Thursday Links

Here are some links for your browsing perusal:

- Interesting Christianity Today article by Ted Olsen: (A Bit Less) Positive About Potter:

"Harry Potter books and films have been attacked in the past by evangelicals for allegedly glamorizing the occult," say the papers. But Christians "are now eschewing condemnation for praise, embracing Ms. Rowling's tales as powerful religious fables for our time."

It's a narrative as fictional as the Potter books themselves. In late 1999, I noted that, contrary to media reports, no major Christian leader had spoken against the Harry Potter series, and several had actually supported the books. Some readers were upset with my summary, but the most prominent critic they could come up with at that time was Texas pastor John Hagee. Four books and five films later, it's time for an update to that piece.

- As part of a new marketing strategy author Brad Thor will be using BlogTalkRadio for a book tour:

Breaking the paradigm for the traditional, in-store author book tour, on July 26, 9:00 pm EST, Brad will log onto BlogTalkRadio, and open the phone lines for discussion of The First Commandment. Fans around the world can listen online via Brad's page or on their phones by calling: (646) 478-5945. Fans can also interact with Brad by using BTR's, "click to talk" feature online or using the same phone line they're using to tune in. The entire program is live via Internet stream and will be archived on BlogTalkRadio and made available as a subscribable podcast. As a special bonus for BlogTalkRadio listeners, Brad will also be signing books for a select group of fans who tune in to be distributed after the show.

- Bold Type has a new issue out:

This month we go a little bit country with a bevy of books that will transport you far from the concrete jungle. There's a surprisingly gripping account of the world's biggest trees and the people who love them, as well as a new history tome that exhumes a neglected chapter of the Civil Rights movement, and a memoir by a pair of Canadian writers who decided to mini-size their diet by only eating locally. In the fiction department, Sherman Alexie charts cycles of violence in his new novel, while Norwegian writer Per Petterson plumbs the dark echoes of a pastoral past, and novelist Matthew Sharpe won't let history be, imagining a post-apocalyptic Jamestown. Equally marvelous is a monograph of stunning landscapes and interiors by Swedish painter Mamma Andersson. We conclude with an interview with Shannon Ravenel of Algonquin Books, who edited and published the last, unfinished novel by the late Southern fiction titan Larry Brown.

- If you are part of a Book Club or want to join one, check out Simon and Schuster's Book Club Resources. They have launched on online book club themselves. The pick for July was The Last Days of Dogtown By Anita Diamant. Visit the Book Club Reader Discussion Board to post your opinion of the book, hear what others think, and converse with author, Anita Diamant herself. The August pick is America's Report Card By John McNally