Thursday's Notes

Edward Wong,"The Dead Tell a Tale China Doesn't Care to Listen To," NYT, 18 November, reports on an exhibit of ancient mummies in China's Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region and their story that Beijing doesn't want told.

Mary Beard has tried her hand with Google Earth's and the University of Virginia's virtual recreation of ancient Rome. It might have been more satisfactory if she had more experience at a pinball machine.

Jacqueline Trescott,"America's Attic Is Ready for Its Public," Washington Post, 20 November, previews the re-opening of DC's National Museum of American History.

Samuel P. Jacobs,"A talk with Jane Kamensky and Jill Lepore," Boston Globe, 16 November, explores the two historians' decision to write a work of historical fiction. Thanks to Manan Ahmed for the tip.

Annette Gordon-Reid's The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family has won the National Book Award for Non-Fiction, 2008. The other nominees included: Drew Gilpin Faust's This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War, Jane Mayer's The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals, Jim Sheeler's Final Salute: A Story of Unfinished Lives, and Joan Wickersham's The Suicide Index: Putting My Father's Death in Order.

Blake Bailey,"No Memory for Pain: John Cheever Begins," VQR, Fall, previews Bailey's forthcoming biography of Cheever. Hat tip.

Dwight Gardner,"V. S. Naipaul, a Man Who Has Earned a Knighthood, a Nobel and Enemies Galore," NYT, 18 November, reviews Patrick French's The World Is What It Is: The Authorized Biography of V. S. Naipaul.