A Lady, Will Ferguson, And All That's Spooky Scary

Congratulations to Will Ferguson, for winning the 2012 Scotiabank Giller prize for his novel, 419. And congratulations, I guess, to both Jacob McArthur Mooney and John Barber for calling it early.

Joyce Carol Oates salutes Norman Mailer, for taking the freedom to do his own thing.

Jane Austen is commonly thought to be the quote-unquote mother of chicklit (ugh), but the fact is that men can really dig her social romances too. As they have since she started writing them. I mean, at least one man, William Deresiewicz, has gone on the record and claimed that Jane Austen—or rather, her novels, have taught him the very meaning of manhood. Which is like, whoa. In a roundabout way, you could also say that Jane Austen taught me the very meaning of Colin Firth.

Some goulish pulp covers are particularly spooky scary. Kinda like The Turn of the Screw. Less scary, but still spooky: an illustrated “Tell Tale Heart.”