Talk about an embarrassment of riches! Where do I start? New work from Sara Gruen, Michael Cunningham, and Nicholas Sparks, a new series from Ken Follett, Booker-longlisted Room from Emma Donoghue, Lydia Davis' translation of Madame Bovary... whew... we're going to need more time to read all of this. Plus, Scarlett Thomas, William Gibson, David Sedaris and more! Check it out.

Lots to read in September originally appeared on About.com Contemporary Literature on Wednesday, September 1st, 2010 at 12:56:25.

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In Freedom, the mom is an ex-athlete who still carries a torch for her husband's rock star best friend, the dad is a corporate progressive who fights Big Coal, the son actually moves out of the house and into the neighbor's, and the author, Jonathan Franzen, once again proves mastery at mining the suburban experience for both comedy and tragedy.

_{Photo credit: Farrar, Strauss, & Giroux}

Freedom by Jonathan Franzen originally appeared on About.com Contemporary Literature on Tuesday, August 31st, 2010 at 09:15:53.

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Skippy is a complicated kid. He's a got a good heart but is growing increasingly bored with his successes in both the classroom and on the swim team. Skippy looks to be a Nintendo-fueled recast of the classic Russian hero - laced with an enigmatic malaise - but as Skippy Dies progresses, we learn in a perfectly plotted series of hints that there's a lot more trouble behind Skippy's silent face.

_{Photo credit: Faber and Faber}

Skippy Dies by Paul Murray originally appeared on About.com Contemporary Literature on Monday, August 30th, 2010 at 07:02:22.

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Walker Bean is a bookish pre-teen whose grandfather, an admiral in the navy, falls ill after gazing upon a cursed skull taken from a deep ocean trench in the Mango Islands. The trench is home to Remora and Tartessa, two giant, horrifying, arachnidesque sea witches who, as it happens, would like to have their skull back - thank you very much - and are coming to get it. Read more.

_{Photo credit: First Second}

The Unsinkable Walker Bean by Aaron Renier originally appeared on About.com Contemporary Literature on Wednesday, August 25th, 2010 at 10:50:06.

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Packing for Mars, while about space travel, has more to do with bodily functions such as ingestion, digestion and egestion (yes, it means what you think it does) than any astronautic heroics. This is a book about the necessary questions that preceded the heroics - What are the psychological effects of weightlessness? Of body odor on two men trapped in close proximity for two weeks? What does it look like to eat, sleep, and yes - go to the bathroom in space? And more, as Mary Roach (Stiff, Spook, Bonk) once again goes where no journalist has gone before.

_{Photo credit: W.W. Norton}

Packing for Mars by Mary Roach originally appeared on About.com Contemporary Literature on Monday, August 23rd, 2010 at 06:45:28.

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In July, Amazon.com announced that they're now selling more Kindle e-books than hardcovers, a startling fact, remarked CEO Jeff Bezos, "when you consider that we've been selling hardcover books for 15 years, and Kindle books for 33 months."

Lovers of books in their printed, dead tree matter format tend to have a gut-level reaction to the notion of paper-bound books changing or disappearing altogether, but in "Books Have Many Futures," Linton Weeks explores the positive and creative potential of digital stories - interaction, animation, even gaming. Leeks points out that paper books are unlikely to disappear altogether, "but they could become scary scarce -- like eight-track tapes, typewriters and wooden tennis rackets."

It's coming - of that there's no doubt. Still, this morning on my bus commute, I enjoyed my (paper) book next to a woman reading her Kindle (or reading from her Kindle?), and, jotting notes on the folded piece of paper that I use as a bookmark, I had no desire to switch seats. How would I take notes on the Kindle? How do I pass the book on to a friend when I'm finished?

Anyway, thought for food. Read the NPR article, and let me know what you think. Will books go the way of the typewriter in the next decade?

Books Have Many Futures originally appeared on About.com Contemporary Literature on Friday, August 20th, 2010 at 12:32:00.

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Dan Jenkins' felicity with words may be equal to the inimitable Herbert Warren Wind, the platinum standard for every golf writer who wielded a pen. His knowledge of golf is equal though of a more recent vintage, one that spans the last 60 years, and Jenkins does Wind one better in his unparalleled ability to bring a sense of humor and comparison to a very serious sport. Read more.

_{Photo credit: Anchor Books}

Jenkins at the Majors: From Ben Hogan to Tiger Woods originally appeared on About.com Contemporary Literature on Tuesday, August 17th, 2010 at 07:45:22.

