Teaser Tuesdays: The Swerve by Stephen Greenblatt

Nonfiction a-go-go continues: Now into The Swerve by Stephen Greenblatt, about the Renaissance rediscovery of Lucretius' poem "On the Nature of Things." I had requested it from the library even before it won the National Book Award for nonfiction. I'm only 50 pages in and I haven't hit real traction but that's not the book's fault -- it's more readable than I had thought, even. So here's the teaser (the rule is two sentences from a random page, post the link in the comments section of the Should Be Reading blog. Or if you don't have a blog, you can just post your teaser in the comments):

"Despite the vigorous efforts that Thomas More made, during his time as chancellor, to establish one, England had no Inquisition. Though it was still quite possible to get into serious trouble for unguarded speech, Bruno may have felt more at liberty to speak his mind, or, in this case, to indulge in raucous, wildly subversive laughter." (p. 236)

Historical fiction ... it's hot!

This year's National Book Award nominees have been announced -- and an astounding three out of five in the fiction category are panelists who will be appearing at the Key West Literary Seminar in January. Wow. Peter Mathiessen, Marilynne Robinson and relative newcomer Rachel Kushner all made the short list. That's impressive. And there are still spots open in the second all-star weekend, so check it out. In other KWLS-related news, check out Littoral, the seminar's blog, if you don't already do so. Arlo Haskell has managed to do what many have tried and none fully pulled off before: he's publishing a high-quality Key West-centered literary journal. Single-handed. The web is a good thing, at least when it's being used for good and not to propagate thinly veiled racist political slander.

Update: Even as I was writing the above post, the New York Times' excellent book blog, Paper Cuts, was linking to Littoral. Yea Arlo! Yea Key West! We're in the big time now.