One of the better bits of casting for The Golden Compass has to be Sam Elliott as Lee Scoresby. (And do please take a moment to read about the real Scoresby who was Philip Pullman's inspiration for the character.) Cowboys and Indians magazine has an interview with him this month - the full article is only in print but here's a bit:

But a history of playing quintessential Western characters is, Elliott says, what got him his role in The Golden Compass. “The director, Chris Weitz, told me his take on it was that this guy, Lee Scoresby, is a classic, iconic, laconic American cowboy,” Elliott says. “How am I going to turn that down? Chris is a very bright man. He pushed the right button — the one that says ‘ego massage.’ Actors like that, you know. I guess we all do.

I'm also quite pleased with Nicole Kidman in the movie - I think she will make a perfect Mrs. Coulter (all ice and fire).

There are many films that could stand a remake but Footloose? I would classify this one as a crime against nature. (And don't even get me started on the Zac Efron casting.)

Due out next April Joyce Carol Oates has a story collection about the last days of Poe, Dickinson, Twain, James [Henry] and Hemingway. As reviewed in the latest Booklist by my wonderful editor, Donna Seaman, "Oates is by turns mischievously witty, superbly macabre, and exquisitely sensitive as she parlays bravado literary criticism into shivery stories that undermine iconic figures."

For all those who thought Mike Snider was insane with his assessment of Conan the Barbarian ("Conan the Barbarian, brought to life more than 25 years ago by now-Calif. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, is once again battling for pop culture relevance.") take heart that Paul Sammon has a book with all Conan's (and creator Robert E. Howard's) illustrious history. After reading Conan the Phenomenon do go rent The Whole Wide World, about Howard's life; it's lovely. (Oh and get this - Sammon is a "Robert E. Howard scholar and Conan historian" - how much fun does that sound like?!)

Miranda July's next book sounds a collection of daily affirmations - and not in a good way. Do people really "Make a child's outfit in an adult size...and wear it as much as possible" and then tell other people about it? I see a graduate thesis about America in here somewhere....

I just finished reading Molly Gloss's The Hearts of Horses - I'm going to include it in my December column (which is really getting bigger and bigger by the minute) even though this is another adult book. It's really lovely - and I mean that exact choice of word - it's lovely. She sucked me into this quiet story about a teenage girl making a living breaking horses in Oregon during WWI. There's so much more than I expected in this quiet novel - it's superb.

Andrea Barrett, author of Ship Fever and the brand new The Air We Breathe, has a new interview up where she discusses how she researched for her book:

Irene learned to use X-rays almost immediately after they were discovered; and she, along with a handful of other people across the country, was one of those who refined imaging techniques for medical purposes. What happened to her as a result was common in those years; everyone viewed X-rays as a benign, even curative phenomenon, and no one suspected the long-term damage they caused. Some did notice that their hands grew red, or even blistered, but they assumed this was a transient burn—no more serious, say, than a sunburn. It was almost a decade after Irene’s first experiments before practitioners took shielding and long-term dosage accumulations seriously.

She is one of my favorite authors - so very smart in every word she chooses. I haven't read this one yet, but I'm looking forward to it.