DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

☆ New York and Hollywood Lore by Amor Towles (Martini Optional)
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-30 | by ( Hamilton Cain | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

TABLE FOR TWO: Fictions, by Amor TowlesFew literary stylists not named Ann Patchett attain best-sellerdom, but Amor Towles makes the cut. His three lauded novels — “Rules of Civility,” “A Gentleman in Moscow” and “The Lincoln Highway” — hung around on lists for months, if not years. The book spans the 20th century, bringing characters from a range of backgrounds into tableaus of deceit and desire. Towles devotes the first section to New York, its wealthy and famous shuffling against strivers and innocents in La Guardia terminals, musty bookstores or immigrant communities. In “The Line,” a naïve Communist builds a lucrative business that steers him to Manhattan, where con games lurk on every corner.

Persons: Amor Towles, Ann Patchett, ”, Towles, Timothy Touchett, Pennybrook, he’s Organizations: Carnegie, Motorola, Nokia Locations: Moscow ”, Lincoln, New York, Los Angeles, La Guardia, Communist, Manhattan

NEW YORK (AP) — Novels by James McBride and Alice McDermott and a short story collection by Jamel Brinkley are among the 10 books on the longlist for one of the literary world's top prizes, the PEN/Faulkner award for fiction. The settings for nominated books range from a 1930s Pennsylvania community in McBride's “The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store” to 1960s Saigon in McDermott's “Absolution.” The list also includes, Brinkley's “Witness,” Catherine Lacey's “Biography of X,” Emma Cline's “The Guest,” Daniel Clowes' “Monica” and Claire Jiménez's “What Happened to Ruthy Ramirez.”The other nominees are Henry Hoke's “Open Throat," Nishanth Injam's “The Best Possible Experience" and Colin Winnette's “Users.”"This year’s list is a powerful reminder that American literature matters more than ever,” awards committee chair Louis Bayard said in a statement Tuesday. “We are delighted to celebrate these gifted authors and the multivarious worlds they have brought to life.”The list will be pared to five finalists next month, with the winner to be announced in April. Previous PEN/Faulkner winners include Philip Roth, Ann Patchett and Imbolo Mbue,Photos You Should See View All 45 Images

Persons: James McBride, Alice McDermott, Jamel Brinkley, Faulkner, Brinkley's, ” Catherine Lacey's “, Emma Cline's “, ” Daniel Clowes, Monica ”, Claire Jiménez's, Ruthy Ramirez, ”, Henry Hoke's, Colin Winnette's “, Louis Bayard, “, Philip Roth, Ann Patchett, Imbolo Organizations: PEN Locations: Pennsylvania, McBride's, Saigon, McDermott's

☆ Ann Patchett Shares Her Reading Resolutions for 2024
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-27 | by ( Lane Florsheim | Photography Whitten Sabbatini For Wsj. Magazine | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

ANN PATCHETT, the author of nine novels, four nonfiction books and two children’s books, recently officiated a wedding in Nashville, where she lives. Preparing brought her back to her 20s, when she wrote so frequently for the magazine Bridal Guide that some issues were populated entirely by her articles, bylined under different names. For one assignment, Patchett called every happily married person she knew to ask for one pro tip on maintaining a successful union. The advice she got from her stepmother has stayed with her ever since.

Persons: Patchett Locations: Nashville

☆ I lived like a monk for 48 hours, and it helped me break 3 of my worst habits—here's how
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-19 | by ( Megan Sauer | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

I tried living like a monk for 48 hours. It's unusual for me to go 48 seconds without talking or checking my phone, let alone two days. I was inspired by the University of Pennsylvania's "monk class," actually called "Living Deliberately." I wanted to achieve that level of awareness, but my livelihood depends on my voice and three-pound work laptop. A seven-day break from Twitter and TikTok reduced levels of depression and anxiety in a small randomized trial, U.K.-based University of Bath researchers found last year.

Persons: Justin McDaniel, Monks, Ann Patchett's, Tom Lake, I've, —, McDaniel Organizations: University of Pennsylvania's, Ivy League, Twitter, of Bath, University of Pennsylvania

☆ Audiobook of the Week: Meryl Streep Would Like to Tell You a Story
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-01 | by ( Jane Hu | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Deciding what audiobook to listen to requires its own special calculus, related to but distinct from the factors we consider when picking a book off a shelf. TOM LAKE, by Ann Patchett. Meryl Streep, who has lent her voice to audiobook renditions of Nora Ephron’s “Heartburn” and E.B. White’s “Charlotte’s Web,” is ideal for narrating “Tom Lake,” Ann Patchett’s sentimental new novel about a Midwestern family. And the plot of “Tom Lake” is organized around one woman who does just that: She tells her children an extended story.

Persons: Ann Patchett, Read, Meryl Streep, Nora Ephron’s “, Tom Lake, ” Ann Patchett’s, Tom Lake ” Organizations: TOM

☆ ‘Tom Lake’ Author Ann Patchett Couldn’t Read Until the Third Grade, So She Made Up Stories
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-22 | by ( Marc Myers | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. Distribution and use of this material are governed by our Subscriber Agreement and by copyright law. For non-personal use or to order multiple copies, please contact Dow Jones Reprints at 1-800-843-0008 or visit www.djreprints.com. https://www.wsj.com/real-estate/tom-lake-author-ann-patchett-couldnt-read-until-the-third-grade-so-she-made-up-stories-fefd68b9

Persons: Dow Jones

☆ Opinion | Proof That One Life Can Change the World
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-14 | by ( Margaret Renkl | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Even before Nashville’s swift and stunning growth began to gentrify working-class and impoverished neighborhoods, Father Strobel had already become our civic conscience. What he understood is the difference between charity and community — a difference founded in kinship, in recognizing that we all fall down, that sometimes it takes another hand to pull us up again. One cold night he looked out the rectory window and saw people sitting in cars in the church parking lot, trying to keep warm. Image Charles Strobel Credit... Room in The Inn, Nashville“I knew once they came through the doors that night, they would come back the next night and the night after that,” he often said. “I also knew I wanted them to come back.”

