- As the annual Shakespeare on the Common festivities kick off, Sam Allis uses his Globe column today to take a look at the strange phenomenon that is summer Shakespeare festivals. Which reminds me that I need to read "The Comedy of Errors" before we go see it Tuesday evening.
- Don't forget to follow John Quincy Adams on Twitter: his trip to Russia begins this coming Wednesday, 5 August. Some attention to the project this week from the Globe's Brainiac blog, Bostonist, and Universal Hub (thanks all!).
- News this week that former Christie's director Michael Broadbent is suing Random House over his portrayal in Benjamin Wallace's The Billionaire's Vinegar (which I reviewed here). The suit will be filed under UK libel laws.
- The August AE Monthly is up, with pieces on the deaccessioning at USF, David Slade's thefts, and the Dunlap Discovery (the latter ends on a rather strange note).
- Ian's been doing a great job blogging his experiences at Rare Book School this week, and today he adds some great quotes from the incomparable Terry Belanger (my favorite might be "If you can't figure it out, the trolls did it") and the wonderful remarks of Michael Suarez, Belanger's successor as head of RBS, delivered at RBMS in June.
- Nicholson Baker writes in the New Yorker about ordering a Kindle and his early experiences with it.
- In the LATimes, Roy Hoffman takes a look at the subtle art of inscribing books.
- Much discussion in recent days about 91-year old Louise Brown, who joined her local library in 1946 and has taken out more than 25,000 books since then (and never once turned one in late). Impressive!
- Writing in the NYT, Ed Park discusses the "invisible library," books that exist only between the covers of other books — as descriptions, occasionally as brief excerpts, often simply as titles."
- Over at Liminal Librarian, Rachel posts on one of the most recent authorial dust-ups.
- Paul Collins highlights the Awful Library Books blog, which is always very entertaining.
Reviews
- Michael Dirda reviews Richard Holmes' The Age of Wonder in the WaPo.
- Peter Marshall reviews four recent biographies of Mary Tudor ("Bloody Mary").
- In the NYTimes, Brenda Wineapple reviews Caroline Moorehead's Dancing to the Precipice.
- Over in TNR, a long exchange of views on Lincoln historiography, beginning with Sean Wilentz's "Who Lincoln Was" and extending through several responses.
