Lit Bits & A Bit About Diaz

• Marianne Wiggins is on Bookworm today at 2pm. I suspect Ed's interview (BSS #134) will end up being the one that gave her the greatest opportunity to actually reply to questions, but we'll have to wait and see.
• I spent a lovely afternoon with a new friend and an author I've been eager to interview for...well...ages. The interview itself will be up at LAist in due time.  The conversation we had, however, lives on in my mind. In Technicolor & in the appropriate fonts. That's all the hinting you'll receive.
• Matthew Tiffany is taking on The Book of Disquiet sometime in October and he's found an interesting way to announce it.
• A little laugh for (with?) those who fondly remember their Ayn Rand days - and those who don't. Or didn't. Ever. And by didn't ever I mean didn't ever understand the effusive praise, one cover to cover reading of Atlas Shrugged leading me to question everyone who had claimed it the best book ever. I stand firm in my judgment of them, and the book, to this day. Good grief.
• Another excerpt-off (it's growing on me, obviously - perhaps I'll contact the doubletongued folks, who so nicely incorporated my "matchy-matchy" references into their lingo dictionary, and see what they think) might be in the making as the LA bookish universe pits Katherine Taylor at Vroman's against Lara Santoro at Dutton's both at 7pm tonight. I'm finishing my write-up on Santoro's Mercy for LAist and it should be up...later today. I believe I've waxed poetic about Taylor's Rules for Saying Goodbye before...but I'll wax again: it's so not what you think you're getting into and all the better for it. Just when you think - oh I've read this story a million times - it jags in another direction. It's smart. It's sad.  The human relationships feel authentic in ways that other writers don't quite capture. And it's also funny. At least I think it's funny in places...and you know how I adore funny.
• Mr. Esposito has a point. The Cheltenham Literature Festival logo looks like a direct lift of Jonathan Safran Foer's Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close cover. Like. They didn't even try to mask it. Flattering? Or blatant thievery? I feel like an ass for not making the connection - I, too, thought it looked terribly familiar, but was so focused on how to get myself to the lit fest during my not-in-England honeymoon, that I was unfazed by their less than creative logo department. For shame.
• The results of the first excerpt-off (it's working less for me now, kind of clunky, no?) are in: I attended the Junot Diaz reading at Dutton's last night (no small feat from downtown...but then, I was already halfway there due to the aforementioned font-filled interview) and all I can say is: damn. Diaz killed it. Again and again and again. I would like to take classes from Diaz. I would like to simply sit in his presence and listen to him talk about anything (really, anything) for hours. Days. Weeks. Months. Really. He is so funny and so commanding. So full of ideas and recommendations and inspiration. And the book - damn. Were it not for the many reviews and deadlines I've committed to, it would be, hands down, the only thing I'd do this weekend. The excerpts he read were divine. I simply cannot wait to hunker down with it and let the rest of the world fall away.  I'll have the full details from the reading up tomorrow.