My Cozy Hometown Paper: The NYT

I may be living 1775 miles west of my native Manhattan, but the New York Times is still much more relevant to me than the Denver Post. As I perused the Times over breakfast by the kitchen window a little while ago, I felt like I was living in a small town. And that wasn't just because I was overlooking my little patch of garden; there were so many mentions of people I know that I could have been reading The Weekly Almanac (a Northeast PA paper that I wrote for nearly 20 years ago) instead of The Newspaper of Record.

Baratunde Thurston, BP 101 workshop alum and perennial BEA Saturday Book & Author Breakfast date, got this quote in "Democratic Candidates Spar at ‘Netroots’ Forum":

“What you have here is a bunch of micro-media outlets that connect to thousands upon thousands of people — influential people,” said Baratunde Thurston, who writes a political blog in Boston. “The candidates would be foolish to miss out on an opportunity like this.”

In the Book Review, the Fiction Review gave a thumbs up to Timothy Schaffert's Devils in the Sugar Shop. (See his wonderful story of thanks in my post A Grace Note of Gratitude.)

Also in the Book Review, there's a full-page review by Philip Lopate of Patrick McGilligan's biography, OSCAR MICHEAUX: The Great and Only: The Life of America’s First Black Filmmaker. Pat interviewed my father for TENDER COMRADES: A Backstory of the Hollywood Blacklist and was on a panel I moderated at the VaBook Festival a couple of years ago, "The Hollywood Blacklist: Why Does It Still Matter?"

And for the true flavor of a hometown rag, there's the lede in the final paragraph of Lisa Fugard's otherwise excellent review of DOWN THE NILE: Alone in a Fisherman’s Skiff by Rosemary Mahoney:

With her sinuous and richly textured writing and her eye for vivid and startling details

My reaction (after swallowing my coffee): "OWWOOOO!"

Apparently Fugard and the editors at the NYTBR haven't read "Bella's Rules for Reviewing" on my writing website. Rule #6 states:

Shun these over-used phrases & words:

• richly textured (my #1 pet peeve; do a Google search & it'll be yours too.)
• luminous prose
• page-turner
• keen eye for telling detail
• a book that you can't put down
• till long after the last page is turned
• gripping, compelling, intriguing, interesting
• [see more in Circle of clichés]