literature," was bestowed upon author Rowan Somerville for his sophomore novel The Shape of Her.

While imagery like a woman twisting "onto her belly like a fish flipping itself," entranced and appalled judges, the line that really hooked them was "Like a lepidopterist mounting a tough-skinned insect with a too blunt pin he screwed himself into her."

Somerville accepted the accolade, awarded by the Literary Review, last night at a surprisingly nondebaucherous affair in London. "There is nothing more English than bad sex," he said, "so on behalf of the entire nation I would like to thank you."

I feel like I'm writing an article for the Onion, but this is quite real. Literary titans like Norman Mailer and Tom Wolfe have won in the past, and John Updike was honored two months before his death with a Lifetime Achievement Award for being shortlisted four times. A lifetime achievement award for bad sex? I would die, too!

See what other novelists were nominated this year below.

Favorite Authors
community

20 of Your Favorite Authors

For National Author Day Monday, I asked who your favorite authors were.
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For National Author Day Monday, I asked who your favorite authors were. From old classics like Jane Austen and Charles Dickens to contemporary favorites like David Sedaris and Margaret Atwood, you revealed who ranked number one on your mental list.

Check them out below — maybe you'll find a new favorite.

Read the rest below.

Who's Your Favorite Author?
Books

Who's Your Favorite Author?

Once I'm into authors, I will read anything by them.
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Once I'm into authors, I will read anything by them. Sometimes all they need to do is write one epic book, and I'm a reader for life; other times, I fall slowly through a series or a stretch of solid reads. Today's National Author Day, so let's round up our go-to writers and find some new favorites while we're at it.

Relationship Truths From Famous Female Writers
Books

Grab Bag! Lessons From the Love Lives of Women Writers

Relationship truths from famous female writers — Lemondrop The many grooms of Elizabeth Taylor — The Frisky Meanwhile, Elizabeth denies latest engagement rumors — Twitter Do men compare current girlfriends to their exes?
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Interview with Curtis Sittenfeld, Author of American Wife
Books

Buzz Interview: Curtis Sittenfeld, Author of American Wife

This week, author Curtis Sittenfeld's new book American Wife hits book stores near you.
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This week, author Curtis Sittenfeld's new book American Wife hits book stores near you. The book is inspired by the life of Laura Bush, and a few weeks ago, when I was about halfway through American Wife, I chatted with Sittenfeld about the controversial aspects of the book, how this epic American tale is a departure from her previous two books, and what's going on with the movie version of Prep!

Buzz: This character, Alice Blackwell, is intriguing and sexy, and generally those terms are considered mutually exclusive from the first lady. How did you work around people's ideas of what it means to be the first lady?
Curtis Sittenfeld: I think that all people are complicated and all people have inner lives. I think that a lot of times our view of first ladies is that they’re very stiff or proper or formal but I think they’re people like anyone else. When they’re not in public they probably can relax a lot more.

I know that these characters are based on the lives of George and Laura Bush, and when I read some of the sex scenes, I wondered if you had a hard time going there?
Laura Bush was a starting point for this novel, but there’s so much that we don’t know about her even though she’s a very public figure. And so what I did was invent a character who’s loosely inspired by her but isn’t her. I do not see Alice Blackwell as just, you know, Laura Bush is her name change. I see Alice Blackwell as a distinct person. I know that some readers might feel differently but I don't feel like I wrote sex scenes between George and Laura Bush [laughs].

To learn more about her new book and why she might still write about weird, neurotic girls, read more

Remembering Kurt Vonnegut: 1922 - 2007
Books

Remembering Kurt Vonnegut: 1922 - 2007

I awoke this morning to the sad news that groundbreaking novelist Kurt Vonnegut died Wednesday at age 84.
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I awoke this morning to the sad news that groundbreaking novelist Kurt Vonnegut died Wednesday at age 84. As reported by the AP, Vonnegut's wife, photographer Jill Krementz, said the writer suffered brain injuries following a recent fall at his home in Manhattan.

Probably best-known for his books Slaughterhouse Five and Cat's Cradle, Vonnegut was truly one of the most important American writers of the 20th century, lending his distinct voice to everything from historical satire to non-traditional sci-fi and laugh-out-loud humor. In fact, I think Vonnegut's stylistic legacy is one of the most powerful influences on many of today's modern novelists.

Throughout my adult life, Vonnegut has been one of my favorite authors, and having the opportunity to hear him speak during my college years only heightened my respect for this sharp and endlessly clever man. Though I would highly recommend the more classic Vonnegut novels, my favorite books of his might be the slightly more obscure Galapagos, which tackles the theory of evolution in a thoroughly absurd way, and the darkly futuristic novel The Sirens of Titan. Any other Vonnegut fans out there? If so, tell me which of his books is your favorite.

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