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Nine years after winning the National Book Award for The Corrections, Jonathan Franzen is poised again to deliver on great literary expectations with Freedom, a sweeping novel about the decline of a middle class family in St. Paul, Minnesota.

The mom  is an ex-athlete who still carries a torch for her husband's rock star best friend, the dad is a corporate progressive who fights Big Coal, the son actually moves out of the house and into the neighbor's, and the author, Jonathan Franzen, once again proves mastery at mining the suburban experience for both comedy and tragedy.

In expectation of Freedom's August 31 release, Jonathan Franzen is appearing all over the place. Alan Cheuse reviewed Freedom on NPR's All Things Considered, New York Magazine profiled Franzen this past week, and he even got his picture on the cover of TIME (August 23, 2010), a first for a living novelist since Stephen King did in 2000, to accompany a profile, in which Lev Grossman says, "Franzen isn't the richest or most famous living American novelist, but you could argue -- I would argue -- that he is the most ambitious and also one of the best."

Read Jonathan Franzen's biography and a review of Freedom, after the novel's release this month.

Jonathan Franzen on TIME originally appeared on About.com Contemporary Literature on Monday, August 16th, 2010 at 08:15:37.

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Paul Chowder may have met with some early successes, but of late he's been stalled in his career as a poet. Admittedly poor with rhyme, he writes free verse, but these days Chowder finds it difficult to pen even a single "flying spoon poem," much less the daunting poetry anthology introduction that will net him the big check from his publisher that he so desperately needs to pay his bills. It's not as though he doesn't have plenty to say on the subject, and he does so in Nicholson Baker's The Anthologist.

_{Photo credit: Simon & Schuster}

The Anthologist by Nicholson Baker originally appeared on About.com Contemporary Literature on Wednesday, August 11th, 2010 at 08:26:33.

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On November 26, 1922, Howard Carter, a down at the heels, nearly abandoned and discredited archeologist, cleared a hole in a newly-discovered tomb in the Valley of the Kings. Looking in and aided by the flickering light of a single candle, he saw gold everywhere, "everywhere the glint of gold." Tutankhamun, Nick Drake's second book in his Egyptian trilogy, is similarly replete with wonderful things.

_{Photo credit: Harper Collins}

Tutankhamun by Nick Drake originally appeared on About.com Contemporary Literature on Monday, August 9th, 2010 at 07:15:50.

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ANN ARBOR, Mich., Sept. 1 /PRNewswire/ -- Borders® today announced it is teaming with Build-A-Bear Workshop® to bring the popular teddy bear to life in more than 500 Borders superstores nationwide. (Logo:  http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20100901/DE58584LOGO ) (Logo:  http:/

ANN ARBOR, Mich. Sept. 1 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Borders Group, Inc. (NYSE: BGP) today reported results for its second quarter ended July 31, 2010. Highlights include: Second quarter sales were $526.1 million, down 11.5% from the same period a year ago, with comparable store sales declining by 6.

DENVER, Aug. 31 /PRNewswire/ -- Outskirts Press, an Inc. 500 company in 2009 and the fastest-growing full-service self-publishing and book marketing company, was recognized once again by Inc. Magazine in 2010 in its annual "Fast 5000" list of the nation's fastest-growing private businesses. (Logo: &

NEW YORK, Sept. 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Inc. magazine ranked Physique 57™ No. 377 on its 29th annual Inc. 500, list of America's fastest-growing private companies. The Inc. 500 is the most comprehensive look at the most important segment of the economy—America's independent-minded entrepreneur

TAMPA, Fla., Sept. 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Accusoft Pegasus, the leading provider of imaging software development kits (SDKs), announces it has been named to the 2010 Inc. 500|5000 List. The Inc. 500|5000 annual list exclusively ranks America's fastest-growing private companies. The list represents the mo

ROWLETT, Texas and NEW YORK, Sept. 3 /PRNewswire/ --Inc. magazine today ranked MILESTONE ELECTRIC No. 654 on its fourth annual Inc. 5000, an exclusive ranking of the nation's fastest-growing private companies. The list represents the most comprehensive look at the most important segment of the econo

NEW YORK, Sept. 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Inc. magazine has ranked Cogent Fibre No. 402 overall and No. 7 in its industry category of Manufacturing on its 29th annual Inc. 500, an exclusive ranking of the nation's fastest-growing private companies. The list represents the most comprehensive look at the most

ORLANDO, Fla., Sept. 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Engineering & Computer Simulations (ECS) announced today that it has been named on Inc. 5000's prestigious list, ranking number 857 due to their high growth rate over the last three years.  Earlier this year, the company's founder, Waymon Armstrong, wa

WILLOW GROVE, Pa., Sept. 3 /PRNewswire/ -- AnswerNet, an innovative teleservices company, has been named to the 2010 Inc. 5000, an exclusive ranking of the nation's fastest-growing private companies. This year's ranking marks the fifth time AnswerNet or one of its divisions has appeared on the Inc.

