In this clip, he discusses his new book (The Big Sort: Why the Clustering of Like-Minded America Is Tearing Us Apart), Texans buying more guns, and strange Austin lawn art: "My wife and I moved to Austin . . . we'd drive around and see neighbors with bowling ball art . . ." Jon Stewart tells Bishop at the end of the interview, "You live in a f*cked up neighborhood."...

There are coffee table books, and there are glittering behemoths, good behemoths, that happen to be book-shaped. Comic Book Tattoo, an anthology of standalone comics inspired by Tori Amos lyrics, comes alive in almost 500 pages of startlingly unique tales from over 80 different writers and illustrators. They provide a staggering artistic range – one moment you’re immersed in an oil painting, the next a photo realistic poem, then suddenly you’re smack in the middle of a stark black-white-red cityscape before emerging out of a bright cartoon....

A few related Austin Public Library notes of note- City of AustinAccording to a recent News8 article, the uses for the Public Library during times of dark-clouded economies (such as ours), are multitudinous. Instances of evidence: kids are kept busy in the children’s section, adults are kept busy searching for employment on the interweb terminals, and everyone else is kept busy waiting in the check-out check-out. A note on the Public Library's check-out check-out: if......

In case you missed our last post on the subject, heads up: a new kind of bookstore has arrived in Austin. Domy Books on Cesar Chavez is not BookPeople East-- there are no genres or categories to search by, no wall of classics or kitten calendars, just shelf after shelf of generously curated, visually oriented, hard-to-find titles. We could spend hours just browsing Domy's merchandise. To compliment the books, Domy also offers a small gallery space and an active calendar of nighttime events....

As the former deputy chief of the U.S Government’s counterterrorism division, he was in charge of keeping the world safe from pesky problems like nuclear war, large-scale attacks and the assassinations of high ranking officials—you know, the usual work stuff. His recently-published memoir, Ghost: Confessions of a Counterterrorism Agent, details his insomnia-inducing struggle to thwart the criminal plans of Libyan terrorist Abu Nidal, 1993 WTC bombing mastermind Ramzi Yousef, and various other evildoers. ...

What do you do when you finally get your life back and it’s broken? If you’re the heroine of Sarah Bird’s How Perfect is That, the self-monikered Blythe (née Chanterelle) Young, you toss back a cup of Red Bull, vodka, and Dexedrine and start hustling....

Domy Books, an independent bookseller stocked with special editions, hard-to-find periodicals and various media-related goodies, will celebrate the grand opening of its Austin store on Saturday. ...

I love Sarah Bird. I LOVE HER, PEOPLE, do you hear me? In case you aren’t familiar with Sarah, let me tell you a few things. Sarah is this incredible novelist whom Austin is fortunate enough to call our own. In 2006, she and I tied for Best Author in Austin in the Chronicle’s Best of Austin Poll. When this happened, I told Sarah that I felt like a dandelion that had been placed in a vase alongside a gorgeous long stemmed rose. I could not believe that I might share such an honor with a writer of Sarah’s caliber....

The Friends of the Austin Public Library are holding another Monster Book Sale this weekend. Books of all sorts will be available for $1 or $2 (at past sales, you could fill up a box of books for $10)....

The storm hit the Capitol last night, breaking windows and throwing down trees on the grounds. Was your property damaged by the storms last night? Kerouac's scroll manuscript of On the Road on display the the Ransom Center until June 1. Another Austin-area teacher in trouble for having improper relations with a student. California's supreme court says a state gay marriage ban is unconstitutional; Sen. Cornyn now set to work on a national ban. ...

The Harry Ransom Center at UT Austin today announced two impressive acquisitions to its already massive collection: letters from cherished American playwright Tennessee Williams and equally cherished American novelist John Steinbeck....

UT's Ransom Center has acquired the archives of Jim Crace, author of such award-winning novels as Being Dead (winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award) and Quarantine (Booker Prize shortlist)....

Tonight, before award-winning author Kevin Brockmeier's scheduled 7pm reading from his latest effort, The View from the Seventh Layer, BookPeople will host its first-ever Literary Cocktail Hour on their third floor. Fancy wines, fine cheeses and an unforgettably brilliant author will be available to all those savvy enough to show up....

