- John Stoehr
Arts Editor
There's more to art than you think. It's not just theater, paintings, books and dance. It's the enterprise of human creativity and it takes vastly different shapes and forms. Here you'll find my thoughts about the arts in Charleston and beyond. Neither of us knows what to expect.
Category Archives: Books
The Best-Sellers of 2007 at Blue Bicycle Books
January 8, 2008 – 12:41 pm
Top ten 2007 bestsellers at Blue Bicycle Books
10. Charleston Mysteries by Cathy Pickens
9. Fools All of Us: Stories of the White City by Jonathan Sanchez
8. Psalm, poems by Carol Ann Davis
7. The Boathouse: Tales and Recipes from a Southern Kitchen by Doug Bostick and Jason Davidson
6. Kakalak 2007: Anthology of Carolina Poets, edited by Richard […]
Daily newspapers should serve people who read
January 7, 2008 – 5:41 pm
Not people who don’t read. That’s why newspapers generally are failing us.
And they’re failing us so badly that we’re now turning to fake news shows for literary coverage. Not TV news; fake TV news. Earlier this year, the New York Times ran an article noting the growing intensity of competition among book publishers to get […]
The Best Fiction of 2007
December 27, 2007 – 8:47 pm
From The Week magazine, a digest of news from around the world —J.S.
. . . . .
1. Tree of Smoke
by Denis Johnson
(Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $27)
Denis Johnson’s 600-page novel about the Vietnam War is “something like a masterpiece,” said Jim Lewis in The New York Times. Many of its key characters are figures we’ve […]
The Sturdy Dozen: 2007’s 12 best books
December 26, 2007 – 6:05 pm
From M.L. van Valkenburgh’s annual books round-up —J.S.
. . . . .
A recent study said one in four Americans read no books last year — a rather appalling statistic.
So bibliophiles, unite, as we look back at the best and most diverse books of the year.
Let’s get literate!
Full story . . .
Kooser’s Corner: ‘Elegance’
December 19, 2007 – 10:50 am
Here’s another installment of American Life in Poetry from Ted Kooser —J.S.
. . . . .
American Life in Poetry
Column 142
By Ted Kooser, U.S. Poet Laureate, 2004-2006
There’s that old business about the tree falling in the middle of the forest with no one to hear it: does it make a noise? Here Linda Gregg, of New […]
Journal: More than ‘Essential Truth’
December 19, 2007 – 10:28 am
A few months ago, I wrote a post that touched on multiculturalism and its tendency toward a kind of relativism that inspired incredibly thoughtful comments. Two have stayed with me, because they are about the center that continues failing to hold. That is, the primal human need for universal principles seems to be daily challenged […]
Journal: Alex Ross’ The Rest Is Noise
December 19, 2007 – 9:10 am
From my piece that ran this morning on Alex Ross’ great book, The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Centery — J.S.
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Most orchestras tend to avoid programming music composed after 1950, because the mere mention of the phrase “modern music” has been enough to spark debates over class, nationality, aesthetic […]
Breaking News: The new Crazyhorse has arrived
December 18, 2007 – 3:54 pm
The newest issue of Crazyhorse has just arrived. It was printed last week and sent to my office today. Published twice a year by the College of Charleston, the literary journal has featured since its founding in 1960 the likes of Updike, Carver, Bly, Ha Jin, Billy Collins, Galway Kinnell and many more well-known poets, […]
Your Daily Vid: Walt Whitman
December 13, 2007 – 12:41 pm
If you want to see the spirit of American arts and letters, track the life and work of Henry Miller, Jack Kerouac, Thomas Pynchon, and David Foster Wallace. Among their many differences, there is one strong similarly: a fetish for language. But it all started with Walt Whitman. According to this source, this is the […]
Your Daily Vid: Anthony Bourdain
December 11, 2007 – 11:35 am
Anthony Bourdain is the host of No Reservations but also a terrific writer (and drinker, eater, and smoker, too). He has a great sense of humor that can sometimes overshadow a sharp intellect. Here he is at Google’s Author Talks series in California.
