This week, we’re calling all flâneurs. We’re striding—sometimes jumping—into new worlds, or finding fresh gold in the familiar. We’re probing pole ends of the AM dial, and trawling the archive. It’s an August for discovery. Last week, Calvin Kasulke got Read more >
Literary adaptations are usually a dubious prospect. Yet we readers stay hopeful. Maybe this time, we pray, in the face of fresh announcements. Maybe this time, Hollywood will remember to include that non-essential minor character I loved so on the Read more >
A couple of weeks ago I happened upon a sex hormone named after Mr. Darcy, and it sent me down a rabbit hole, looking for other odd names scientists have bestowed on their discoveries. As a result I’ve spent too Read more >
For this reader, autumn means classics. Nothing gets me through the swiftly souring end of August quite like a vision of myself in this sweater, curled up by a fireplace with an epic that’s been languishing for years on my Read more >
Hi, everyone. Just a brief introduction this week, as I’m dealing with loss, but don’t let that brevity distract or detract from the brilliant new offerings below. You’ll find exciting new biographies of famous figures, powerful debuts, intriguing new novels Read more >
Sally Rooney, the bestselling Irish novelist, has vowed to support Palestine Action despite the group being proscribed as a terrorist organization in the UK. In a piece published by the Irish Times on Saturday, Rooney (who has been one of the Read more >
If you’ve ever done a therapy session over Zoom (or any other video platform), you know how easy it can be to be distracted by what’s going on behind your therapist’s head. Do I recognize their art? What’s going on Read more >
This June, Yael van der Wouden was awarded the 2025 Women’s Prize for Fiction for her debut The Safekeep, a gripping historical novel from a writer who really knows how to craft a sex scene. Recently, Literary Hub caught up Read more >
This year, in keeping with its annual word-adding tradition, the top minds behind the standard-setting Cambridge dictionary have opened the doors to Generation Alpha. Among the 6000 words added to this year’s descriptive encyclopedia are notable internet contributions like “skibidi,” Read more >
August is halfway over, can you believe it? It feels like the summer is happening so fast, and if I blink too slowly, the next thing I know I’ll be in the middle of Thanksgiving dinner. Hope you’re able to Read more >
This week, we’re regressing. We’re taking our brains and our palates back in time, to arguably better days. We’re longing for the old internet, and certain familiar characters. Some of us are tripping the light fantastic to bygone epochs entirely. Read more >
A Granite State minor’s library borrowing records used to be confidential, even to parents, but a recent New Hampshire state law has upended that privacy. Gov. Kelly Ayotte, a Republican, signed House Bill 273 on August 1st, which opens a Read more >
In good news for people who love bad news, the Associated Press is apparently ending its regular literary coverage. Starting September 1st, the national news source and media hub will no longer release their standardized, stand-alone reviews for new books. Read more >
It’s August, and, despite (or because of) the madness of the world, I come bearing new books. Below, you’ll find twenty-six remarkable new options to consider in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. You’ll find fiction on Ukraine, the last zoo in Read more >
Alice Oswald, one of Britain’s most acclaimed poets, was arrested at a mass sit-down demonstration outside the houses of Parliament in London on Saturday for holding up a sign in support of direct action movement Palestine Action. Oswald—a former Oxford Professor Read more >
The Polari Prize, one of the UK’s premiere awards celebrating LGBTQ+ writing, has sparked controversy by including John Boyne’s Earth as a contender for their annual Book Prize. In protest, at least half of the other longlisted authors and a Read more >
On Sunday night, the Israel Defense Forces bombed a journalists’ tent outside al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City. The strike killed seven people, including Al Jazeera journalists Anas al-Sharif and Mohammed Qreiqeh, and camera operators Ibrahim Zaher, Mohammed Noufal, and Moamen Read more >
Many of our best writers have played the fake name game. Call it what you will—an alias, a pseudonym. But from Samuel Clemens to She-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, we can find a gamut of wily writers determined to evade the postman. Or possibly, Read more >
A cool August week here in New York, and I’ve been obsessing over tomatoes. Peak tomato season is the best, an ecstatic experience, and in my humble opinion a redeeming moment for summer, which is otherwise too hot and sweaty Read more >
The theme this week is small attention. Whether palpating the perfect nightshade or kneeling at the church of secular folk, we spent time looking and listening close. Small things—good jokes, cupcakes, asides—kept the engines running. Drew Broussard went to a Read more >
