Yesterday I attended an event co-hosted by my store and the Progressive Book Club. It was a panel on Books, Politics, and the Culture War with Sidney Blumenthal, Al Franken, Toni Morrison, Joe Conason, and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. I was impressed. I don’t know about you, but I feel hardened sometimes, especially when it comes to politics. Its too hard and often disappointing to get worked up over issues, especially in the current climate. But the speakers yesterday renewed my political verve, especially Robert Kennedy. Man that guy can talk. Not the greatest orator, but passionate and knowledgeable. Al Franken was hilarious, Toni Morrison eloquent, Sidney Blumenthal well-spoken and Joe Conason’s two cents were worth a lot more.

The August/September issue of Maisonneuve magazine has hit the newstands. Yours truly has a letter to the editor published in it. It is merely a letter I sent saying how much I enjoy reading them. But I am embarassed at the same time because I managed to insult McSweeney’s by name in it too. Great.

The Rake introduced me today to a new blog, Chekhov’s Mistress. It’s nice to meet you! May I say that you have a beautiful blog? Seriously. I have been thinking that this bookdwarf needs some new duds.

Sometimes people think they know everything and they don’t know nothing. It is nice to see a careful and polite response (go here for the less polite response) to what I thought of as a snide and obtuse attack on a great blog.

I read on some blogs last week about Zembla, the hot new literary magazine in London. I tried to check out their website but when I went there, the screen opened so far to the left on my computer, I was unable to do anything with it. But honestly, I was not too upset. This article explains a bit about Zembla:

Often what you read can say as much about your cool cred as your funky home furnishings or your favorite local dive bar. In the United Kingdom, hip authors such as Zadie Smith and Gwendoline Riley are taking on rock-star status among the in-the-know elite.

And these informed readers are proudly touting Zembla, the “it” magazine of the moment. Named after a fictional setting in Vladimir Nabokov’s Pale Fire, this new literary magazine is also attracting the design and fashion crowds. The smart layout and artistic cover have not only lured devotees but also advertisers such as Marc Jacobs, Jil Sander, Christian Dior, Paul Smith and Issey Miyake. Who said bookworms had to look so bookish?

Uhm, yeah. The reason why I bring all this up today, is that the folks over at the LNR Book Diary put a great post about navigating the Zembla web site:

Readers, are you tired of navigable literary magazines? Are you disappointed that you can quickly find and read new articles at 3am and Spike? Would you like to spend more of life lost in a dark flash forest, unable to find the right path? Well, you’re in luck: Zembla Magazine International Literary Magazine is just the ticket!

Moorish Girl beat me to the punch in illuminating folks about 3 new books from Melville House. One of the exciting parts of the day for me is combing through the giant amounts of crap we get in the mail (do you know how many Christian publishers there are out there? I didn’t until I started working in this office). One of the packages today included these same 3 books that Moorish girl mentions. They all seem very interesting and are small attractive paperbacks to boot. Melville House also recently started publishing a series called The Art of the Novella. Included are beautiful small editions of Bartleby the Scrivener by Melville and The Lesson of the Master by Henry James.

Then you should read these short stories from the Guardian summer reading issue. Authors include William Boyd (one of my favorites), Hanif Kureishi, Helen Simpson, Jeanette Winterson, and Alice Munro.