From Anthropoetics, Sylvie Nelson (Victoria): The End of Criticism. From Slate, Alan Wolfe reviews Grant Hardy's Understanding the Book of Mormon: A Reader's Guide; and David Haglund on the Great Mormon Novel: Where is it? Germaine Greer on the literary worth of old wives' tales. What makes a bad book bad? American academics have been grappling with this question and rounding up some unusual suspects. The death of the novel has been promised over and over again, by academics and the higher hacks, but still seems no closer. Laura Miller on why men don't read books: Women editors are not the problem. From Mailer punching Vidal to Rushdie attacking Updike, here are the best feuds that sent the ink flying. Nigel Hamilton on the death of biography as we know it. In addition to precipitating the Baby Boom, the rise of the suburbs, the expansion of higher education, and a growing sophistication of the national palate, the flood of soldiers returning home after the end of World War II had a signal impact on American literature. A review of The Novel: An Alternative History by Steven Moore. Katie Barker on Sweet Valley High, the Great Retweening and why boys won't read. What ails literature? Some thoughts on the perpetual death of fiction. These books are creepy and/or hilarious to adults, but any kid who reads them is most likely in for a traumatizing treat; and a look at the 11 most surprising banned books. Why did the prospect of not finishing a book fill Julia Keller with shame, dread and self-loathing? A review of Fiction Across Borders: Imagining the Lives of Others in Turn-of-the-Millennium Novels by Shameem Black. A review of 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die. A review of Alberto Manguel's A Reader on Reading (and more and more and more and more).
