I was sorry to read about Edna Buchanan’s bad health

I strongly recommend Edna Buchanan’s early non-fiction books, The Corpse Had a Familiar Face: Covering Miami, America’s Hottest Beat, (1987) and Never Let Them See You Cry: More from Miami, America’s Hottest Beat, (1992).

Buchanan was a pioneer in the type of crime reporting that’s fallen out of favor now, justifiably. But for the time her stuff was legendary. https://t.co/jz24gyuLEo
— Keith Roysdon (@keithroysdon) December 28, 2023

I was sorry to read that Martin Amis died

I recommend reading books by Martin Amis. My favorite of the ones I read is Time’s Arrow. I saw him read in the early 1990s at Chapters, a great bookstore in Washington, DC. In addition to getting books signed, I had him autograph this broadside from Black Oak Books in Oakland.

Martin Amis, who died on Friday, was primarily known for his witty and daring novels. But he was also an essayist, memoirist and critic of the first rank.

Here are some books that chart the peaks of his career. https://t.co/XBBDbH3tmM
— The New York Times (@nytimes) May 20, 2023

Saddened to register the too soon death of Martin Amis. Here's a piece I wrote about "London Fields" on it's thirtieth anniversary for the Ringer. https://t.co/6fb8poccj0
— The Paranoid Style (@paranoiacs) May 21, 2023

One of my favorite things I ever assigned at The New York Observer was a story about Martin Amis moving to Brooklyn, written by @xlorentzen . You can read it here: https://t.co/Eu9itlMmkF
— Elizabeth Spiers (@espiers) May 20, 2023

“There’s a one-word narrative for every writer. For Hitchens, it was ‘contrarian.’ For me, it’s ‘decline.’” –Martin Amis https://t.co/9MbGILq22g
— Jack Shafer (@jackshafer) May 20, 2023

Tweet on Joseph Heller

Joseph Heller’s great novel Catch-22 was published in 1961 I strongly recommend his second novel Something Happened which was published in 1974. It’s really admirable that Heller wrote something completely different than Catch-22. It’s really underrated. It lulls you to sleep over many pages where not much happens and then it blindsides you. On the other hand, I would not recommend his third novel Good as Gold from 1979. It’s satirical but I wasn’t amused when I read it. Maybe 40 years later, I might like it better.

My new piece recounts my exclusive and fun 1972 interview with Joseph Heller, who was and was not Yossarian. Good commentary on Vietnam and a lot of what I called "Kvetch-22." https://t.co/L25Ml6mbrs pic.twitter.com/xClUMUzIQd
— Greg Mitchell (@GregMitch) May 4, 2023

Bringing Out the Dead is an underrated Scorsese fim

Bringing Out the Dead (1999) is an excellent film based on a fine autobiographical novel by Joe Connelly. It’s not even on Blu-ray. I have the DVD.

.@patrickdahlyes's piece on this is fantastic btw, a great short appraisal of a movie that on some days I think might be Scorsese's best: https://t.co/0iFunuaVG1
— Screen Slate (@ScreenSlate) January 21, 2023

Here's a personal story about trauma, healing, and staying up all night to find humanity with Martin Scorsese and Nicolas Cage in 'Bringing Out The Dead': https://t.co/mzbNZVNArM pic.twitter.com/UXn9ce0hbl
— Film School Rejects (@rejectnation) January 31, 2023

Nicolas Cage Says ‘Bringing Out the Dead’ Is a ‘Misunderstood’ Movie but Hopes It Will Get ‘Another Breath of Life’ https://t.co/dubUwa01s3 pic.twitter.com/t7OTgLIUZp
— IndieWire (@IndieWire) January 14, 2024

There are also two fine novels about being an EMT by another former EMT:

Charles Mingus wrote about getting cats to use toilets

omg at the height of his career, jazz musician charles mingus wrote an entire book about cat toilet training pic.twitter.com/0ZZZJAPyp3
— depths of wikipedia (@depthsofwiki) November 22, 2022

The pamphlet

Right-wing book bans

terrible

ICYMI: More than 1,600 books were banned during the last school year, with most of the bans targeting titles related to the LGBTQ community or race and racism, according to a @PENamerica report. @NBCOUT/@NBCNews https://t.co/6dzA8PO2Cx
— Jo Yurcaba (@JoYurcaba) September 20, 2022

Attempts to ban books from school libraries in America are on track to rise again this school year, after reaching historic highs last year, a pair of national reports has found. https://t.co/CfZD7n1oso
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) September 19, 2022