Tomorrow evening, the 2008 Mayor's Book Club will have a finale celebration at City Hall. Ishmael Beah, the author of this year's selection A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, will be in attendance for a Q&A session led by UT Dean of Undergraduate Studies Paul Woodruff. ...

This is not a hoax. The Utter Reading Series, a monthly event featuring local and emerging writers, usually takes place on the first Tuesday of the month. It's just a coincidence that this month, it falls on April Fool's Day. This month's readers are not to be missed-- poet Miriam Bird Greenberg and fiction writer Matthew D. Stuart. Both are young, gifted, and Austinites. ...

This week's news in art, books, music, and film....

The Harry Ransom Center is not exactly known for its parties. No beverages, pens, or even white paper are allowed in their reading room. We have to give them credit for this event, however, It's unorthodox, it's ambitious, it has just the right alchemy between '50's-era jazzbo "hipsters" and the modern-day sort, and it might end up being the most amazing literary event in Austin this year....

14-year-old girl assaulted in the wee hours of Tuesday morning in Southeast Austin; police are looking for the suspect (who may be wounded from when the girl fought back). Federal jury will decide if police used excessive force on Ramon Hernandez in 2005. UT system raising tuition fees. Tejano star Emilio in medically-induced coma, but showing some improvement....

The week's news in the world of art, books, film and music....

Amy Hempel is a sort of hero for short story writers. While everyone else seems to eventually leave the form to take a crack at the Great American Novel, Hempel has spent thirty years moving in the opposite direction, into shorter and shorter stories. Possibly more than any other American writer, she can claim to be the creator of the "short short" form. It's still hard to argue that anyone does it better. She walks the line between fanciful irony and soft-hearted sentimentalism with a natural balance that would make David Berman jealous....

The week's news on arts, books, film and music....

Crane is at peak form when crafting worlds that her readers can easily relate to and recognize, even once they've taken an odd (if not outright bizarre) turn. Still, they're ultimately anchored in the honesty of the most basic of human emotions and needs, as in the near-realism of "Donovan's Closet": in a town not unlike Austin—where "you could weave a tapestry from the mutton chops alone"—we witness a relationship fall apart as the story's protagonist becomes obsessed with her boyfriend's lemon-scented closet....

The week's news on arts, books, film and music....

The week's news on arts, books, film and music....

ImageAfter Art Article discusses the possibility that museums have begun to exceed their usefulness for appreciating art, due to overcrowding. Kind of a snobby article, but it raises interesting points. /// A museum in Cologne, Germany, discovers that one of its Monet paintings is a forgery. /// This Saturday, the Austin Museum of Art will host its "Artists Boot Camp" series for the city's emerging artists. Books Border's bookstore goes digital - and how! ///......

Haven't had enough of Valentine's Day yet? Ever secretly wanted to take a date to the Harry Ransom Center, but went for $2 Tecates at some hipster dive instead? This Friday, for one night only, the HRC is heading to the Eastside, celebrating love, the birth of hip, and the "starving, hysterical, naked" visions of the Beat Generation. Sounds hot....

Two months ago, we let you know about the Austin Chronicle's annual Short Story contest, open to aspiring writers from Texas and the world. This Wednesday, the winners will be unveiled at a BookPeople gala, catered by Austin Java. ...

Hillary Clinton says we really matter! Texan self-esteem at an all-time high (and that's saying something). GM wants to buy out every single one of its United States hourly workers. Texas beats No. 3 Kansas in basketball, 72-69, in front of a sold-out Erwin Center. By 2050, one in five Americans will be foreign-born, survey saith. ...

ImageAfter Art Last Wednesday, a Francis Bacon triptych sold at a Christie's auction for about $51 million. This is the highest price ever paid at a European auction for a post-war work. The sale, according to Christie's, demonstrates "the underlying, continued strength of the market" for art across the world. /// Actor Randy Quaid has been "banned for life" from the Actors' Equity Association, the labor union for American stage actors, for "physically and verbally"......

The Utter Reading Series is back tomorrow, with more pathos than Hillary, more transcendance than Barack, more grit than McCain, and more exposure (for local writers) than a bead-strewn balcony on Bourbon Street. As always, the reading is free and open to the public, and the audience is invited to join the readers afterwards for drinks and conversation at Opal Divine's on 6th....