GARRETTSVILLE, Ohio, Sept. 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Inc. magazine has ranked Northeast Ohio-based Catacel Corporation No. 2709 on its fourth annual Inc. 5000, an exclusive ranking of the nation's fastest-growing private companies. The list represents the most comprehensive look at the most important segmen

SIMI VALLEY, Calif., Sept. 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Search engine optimization and Internet marketing consulting firm Bruce Clay, Inc. has made the Inc. 5000 list of the fastest growing private companies in the U.S. (http://www.inc.com/inc5000/2010/index.html). This marks the fourth year in a row that Bruc

DENVER, Sept. 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Travelers Haven, LLC announced today that it has been ranked #90 in the 2010 Inc. 500 list in its first year of eligibility; an annual listing of America's fastest-growing private companies compiled by Inc. Magazine.  Based out of Denver, CO, Travelers Haven prov

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich., Sept. 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Inc. magazine ranked Fisen Corporation NO. 1937 in the U.S. and NO. 42 in Michigan on its fourth annual Inc. 5000, an exclusive ranking of the nation's fastest-growing private companies. The list represents the most comprehensive look at the most importan

ARLINGTON, Texas, Sept. 3 /PRNewswire/ -- PrintPlace.com, a leading provider of traditional and online printing services, today announced the company was named to the prestigious Inc. 500 list of the fastest growing companies in America. This year, PrintPlace.com placed in the top 100 of the list at

NASHVILLE, Tenn., Sept. 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Nashville-based medical software developer Clinix Medical Information Services, LLC has once again been named one of the top 5,000 fastest growing private companies in the country by Inc. magazine. This marks the third year that Clinix has achieved this hono

WALTHAM, Mass., Sept. 3 /PRNewswire/ -- MPAY Inc., a nationwide leader in providing software and services has ranked 3,322 on the 2010 Inc. 5000 list of the fastest growing privately held companies in the United States. Since 1982, Inc. has ranked the nation's top 500 fastest growing companies, and

CHICAGO, Sept. 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Tasty Catering has been recognized as one of America's fastest-growing private companies on Inc. magazine's fourth annual Inc. 5000, an exclusive ranking of the nation's fastest-growing private companies. The list represents the most comprehensive look at the most im

NEW YORK, Sept. 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Inc. magazine today ranked SaveOnResorts.com NO. 289, and NO. 1 in the Travel Industry, on its 29th annual Inc. 500, an exclusive ranking of the nation's fastest-growing private companies. The list represents the most comprehensive look at the most important segment

LOS ANGELES, Sept. 3 /PRNewswire/ -- USI Technologies, Inc. (www.usitechnologies.com), a provider of online customer engagement solutions, today announced it has been named No. 898 in the fourth annual Inc. 5000, an exclusive ranking of the nation's fastest-growing private companies. Boasting a 334%

PORTLAND, Ore., Sept. 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Inc. magazine ranked Integra Telecom 1,722 on its annual Inc. 5,000, an exclusive ranking of the nation's fastest-growing private companies. The competitive telecommunications provider ranked among the top 100 private companies in America within five 2010 Inc.

CHICAGO, Sept. 3 /PRNewswire/ -- In its first year of eligibility, Dean Media Group (DMG) has risen to become the eighth fastest-growing private company in the advertising sector, according to Inc. Magazine. DMG placed 59th on the Inc. 500 composite list – an exclusive ranking of privately-hel

PLANO, Texas, Sept. 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Avalon Consulting, LLC, a leading provider of custom Enterprise Web Presence solutions, was again recognized by the Inc 5000 for its revenue growth over the past three years. Landing in the top 40% of all companies ranked, Avalon came in at #75 among companies i

NEW YORK, Sept. 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Inc. magazine today ranked PNT Marketing Services, Inc. No. 3,881 on its fourth annual Inc. 5000, an exclusive ranking of the nation's fastest-growing private companies. The list represents the most comprehensive look at the most important segment of the economyR