Advocacy Groups Are Helping Drive a Rise in Book Bans https://t.co/X2wGLiNj6i
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) September 19, 2022

Today’s book bans might be more dangerous than those from the past, @JPerrillo1 writes in @MadeByHistory https://t.co/oaGFn9giZp
— Washington Post Opinions (@PostOpinions) September 12, 2022

"In total, 327 previously approved books from notable authors including Rick Riordan & Audre Lorde – along with Alice Oseman’s Heartstopper series– were removed from district libraries…. nearly a dozen books were also flagged as “Black Lives Matter” materials & removed" https://t.co/S6Q9ijxw19
— Ronald Brownstein (@RonBrownstein) August 25, 2022

A book about George Dawson, the grandson of a slave who learned to read at 98, is currently under review for removal by Carroll ISD.

The school where the book is currently found? George Dawson Middle School. Story by @memangrum.https://t.co/DgocpAil9n #txed #tellEWA
— 🌟 Lauren McGaughy (@lmcgaughy) August 23, 2022

The Brooklyn Public Library Gives Every Teenager in the U.S. Free Access to Books Getting Censored by American Schools https://t.co/Qu7hgqZ26A pic.twitter.com/HPpyVUAzsm
— Open Culture (@openculture) August 22, 2022

A viral TikTok video shows a teacher in Tennessee explaining the extensive amount of work she has to do on her day off just to make sure all the books in her classroom’s library are properly approved. https://t.co/UuzadbZr4g
— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) August 19, 2022

Oh my. A Texas School district is removing illustrated adaptations of Anne Frank's diary from their shelves. This comes after Ohio reps encouraged schools to teach “both sides” of the Holocaust. The GOP book-purge is beginning. Now we know why Nazis support the Republican Party.
— Dash Dobrofsky (@DashDobrofsky) August 17, 2022

Ken Kesey born 9/17/35

I saw Ken Kesey speak at Shepherd University in West Virginia. I am guessing it was in the 1990s. He was rambling but entertaining. I think anyone in West Virginia who had ever been a hippie was there. I felt like I was in a 1960s time warp.

Happy Birthday to the Late Grate Ken Kesey (September 17, 1935 – November 10, 2001) pic.twitter.com/FpG84FMyMy
— Tennessee Jed🌹🇺🇦 (@ten_jed7789) September 17, 2022

Sixty years ago today, @VikingBooks published a debut novel by one Ken Kesey, age 26. (Wish this were my first edition of ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST, but it belongs to Burnside Rare Books. Sigh.) pic.twitter.com/iWcL3FRKdD
— Matthew Budman (@CollectBooksNow) February 1, 2022

The Appointment in Samarra story

I first became familiar with it through John O’Hara’s 1934 novel Appointment in Samarra.

Somerset Maugham used it in his 1933 play Sheppey which is where O’Hara got it from. It’s an old Mesopotamian tale.

Appointment in Samarra
~ By W. Somerset Maugham pic.twitter.com/JX7OFy8RSR
— Shiv Aroor (@ShivAroor) May 22, 2021

Boris Karloff 'Targets' (1968) – Orlok's story (Appointment in Samarra)……….. listen to the master! pic.twitter.com/VwfJHvMhSN
— Hammer Horror Films (@HorrorHammer1) August 21, 2022

Right-wing attacks on libraries

This is part of their war against books and facts they don’t like

As highly visible and politicized book bans have exploded across the country, librarians have found themselves on the front lines of an acrimonious culture war, with their careers and their personal reputations at risk. https://t.co/cXlFxZ0FlU
— New York Times Books (@nytimesbooks) July 7, 2022

A library in Iowa has closed after nearly all of its employees quit due to anti-LGBTQ harassment against-staff, complaints about LGBTQ titles, and whipped up controversies. The town now has no library. https://t.co/dk3H6WQGh5
— Laila Lalami (@LailaLalami) July 14, 2022

In this @nytimes letter to the editor, a retired school librarian reflects on the current surge of book bans and challenges, calling it "the most vicious and vociferous in my career of 30 years." https://t.co/iSKs7FZ08t
— PEN America (@PENamerica) July 13, 2022

They attack teachers, too

Book bans are getting ugly and violent as conservative groups target educators online and harass them on their social media accounts.

My story here:https://t.co/nAkeHk6pyu
— Tanya Basu (@tanyabasu) July 15, 2022

The critical distinction, neatly summarized https://t.co/oUichbqxMH
— Ronald Brownstein (@RonBrownstein) July 31, 2022