Levi Stahl
@levistahl.bsky.social
Editor of The Getaway Car: A Donald Westlake Nonfiction Miscellany and The Daily Sherlock Holmes. Marketing Director at the University of Chicago Press. Board member of the Uptown People’s Law Center.
Continuing my quest to make sure the nieces and nephews on both sides of the family are among the top 1% of their age cohort in Burt Reynolds Awareness.
November 28, 2025 at 5:31 PM
Continuing my quest to make sure the nieces and nephews on both sides of the family are among the top 1% of their age cohort in Burt Reynolds Awareness.
I heard the door close with a little tick of finality, like the last shovel-pat over a filled-in grave.
—Donald E. Westlake, Somebody Owes Me Money
—Donald E. Westlake, Somebody Owes Me Money
November 28, 2025 at 5:21 PM
I heard the door close with a little tick of finality, like the last shovel-pat over a filled-in grave.
—Donald E. Westlake, Somebody Owes Me Money
—Donald E. Westlake, Somebody Owes Me Money
I remember the first Christmas I worked at a little CD store in college, watching the owner stock up on boxed sets and fast movers, realizing for the first time the inventory risk that small retail takes on to be ready for the holidays. Go buy some books from EBB! They have the inventory for you!
Some of you may recall my laments last year around this time about how we were reopening short a lot of books that had yet to arrive from slowwwwwww distributors.
No comment about the speed of said distributors these days, but oh wow do we ever have enough books.
No comment about the speed of said distributors these days, but oh wow do we ever have enough books.
November 28, 2025 at 5:18 PM
I remember the first Christmas I worked at a little CD store in college, watching the owner stock up on boxed sets and fast movers, realizing for the first time the inventory risk that small retail takes on to be ready for the holidays. Go buy some books from EBB! They have the inventory for you!
OMG, right there in the photo is an incredibly engrossing novel of WWII, Irwin Shaw’s The Young Lions. It stands with the best of the immediate postwar reckonings by veterans.
And y’all have already heard me yammer about A River Runs Through It, one of my very favorite books.
And y’all have already heard me yammer about A River Runs Through It, one of my very favorite books.
Browsing our sitewide sale and not sure where to start? Have a look at these customer favorites, including selections in fiction, philosophy, nature, and more. And get 30% off everything on our site through December 3 using the code HOLIDAY25.
🛍️ Shop here: buff.ly/zQhPoCx
🛍️ Shop here: buff.ly/zQhPoCx
November 28, 2025 at 4:33 PM
OMG, right there in the photo is an incredibly engrossing novel of WWII, Irwin Shaw’s The Young Lions. It stands with the best of the immediate postwar reckonings by veterans.
And y’all have already heard me yammer about A River Runs Through It, one of my very favorite books.
And y’all have already heard me yammer about A River Runs Through It, one of my very favorite books.
Reposted by Levi Stahl
Browsing our sitewide sale and not sure where to start? Have a look at these customer favorites, including selections in fiction, philosophy, nature, and more. And get 30% off everything on our site through December 3 using the code HOLIDAY25.
🛍️ Shop here: buff.ly/zQhPoCx
🛍️ Shop here: buff.ly/zQhPoCx
November 28, 2025 at 4:30 PM
Browsing our sitewide sale and not sure where to start? Have a look at these customer favorites, including selections in fiction, philosophy, nature, and more. And get 30% off everything on our site through December 3 using the code HOLIDAY25.
🛍️ Shop here: buff.ly/zQhPoCx
🛍️ Shop here: buff.ly/zQhPoCx
You’re dealing with the public all day long, but only as individuals, one or two at a time. People are best one or two at a time.
—Donald E. Westlake, Somebody Owes Me Money
—Donald E. Westlake, Somebody Owes Me Money
November 28, 2025 at 3:52 PM
You’re dealing with the public all day long, but only as individuals, one or two at a time. People are best one or two at a time.
—Donald E. Westlake, Somebody Owes Me Money
—Donald E. Westlake, Somebody Owes Me Money
Re-reading what may be my favorite non-Parker Donald Westlake novel, Somebody Owes Me Money. How could you stop reading after this opening line?
November 28, 2025 at 3:49 PM
Re-reading what may be my favorite non-Parker Donald Westlake novel, Somebody Owes Me Money. How could you stop reading after this opening line?
This is specifically about building dry stone walls, but it’s broadly applicable, & something I have to remind myself of. I find it most often with piano or running—some days, you just suck and it’s hard. For some reason, it’s just not going to go, & you might as well give up and do something else.
November 28, 2025 at 3:44 PM
This is specifically about building dry stone walls, but it’s broadly applicable, & something I have to remind myself of. I find it most often with piano or running—some days, you just suck and it’s hard. For some reason, it’s just not going to go, & you might as well give up and do something else.
#1 reason to own a vacation rental property: Solid excuse to get and use a label maker.
November 28, 2025 at 1:33 PM
#1 reason to own a vacation rental property: Solid excuse to get and use a label maker.
