At first glance, one may not realize that Anne Lamott's latest novel, Imperfect Birds, is the final piece of a trilogy--or as her faithful readers may call it--the last book in the "Rosie" series. Imperfect Birds stands on its own as a novel quite perfectly, in fact. The characters, the setting, and the plot are all introduced in full detail, as if they hadn't already played their roles in Lamott's previous novels, Rosie and Crooked Little Heart. more ›

FANTASTIC FICTION SALON: Novelist, nonfiction author, and short story writer Terry Bisson has swept every honor in the science fiction field as well as France's Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire. He joins Hugo House's Writing Fantastic Fiction workshop series, where he will teach "Who Likes Short Shorts? We Like Short Shorts!" more ›

"Are you disappointed that more people aren't converting to atheism after seeing your show?" That (loosely paraphrased) was the question that kicked off Ira Glass' conversation with Julia Sweeney on Saturday night. "No. I'm not really that conceited," replied Sweeney. (Again, paraphrased. We did not smuggle in a recording device.) more ›

Lots of people love Anne Lamott. Us? Well, we're big fans of Bird by Bird, and moderate fans of Operating Instructions. Then, around the time Traveling Mercies came out, we kind of burned out on Annie. We're not sure if she's gotten more precious as time goes on, or if we've just gotten more sensitive to it, but over the years, as we read more and more of her Salon.com columns, we became less and less enthralled. more ›