Literary Hub

Literary Hub

The 36 Best (Old) Books We Read in 2021

Timeless Reading Recommendations from the Lit Hub Staff

December 2, 2021

Read Full Story

The Best Children’s Books in Our Long Year of Pandemic Reading

Sara B. Franklin on the Books That Mattered Most to Her Family

December 1, 2021

Read Full Story
Drive My Car, a New Adaptation of the Haruki Murakami Story, Far Surpasses Its Source Material

Ryan Chapman on Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Three-Hour Masterpiece

November 24, 2021

Read Full Story
“Territories of the Uncanny.” A Reading List of the Irreal

Helen Chau Bradley Recommends Mariana Enriquez, Fleur Jaeggy, and More!

November 24, 2021

Read Full Story
What Bob Dylan Does—Or Doesn’t—Know About the Assassination of JFK

Jefferson Morley Revisits the Nobel Laureate’s Recent No. 1, “Murder Most Foul”

November 22, 2021

Read Full Story
A Fan’s Notes: The Kurt Vonnegut Documentary 40 Years in the Making

Jonny Diamond on Kurt Vonnegut: Unstuck in Time

November 19, 2021

Read Full Story
In Willem de Kooning’s Loft at the Dawn of Bohemian New York

Edith Schloss, Artist and Diarist, on Downtown Loft Life

November 19, 2021

Read Full Story

Gary Shteyngart: Three Simple Tricks for Writing Your Novel FAST!!!

Walk! Nap! Write!

November 19, 2021

Read Full Story
A Close Reading of the QAnon Shaman’s Conspiracy Manifesto

How RFK Jr., Naomi Wolf, and an NYU Professor Ended Up on the Same Page as QAnon Cultist Jacob Chansley

November 15, 2021

Read Full Story
The Dawn of Everything Is Not a Book About the Origins of Inequality

Or, Why Rousseau and Hobbes Can Suck It

November 12, 2021

Read Full Story
In Praise of the Meander: Rebecca Solnit on Letting Nonfiction Narrative Find Its Own Way

Timejumps, Fragments, Backward Glances, Parallel Subjects... Not Just for Novels

November 10, 2021

Read Full Story
How to Memorize the Un-Memorizable

Marcus du Sautoy Offers Tips and Tricks for Building a Better “Memory Palace”

October 22, 2021

Read Full Story
Amitava Kumar: How Can You Write Fiction That Fights Fake News?

“A novel often serves as a site of contention for different viewpoints.”

October 5, 2021

Read Full Story
Hanging Out With Joan Didion: What I Learned About Writing From an American Master

Sara Davidson on the Ten Lessons She Learned

October 5, 2021

Read Full Story
The Literary Film and TV You Need to Stream in October

Good Thing It’s Fall and You’ll Be Inside Anyway...

October 1, 2021

Read Full Story
How to Deal with Rejection (and Get Revenge) Like Edgar Allan Poe

Catherine Baab-Muguira on Doubling Down on Your Ambitions

September 30, 2021

Read Full Story

Our Solar System is Built From Fire and Ice

Natalie Starkey on the Mysteries of Space Volcanoes!

September 30, 2021

Read Full Story
Do Fictional Critiques of the Wealthy Ever Really . . . Work?

Andrew Martin and Benjamin Nugent Discuss F. Scott Fitzgerald on His Birthday

September 24, 2021

Read Full Story
Will the Foundation Series Finally Do Justice to the Novels of Isaac Asimov?

Jay Gabler Tells a Long, Sad Story of Failed Sci-Fi Adaptations

September 23, 2021

Read Full Story
The Ultimate Fall 2021 Books Preview

The Biggest Books of the Season of Big Books, According to Math

September 22, 2021

Read Full Story
“The Writer You Are is Enough.” Ruth Ozeki on Process and Acceptance

The Author of The Book of Form and Emptiness Takes the Lit Hub Questionnaire

September 21, 2021

Read Full Story

In Defense of Labels: On Genre as a Literary Conversation

Lincoln Michel Considers the Expansive Power of Genres

September 21, 2021

Read Full Story
The Legacy of Colin Kaepernick: On the First High School Team to Take a Knee

Dave Zirin Talks to the Coach of Garfield High's Football Team

September 20, 2021

Read Full Story
An Alleged Lock of Emily Dickinson’s Hair is Selling for $450,000...
But Was it Stolen?

Jen DeGregorio Investigates the Curious Case of a Great Poet’s Hair

September 16, 2021

Read Full Story
Winning the Game You Didn’t Even Want to Play: On Sally Rooney and the Literature of the Pose

Stephen Marche Considers Contemporary Fiction’s Slow Abandonment of Literary Voice

September 15, 2021

Read Full Story
“Maybe More People Should Have Writer's Block.” In Which Joy Williams Responds to Our Questions Via Typewriter

The Author of Harrow Really Wanted to Try Out Her New Hermes 3000

September 14, 2021

Read Full Story
Some Life Lessons (Read: Humiliations) From Playing Music

Emily Itami on How Music Prepared Her For the Writing Life

September 13, 2021

Read Full Story

Anna Qu Talks Betrayal, Immigration, and Assimilation

In Conversation with Brad Listi on Otherppl

September 13, 2021

Read Full Story
City of Ash: Photographing New York City on the Morning of 9/11

Photographer Rachel Cobb on Documenting a Disaster While It Is Still Unfolding

September 11, 2021

Read Full Story
“I Would Not Take Prisoners.” Tolstoy’s Case Against Making War Humane

Samuel Moyn Considers Prince Andrei, Carl von Clausewitz, and the Rules of War

September 10, 2021

Read Full Story

The Unavoidable Trap of Politeness: Why Is It So Hard to Just Say “No”?

