The London Review of Books hosted a panel on 21st Century Narrators at the Brooklyn Book Festival. LRB senior editor Christian Lorentzen moderated Elif Batuman, Ben Lerner, Christine Smallwood, and Lorin Stein in a discussion. Batuman is a non-fiction writer who regularly contributes to The New Yorker and author of The Possessed: Adventures with Russian Books and the People Who Read Them. Lerner is the author of the novels Leaving the Atocha Station and 10:04. Christine Smallwood is a columnist for Harper’s Magazine and Lorin Stein is the editor of Paris Review.

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As concerns over the football industry’s head traumas continue to rise, author Steve Almond has released a personal, moral examination of the sport implications for himself as a fan. Spoiler: he gave up watching. Against Football, described as a manifesto, explores Almond’s evolving views on the sport from the way players are treated to the message the game sends to viewers. He was joined at The Strand by Stephen Elliott, founder of The Rumpus, to discuss the book and the sport.

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Over the last century, labor has shifted away from a manual as a dominant form towards clerical office work. Nikil Saval’s book, Cubed, traces the history of this evolution and explores the limits of the office as a place for work. He celebrated the launch of the book at Powerhouse Arena with Chad Harbach, editor of the journal n+1 and author of The Art of Fielding (2011).

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Super Sad True Love Story (2010) turned Gary Shteyngart into a superstar. He is now the kind of author that fills venues. In January, he released a memoir, Little Failure. He met up with his longtime friend and fellow author Suketu Mehta at New York City’s Tenement Museum to discuss the book.

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D. Foy’s debut novel, Made to Break was sixteen years in the making. It is the story of five friends trapped in a mountain cabin as they explore their various failures and vicious behavior. He read from the novel at McNally Jackson and was joined in conversation by Sean Madigan Hoen. Soho Press will release Hoen’s memoir, Songs Only You Know next month. It examines his crumbling family alongside his time as an indie musician.

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In his latest book, biographer Blake Bailey has turned his attention to his own life and the lives of his family with memoir, The Splendid Things We Planned (February 2014). McNally Jackson hosted Bailey for a reading along with Darin Strauss for a conversation.

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Writer Jason Fagone was at Powerhouse Arena presenting his new book, Ingenious, a look at several teams chasing the hundred-mile-per-gallon-car X Prize challenge. Along with Fagone was X Prize contestant Kevin Smith of Illuminati Motor Works. Smith brought his entry, the Illuminati Motor Works 7. The car has since received a slightly updated body.

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To leave, or not to leave New York City is a question suddenly in the literati’s zeitgeist. Talk of leaving New York City began either in 1968 with the publication of Joan Didion’s essay “Goodbye to All That” or in October with the publication of a collection of essays Goodbye to All That: Writers on Loving and Leaving New York. The collection was edited by Sari Botton and immediately joined the conversation with a launch party at Powerhouse Arena.

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