A few lit bits for an almost-over week:
- Min Jin Lee, author of Free Food for Millionaires, has a wonderful essay on weight and body image in the April issue of Vogue. I had tears in my eyes reading it for several reasons: One, I could relate. Two, I kept thinking "this is so honest, so raw...wow." It is that ability to cut to the truth that makes her an excellent fiction writer...it is the line through all her work. (As with Harper's, the April features aren't online yet.)
- Jhumpa Lahiri's new collection of stories, Unaccustomed Earth, is also featured in April's Vogue. She says, "It's the first book I've written since becoming a parent, with the full consciousness of what it means to bring a life into the world and be responsible for that life. I can see both ends of the spectrum now." She also says this was the "hardest" book she's written to date.
- Felicia Sullivan, chef extraordinaire and author of The Sky Isn't Visible From Here (whom I'll be interviewing in the coming weeks), just recommended a book that's not been on my radar: Kelly McMaster's Welcome to Shirley. Consider it officially on the list.
- Nathan Ihara at LA Weekly has the goods on Richard Price and his latest novel, Lush Life.
- I've been staring at the above photo of a phenomenal bookshelf project featured on Apartment Therapy for awhile now...and it seemed wrong to drool and not share. So, there. Also, I should note that I've been in such an odd state that I was looking at this picture all wrong - not from the aerial view (which this is, actually, if one were standing at the top of the staircase looking down) but from some bizarre literal view in which I wondered aloud how strong those books were that people could actually step on them going up and down the staircase. Of course, that view would mean that the door downtstairs was on the ceiling and that should have been my first clue that I had the wrong perspective on it. Ah! Isn't that often the case!
- In other bookshelf news, Design*Sponge just happens to be featuring an extensive book storage roundup today. Gorgeous empty bookshelves are a slippery slope into full-on book porn.
