This Is Your Best Shot to Finish a Pynchon Novel

An editor was likely the one to polish her prose, says professor

(NEWSER) - Jane Austen is known as a “perfect stylist,” but those perfectly crafted sentences may not actually be hers. After studying 1,100 pages of Austen’s handwritten, unpublished manuscripts, an Oxford professor concluded that “the polished punctuation and epigrammatic style … is simply not there,” she tells the BBC . In its place is a more free-flowing, somewhat untidy style, featuring limited punctuation. More»

Howard Jacobson's comic novel is 'profound,' 'wise'

(NEWSER) - The writer who once called the Man Booker Prize an "absolute abomination" was last night awarded the prize for his 11th novel, The Finkler Question. Howard Jacobson, who calls himself "the Jewish Jane Austen," was “truly flabbergasted” by the honor, reports the Telegraph . “I was beginning to look like I was the novelist that never, ever won the Booker Prize,” he says. "I’ve been around for nearly 30 years, but at least they’re discovering me." More»

Jonathan Franzen's 'Freedom' lands coveted book club slot

(NEWSER) - Nine years after Oprah Winfrey chose Jonathan Franzen's The Corrections for her book club, and the "uncomfortable" novelist talked his way out of appearing on her show, he's getting another chance, reports the New York Post . The media magnate's people won't confirm the Oprah's Book Club selection—likely the last, because her show is ending —but multiple booksellers tell the AP the highly touted Freedom will get the nod tomorrow. More»

'The Day I Shot Cupid' is a mess, but an entertaining one

(NEWSER) - Jennifer Love Hewitt wrote a book of advice about love, which is just as ridiculous as it sounds. “Here are 10 completely awesome things that happen in this book,” writes Linda Holmes for NPR :

1. Hewitt admits to visiting and trying on her “dream ring” once a month since she was 12. She is now 31. “If this is true, she has made roughly 225 trips to the jewelry store to try on engagement rings. I do not know where to go with this.”
2. Among her recommendations: Make out with a stranger to get over a breakup—but only if he’s “gorgeous”—and always spray tan before a date.

Nick Hornby, Judy Blume, and more weigh in

(NEWSER) - What was the best book of the year? Salon asked Nick Hornby, Junot Diaz, Curtis Sittenfeld, and other people with better literary credentials than ours what they enjoyed in 2009. Their responses are in the photo gallery. More»