Good morning, friends, from Bodega Bay, California!
November 28, 2025 at 1:25 PM
Good morning, friends, from Bodega Bay, California!
Not much can match California, man.
November 28, 2025 at 1:18 AM
Not much can match California, man.
He felt, as he always did with village gossip, that the gossiper not only gave but took; something was required of the listener.
—Xenobe Purvis, The Hounding
—Xenobe Purvis, The Hounding
November 28, 2025 at 1:15 AM
He felt, as he always did with village gossip, that the gossiper not only gave but took; something was required of the listener.
—Xenobe Purvis, The Hounding
—Xenobe Purvis, The Hounding
He searched for clues about what she thought of him, as a pig searches for food in mud.
—Xenobe Purvis, The Hounding
—Xenobe Purvis, The Hounding
November 28, 2025 at 12:27 AM
He searched for clues about what she thought of him, as a pig searches for food in mud.
—Xenobe Purvis, The Hounding
—Xenobe Purvis, The Hounding
Went around the table and everyone said how thankful they are for my sweater.
November 27, 2025 at 11:50 PM
Went around the table and everyone said how thankful they are for my sweater.
Japanese American Thanksgiving means homemade inari sushi.
November 27, 2025 at 7:43 PM
Japanese American Thanksgiving means homemade inari sushi.
Reposted by Levi Stahl
“Fame is a form of incomprehension, perhaps the worst.”
— A passage from Borges came to mind:
(“Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote,” tr. James E. Irby)
— A passage from Borges came to mind:
(“Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote,” tr. James E. Irby)
November 27, 2025 at 5:29 PM
“Fame is a form of incomprehension, perhaps the worst.”
— A passage from Borges came to mind:
(“Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote,” tr. James E. Irby)
— A passage from Borges came to mind:
(“Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote,” tr. James E. Irby)
“He did not strike me as being very wise.”
“Every speech of his is said to be worth five votes to the other side, and he makes a surprising number of them.”
—Patrick O’Brian, Post Captain
“Every speech of his is said to be worth five votes to the other side, and he makes a surprising number of them.”
—Patrick O’Brian, Post Captain
November 27, 2025 at 3:31 PM
“He did not strike me as being very wise.”
“Every speech of his is said to be worth five votes to the other side, and he makes a surprising number of them.”
—Patrick O’Brian, Post Captain
“Every speech of his is said to be worth five votes to the other side, and he makes a surprising number of them.”
—Patrick O’Brian, Post Captain
Patrick O’Brian, Post Captain.
November 27, 2025 at 3:03 PM
Patrick O’Brian, Post Captain.
The bathroom in this rental house just screams “Do cocaine in here.”
November 27, 2025 at 2:52 PM
The bathroom in this rental house just screams “Do cocaine in here.”
All these years later I remain grateful that Donald Westlake’s family trusted me when I proposed putting together The Getaway Car—and then I got to publish it with my colleagues! Then Darwyn Cooke made the cover! (And Chicago has a site-wide sale this weekend, 30% off with the code HOLIDAY25!)
November 27, 2025 at 2:41 PM
All these years later I remain grateful that Donald Westlake’s family trusted me when I proposed putting together The Getaway Car—and then I got to publish it with my colleagues! Then Darwyn Cooke made the cover! (And Chicago has a site-wide sale this weekend, 30% off with the code HOLIDAY25!)
Made a bank shot and a double bank shot on the pool table in this rental house, the latter my first since I managed the campus pool hall when I was an undergrad, and were my nieces and nephews impressed? Not in the slightest. Tough crowd, this.
November 27, 2025 at 2:09 PM
Made a bank shot and a double bank shot on the pool table in this rental house, the latter my first since I managed the campus pool hall when I was an undergrad, and were my nieces and nephews impressed? Not in the slightest. Tough crowd, this.
Pausing, for on the verge of his mind there was a witticism, if he could but grasp it.
—Patrick O’Brian, Post Captain
—Patrick O’Brian, Post Captain
November 27, 2025 at 2:00 PM
Pausing, for on the verge of his mind there was a witticism, if he could but grasp it.
—Patrick O’Brian, Post Captain
—Patrick O’Brian, Post Captain
normalize having an electric kettle alongside the coffee maker in all rental houses
November 27, 2025 at 1:56 PM
normalize having an electric kettle alongside the coffee maker in all rental houses
This seems unfair to Hitchcock, as well as to Novak and Kelly and Hedren. Nuzzi is a De Palma blonde at best.
November 27, 2025 at 1:29 PM
This seems unfair to Hitchcock, as well as to Novak and Kelly and Hedren. Nuzzi is a De Palma blonde at best.
Reposted by Levi Stahl
An Andy Kelp Thanksgiving. (From Donald E. Westlake's Dortmunder novel Bad News.)
November 27, 2024 at 2:16 PM
An Andy Kelp Thanksgiving. (From Donald E. Westlake's Dortmunder novel Bad News.)