Persons: You’ve, Charles Strobel, Father Strobel, ”, Ann Patchett, “, Strobel, gadfly, Nashville “ Organizations: Holy Name Catholic Church Locations: Nashville, East Nashville, The Inn

☆ Ann Patchett on Summer Love and Her New Novel
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-04 | by ( ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Ann Patchett’s new novel, “Tom Lake,” is set in northern Michigan during the early days of pandemic lockdown, and centers on a mother telling her grown daughters about the summer fling she had in her youth with an actor who went on to become a big star. “If a person writes a book about a serial killer, no one ever comes back around and says, This isn’t realistic,” Patchett says. It’s — do you want me to put some zombies in my novel? I have been on the receiving end of endless kindness and love in my life. We would love to hear your thoughts about this episode, and about the Book Review’s podcast in general.

Persons: Ann Patchett’s, Tom Lake, Alexandra Jacobs, Tom Lake ”, Gilbert Cruz, Patchett, It’s, ” Patchett, Thornton Wilder’s Organizations: Times, Parnassus Locations: Michigan, Nashville, Tenn

☆ ‘Tom Lake’ Finds Ann Patchett in a Chekhovian Mood
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-30 | by ( Alexandra Jacobs | More About Alexandra Jacobs | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Are you in possession of a hammock? A bay window with built-in seating? If not, Ann Patchett’s new novel, “Tom Lake,” will situate you there mentally. I wouldn’t be surprised if it put your fitness tracker on the fritz, even if you amble around listening to Meryl Streep read the audio version. With “Tom Lake,” she treats us — and perhaps herself — to a vision of a family beautifully, bucolically simple: nuclear, in its pre-bomb meaning.

Persons: Ann Patchett’s, Tom Lake, fritz, Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks’s, —, Patchett, ” Locations: Nashville

☆ Hua Hsu Wants to Know Who Wrote the Zine ‘Secret Asian Man’
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-13 | by ( ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

A collection of these issues would undoubtedly be my favorite book that no one has heard of. I’ve always wanted to know who made this zine, and if there are any issues I am missing, and if I could republish them. Because of some scheduling issues, the only free days to do the audiobook came at the end of July. The day I had to narrate the book’s central trauma landed on the actual day it had happened 24 years earlier. But the best form of creative expression that takes friendship as a central concern is rap music.

Persons: Breton, Philippe Soupault’s, Hegel, “, ”, I’ve, Andrew O’Hagan’s “, ” Ann Patchett’s “, Gail Caldwell’s “, Tracey Thorn’s “ Organizations: Village Locations: Seattle , New York, Paris

☆ Lorrie Moore’s Intimate Secrets
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-17 | by ( Dan Kois | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +4 min

In Moore’s stories, funny people banter with their loved ones as playfully as we all do, creating little bubbles around our relationships. After the publication of “Self-Help,” she became one of the most intriguing young writers in America, but her real life felt different. Loving Moore’s work, in those days, felt like belonging to a kind of secret society. “I call her the It Girl,” said Victoria Wilson, Moore’s editor of nearly 40 years at Knopf. Moore’s characters only sometimes resemble her, but the crises they’re undergoing always mirrored her own life, and thus the ongoing lives of the readers who loved her the most.

Persons: Cornell —, —, ”, Sidik Fofana, Moore, ” Moore, Dana Spiotta, “, ” Spiotta, Victoria Wilson, Lorrie, ” Ann Patchett, ” Patchett, ” Wilson, — women’s, Carver Organizations: Cornell, University of Wisconsin, Knopf, Iowa, ’ Locations: America, Manhattan, Madison, Wis

☆ Biden honors Springsteen, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Mindy Kaling
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-21 | by ( Steve Holland | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

REUTERS/Kevin LamarqueWASHINGTON, March 21 (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden made an observation when conferring the National Medal of Arts on rocker Bruce Springsteen on Tuesday: "Bruce, some people are just born to run, man." Springsteen and a host of actors, authors, singers and other artists joined Biden in the White House East Room where they received either a National Medal of Arts or National Humanities Medal for their contributions to American society. Comedian Julia Louis-Dreyfus, whose "Veep" show made light of the vice presidency - an office Biden once held - was also honored. Actress Mindy Kaling, a main character on the long-running television show, "The Office," set in Biden's hometown of Scranton, Pennsylvania, received a medal as well. "I'm trying to go back to back myself," said Biden, who has said he intends to run for re-election in 2024.

☆ Murdoch deal will struggle to be fair and balanced
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-17 | by ( Jeffrey Goldfarb | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

A decade ago, Murdoch split his movies-to-books empire because it had become too broad and complex. As it stands, both $16 billion Fox and $10 billion News Corp suffer from significant valuation discounts, partly due to their common owner’s grip. It owns roughly 62% of Australian housing portal REA, a stake worth $6.7 billion based on its Wednesday closing price in Sydney. On the same 16 times multiple as New York Times (NYT.N), it would be worth about $8 billion. Rupert Murdoch and his family trust control about 42% of Fox voting shares and 39% of News Corp voting shares.

Search resuls for: "Ann Patchett"

13 mentions found