As the New York Times feature “Even Critics of Safety Net Increasingly Depend On It” reveals, the only thing that Americans seem to agree on is “the problem” is someone else.
The related chart highlights that the states that gripe the most about “big government spending” are also the ones that consume the most of it.
I’ve been meaning to mention this for a long time, but FLYMF alum Angela Lovell has published a young-adult vampire novel, “Blood Drunk.”
As she describes it on her website:
With summer waning quickly before the start of his senior year, a family emergency forces Blue Knightly to leave his small Midwest town and travel to New York City to locate his rebellious sister. From the morgue to Central Park to the underbelly of New York, he quickly discovers the big city is the least of his concerns as he reluctantly takes sides within a warring faction of vampires to unravel the mystery of his sister’s disappearance. In their underground world of abandoned subway tunnels, Blue finds himself falling for a femme fatale vampire whose vibe is seldom clear. Not knowing who to trust, Blue finds himself battling not only the undead, but his own heart, as the family crisis escalates and every decision could be his last.
I picked up a copy for my cousin for Christmas, and I look forward to ordering my own as soon as I can shake a few bucks together. I’m sure it’s extremely creative, dark and hilarious.
Angela’s very funny story, “I’ll Have My Rapist with a Side of Cranberry Sauce” was published in FLYMF’s Greatest Hits. Her other contributions to FLYMF include The Lawnballers, Never Judge An Artist By Her Vagina Dress (Or Lack Thereof), The Troll Made Me Do It and her excellent Whorescopes series.
This full collection of Larkin’s poems exhaustively explores his main preoccupations: death, sex and a sense of being set apart that’s simultaneously embraced and lamented. He’s at his best when the loss is leavened with humor, as in the famous Annus Mirabilis. Several of the poems suggest deep relationships with women, but many more objectify them, often in a juvenile “every woman excites the flesh” manner.
On whole the poems are excellent, though. They contain wry, understated takes on social living and limitations. The contradictions he suggests are fun to spend time with. However, for first exposure to Larkin, I would suggest “High Windows,” which contains most of his best poems.
Favorites here include “Mother, Summer, I“; “At thirty-one, when some are rich”; “MCMXIV“; “High Windows”; “Annus Mirabilis“; “This Be the Verse“; and “Vers de Societe.”
On the Imprint design blog, J.J. Sedelmaier has an exhaustive take on the gorgeous posters that were used to advertise Chicago rail service in the 1920s. The South Shore line stretched as far as my hometown of South Bend, Indiana, meaning replicas of these prints could be seen in some of the fancier shops around town growing up. I still love looking at them, and all of them are shared in the post.
Alice Munro has another gem in the November 28 issue of the New Yorker: Leaving Maverley. I don’t know anyone else as good at capturing the sweep of a lifetime in such little space.