The Penguin Press

Sam Anderson in The New York Times Magazine Phil Jackson...

Thu, 16 May 2013 16:42:22 -0400

Sam Anderson in The New York Times Magazine Phil Jackson profile: “Although I’m a lifelong basketball fan and an enthusiastic pickup player, I’m no expert in Xs and Os. So I can’t speak to the technical aspects of Jackson’s drawings. He drew quickly and sloppily, revising as he went, scribbling over lines he had just drawn, and most of the pages ended up looking like big disorienting hashes.

One of the simpler and most memorable diagrams, below, was of Jordan’s final two plays against Utah in the 1998 Finals: a layup that got the Bulls within one and then the famous game-winning jump shot that ended (almost) his career.”

elliott holt: Throwback Thursday contest

Thu, 16 May 2013 12:01:45 -0400

elliott holt: Throwback Thursday contest:

elliottholt:

My forthcoming novel You Are One of Them is set in the 1980s in Washington, D.C., and the 1990s in Moscow.

In honor of our collective nostalgia for those decades, I’m giving away 10 free copies of the book. To enter the contest, just post a photograph of yourself from the 1980s or the…

bookavore: I don’t always love quiet books, but Ghana Must Go...

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 10:54:40 -0400

bookavore:

I don’t always love quiet books, but Ghana Must Go by Taiye Selasi is so beautifully written that I fell for it, hard. When people talk about writing as a craft, they’re talking about writing like Selasi’s. I finished this book on the train and then worked on some writing of my own; this ended up mirroring an experience I usually have during the Olympics while watching ice skating, because they make it look simple to skate backwards in a circle and then launch their body into a triple whateverthehell, and then I stand up to go get more tea and skate myself down the hall in my socks, humming, and then trip on the floor and bruise a knee. She makes it look easy because the prose is basically perfect, so there’s no comparison, until you crash back to reality in your own journal. A beautiful family saga of sorts that brings not just her characters, but also contemporary Africa and the United States, to pulsing, vibrant life.

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Thu, 25 Apr 2013 13:00:55 -0400

Michael Pollan, Mario Batali, Alice Waters, & Samin Nosrat...

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 11:00:57 -0400

Michael Pollan, Mario Batali, Alice Waters, & Samin Nosrat talk about the benefits of cooking at home.

PBS NewsHour interviews Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Mark...

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 13:01:07 -0400

PBS NewsHour interviews Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Mark Mazzetti about the CIA’s secret army and their competition with the Pentagon.

Notebook art by Pep Carrió

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 12:07:36 -0400

Notebook art by Pep Carrió

nprfreshair: Mr. Food Revolution, Michael Pollan, as a new book...

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 11:00:58 -0400

nprfreshair:

Mr. Food Revolution, Michael Pollan, as a new book out called Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation. He tells Weekend Edition:

[T]here’s something magical that happens when people eat from the same pot. The family meal is really the nursery of democracy. It’s where we learn to share, it’s where we learn to argue without offending. It’s just too critical to let go, as we’ve been so blithely doing.”

Here’s a 2006 interview with Pollan.

Image from Pollan’s Food Rules, illustrated by Maira Kalman via Improvised Life

From Michael Pollan’s new book Cooked

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 10:01:29 -0400

From Michael Pollan’s new book Cooked

From Michael Pollan’s new book Cooked

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 09:30:00 -0400

From Michael Pollan’s new book Cooked

paris-en-rose: Pablo Picasso to Gertrude Stein, 1919. Can’t...

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 17:01:02 -0400

paris-en-rose:

Pablo Picasso to Gertrude Stein, 1919. Can’t quite read it all—messy handwriting! Very cool, though.

scribnerbooks: 25 fascinating photos of writers at home.

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 15:23:18 -0400

scribnerbooks:

25 fascinating photos of writers at home.

theparisreview: The inside cover and first page of the notebook...

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 15:17:59 -0400

theparisreview:

The inside cover and first page of the notebook containing the first draft of James Salter’s 1975 novel, Light Years. (via vintageanchorbooks)

Also from the Salter archives at the Harry Ransom Center, read the novel’s outline here.

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Fri, 19 Apr 2013 11:00:54 -0400

“Books are furniture.”

Thu, 18 Apr 2013 15:50:50 -0400

“Books are furniture.”

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Wed, 17 Apr 2013 11:08:40 -0400

One of the many perks of working here would be the postcards we...

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 14:18:18 -0400

One of the many perks of working here would be the postcards we receive from readers.

Here are your 2013 Pulitzer Prize winners: Fiction: The Orphan...

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 15:13:31 -0400

Here are your 2013 Pulitzer Prize winners:

Fiction: The Orphan Master’s Son by Adam Johnson

History: Embers of War: The Fall of an Empire and the Making of America’s Vietnam by Fredrik Logevall

Biography: The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo by Tom Reiss

Poetry: Stag’s Leap by Sharon Olds

General Nonfiction: Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America by Gilbert King

Michael Pollan on Restaurant Culture

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 13:01:22 -0400

From his in-depth Q&A in New York

Adam Platt: What’s your view on restaurant culture these days? Do you eat out a lot?
Michael Pollan: Probably once or twice a week. I think restaurant culture has gotten really decadent and way too precious. If I have to have another fourteen-course meal where I have to listen to a waiter give me the recipe before every course and interrupt my conversation with the friend I’m with, or with my wife—I’m just so tired of that.

Adam Platt: Join the crowd.
Michael Pollan: I really like simpler food, and I really like restaurants that leave you alone. What satisfies me is simple food really well prepared—and prepared with conviction. I’m a little tired of restaurant culture, and I really like to cook. And, this sounds weird, but I sort of feel we’re being deprived of the pleasure of cooking. There are a lot of people, in corporate cooking and restaurant culture, telling us, “No, let us cook for you.”

"Summer afternoon—summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the..."

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 10:56:17 -0400

“Summer afternoon—summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language.”

- Henry James, born April 15th, 1843