Anna Dresner to discuss accessible social networking on TechTalk

Anna Dresner will discuss her book,
"Social Networking and You: Twitter,
Facebook and LinkedIn for Blind Users," on Tek Talk next Monday, April 19th. Find out how to listen to the show below, and be sure to get your
copy of Anna's book today (buy it or download it instantly at:
http://www.nbp.org/ic/nbp/SOCIAL.html )

Accessible World Tek Talk presents An Introduction to Social Networking,
April 19, 2010
Time: 5:00 PM PDT, 6:00 PM MDT, 7:00 PM CDT, and 8:00 PM EDT, and
elsewhere in the world Tuesday 0:00 GMT
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Book reviews: The City and the City + The Little Sleep

_The City & The City_ by China Mieville (Del Rey, 2009)
_The Little Sleep: A Novel_ by Paul Tremblay (Holt Paperbacks, 2009)-

These two novels, along with _The Manual of Detection_ by Jedediah Berry, are three of the most notable offspring of a new subgenre, noird or weird-boiled noir, which is what you get when you cross speculative fiction with noir. I say "new subgenre" but, as China Mieville blogged about it last summer, I'm probably just betraying the fact that I am hopelessly unhip. Still, if you want to see the baby pictures I recommend Tremblay's post about the term "weird-boiled" on The Little Sleep blog http://thelittlesleep.wordpress.com/2009/06/19/weirdboiled-or-noird/ or you can read China Meiville's more ephemeral discription here http://www.omnivoracious.com/2009/06/neither-a-contract-nor-a-promise-five-movements-to-watch-out-for.html and Jeff Vander Meer's discussion of the term re Jedediah Berry’s _The Manual of Detection_ here http://www.jeffvandermeer.com/2009/01/23/something-strange-stirring-in-the-noir-jedediah- berrys-the-manual-of-detection/
To a large degree, however, the sometimes self-conscious litcrit is superfluous: this noir does what it has always done, namely, to use the recognizably gothic decay of urban landscapes and architecture to cast a flickering light on the interior landscape of the modern psyche, complete with its own particular non-supernatural incarnations of ghosts, ghouls, and vampires.

After all, a modern city is just as capable of hiding old secrets or a meglomaniacal madman as any medieval castle. Probably even better, because there are more forgotten spaces in which to hide and more strangers to suspect. As with the best gothics, the exterior confusion and corruption merely hints at the interior darkness.
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