Vanessa Bohns on the Psychology Behind Our Unbearable Fear of Social Embarrassment

September 10, 2021

Read Full Story

Read It and Weep: Margaret Atwood on the Intimidating, Haunting Intellect of Simone de Beauvoir

On the French Existentialist's Never-Before-Published Novel

September 8, 2021

Read Full Story
The Literary Film and TV You Should Stream in September

From Foundation to American Rust

September 3, 2021

Read Full Story
The Ambiguous Loss of (Probably) Not Selling My Novel

Danielle Lazarin on Life and Art in the Liminal Spaces Between Grief and Hope

September 2, 2021

Read Full Story

22 Novels You Need to Read This Fall

Recommendations from the Lit Hub Staff

August 31, 2021

Read Full Story
Which Big Fall Book Should You Read?

(A Flowchart)

August 24, 2021

Read Full Story
The 18 Most Memorable Trees in Literature

Arthur Sze, Lia Purpura, and More Writers Choose Their Favorites

August 23, 2021

Read Full Story

Misunderstanding Thoreau: Reading Neurodiversity in Literature and in Life

Steve Edwards on Kathryn Schulz, Donald Hall, and the Things We Miss

August 23, 2021

Read Full Story
The Green Knight Unmakes a Classic—to Unsettling and Glorious Effect

And yes, Dev Patel slaps.

July 29, 2021

Read Full Story
The Heteronymous Identities of Fernando Pessoa

Richard Zenith on the Many Literary Lives of the Genius of Lisbon

July 22, 2021

Read Full Story
Land of Smoke and Fire: Documenting California’s Endless Season of Heat

Jeff Frost and Lauren Markham, for The Longest Year: 2020+ Project

July 21, 2021

Read Full Story
Lit Hub’s Most Anticipated Books of 2021, Part Two

222 Books We Want to Read Before 2022

July 6, 2021

Read Full Story
The Hard Intimacies of COVID-19: Documenting a Pandemic Year

Isadora Kosofsky and Suzanne Koven, for The Longest Year: 2020+

July 1, 2021

Read Full Story
The Rise of the Crypto Writer? On What Literary NFTs Might Mean for the Book World

Walker Caplan on Blockchain, Blake Butler, and the Uneasy Intersection of Art, Tech, and Money

June 25, 2021

Read Full Story
On Juneteenth and the Struggle to Commemorate and Make Sense of Protest and Rebellion

Annette Gordon-Reed, Elizabeth Hinton, and Jelani Cobb in Conversation About the Brutal, Bloody Legacy of Racial Injustice in America

June 18, 2021

Read Full Story

The Latest

Sci-Fi and Fantasy

What Accounts for the Lasting Appeal of Dune?

Michael Dirda on the Perennial Resonance of Frank Herbert's Masterpiece

By Michael Dirda December 2, 2021

Fiction/Non/Fiction

Pamela Paul and Cecilia Kang on the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of the Internet

In Conversation with Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan on Fiction/Non/Fiction

By Fiction Non Fiction December 2, 2021

Book Reviews You Need to Read

Fuccbois, Despots, and Nuns: 5 Book Reviews You Need to Read This Week

Hari Kunzru on Mario Vargas Llosa, Moira Donegan on Lauren Groff, Hermione Hoby on a literary Fuccboi, and more

By Book Marks December 2, 2021

just the right book

Who Does the Supreme Court Belong to Now?

Linda Greenhouse on Just the Right Book with Roxanne Coady

By Just the Right Book December 2, 2021

In Praise of the (Almost) Supernatural Power of Volcanoes

Robin George Andrews Thinks Lava Needs Better PR

By Robin George Andrews December 2, 2021

New and Noteworthy Nonfiction You Should Read This December

Johnny Cash, Siri Hustvedt, Rachel Carson, and More

By Literary Hub December 2, 2021

Book Marks: What the Critics Are Saying

Indie Bookstores

Emma Straub on Opening Her Bookstore, Books Are Magic

By Emma Straub December 2, 2021

The Ironic Twist of Age: What It’s Like to Keep Writing at 91

By Hilma Wolitzer December 2, 2021

The Virtual Book Channel

WATCH: Diane Exavier, Angel Nafis, Shayla Lawz, and Carols Sirah Offer Poetry and Performance

Hosted by Greenlight Bookstore

WATCH: Diane Exavier, Angel Nafis, Shayla Lawz, and Carols Sirah Offer Poetry and Performance

By The Virtual Book Channel December 2, 2021

Jocelyn Nicole Johnson on the Ways We Replicate Thomas Jefferson’s Sins

By Otherppl with Brad Listi December 2, 2021

Virtual Book Events

47 Virtual Book Events Worth Streaming This December

By Arianna Rebolini December 2, 2021

5 Reviews You Need to Read This Week

December 2, 2021 By Book Marks

Mikhal Dekel on Anna Karenina, Dubliners, and A Room of One's Own

December 1, 2021 By Book Marks

Great Ominous Beach Settings In Fiction

December 2, 2021 By Sarah Strohmeyer

S.A. Cosby on the Conversation Around Policing in America – And Why It Needs to Change

December 2, 2021 By S. A. Cosby

© LitHub

Back to top