Sounds Intriguing #2

Lately noted:

Via The Millions: The Elegance of the Hedgehog - Muriel Barbary. Crabby female concierge is a closet autodidact. Translated from the French.

An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England - Brock Clarke. Apparently the arson was an accident...?

Spotted in the Library's New Books section: Sacramental Life - Spiritual Formation through the Book of Common Prayer - David A. DeSilva. Liturgical sympathies are (and have been) on the rise in unexpected circles, which fascinates me.

Via Sam: The works of Katherine Anne Porter.

Via Lots of Places: All The Sad Young Literary Men - Keith Gessen. Allegedly sympathetic but not maudlin account of the post-undergrad intellectual deflation.

Found in a several-months old email to myself; I clearly cut-and-pasted it from somewhere, but I've no idea where or why:
A History of Western Philosophy by Bertrand Russell, The Executioner’s Song by Norman Mailer, Sophie’s Choice by William Styron, or Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison

A Great Idea at the Time - Alex Beam. A comic critical expose' of the mid-century Great Books movement and its eminent champion, Mortimer Adler.