A young mother’s mysterious death and her son’s subsequent kidnapping blow open a decades-long mystery about the woman’s true identity, and the murderous federal fugitive at the center of it all. Lit Hub and CrimeReads have an exclusive first look Read more >
What not to get your dad (or me, who is a dad) for Father’s Day: a $30 lifetime subscription to the 12min Micro Book Library. I can think of (almost) nothing more tortuous than confronting an infinite amount of “books” Read more >
On Tuesday, James Patterson apologized for claiming in an interview that older white men face “racism” in the writing field. “I apologize for saying white male writers having trouble finding work is a form of racism. I absolutely do not Read more >
There’s a brand new Jane Austen trailer in town (must be Tuesday). This time, it’s an adaptation of Persuasion, Austen’s final novel, starring Dakota Johnson and slated to appear on Netflix on July 15. Vogue calls it a “stylish, subversive Read more >
Virginia Woolf wrote about material culture in the shadows of conflict, destruction and colonialism, presenting high-society in a London struggling to put itself back together again, but is Mrs Dalloway really just a novel about parties and pretty things? And what Read more >
The Southern Poverty Law Center is reporting that Hatewatch has identified the principals behind Antelope Hill, a far right publisher founded in 2020 that specializes in white nationalist, fascist, Nazi publications. With a catalog ranging from newly translated Nazi-era texts Read more >
Los Angeles’ Eso Won Books has announced that they will be shutting their doors at the end of the year. Since the 1980s, this independent bookstore has dedicated itself to celebrating the voices of Black writers. They are known for Read more >
About four months ago, I had a baby. Certainly this will not be the first time you hear that the experience of becoming a parent can come with a profound erosion of self, particularly if you’re the mother. But the Read more >
It was, I suppose, inevitable. Nancy Crampton Brophy, a self-published romance novelist and the author of an essay entitled “How to Murder Your Husband,” who has lately been on trial for . . . murdering her husband, has been convicted Read more >
Honestly, even if the rest of your week is terrible, at least today brings us new books from Lisa Taddeo, Ibram X. Kendi, Ada Calhoun, and more. What else could you want? * Lisa Taddeo, Ghost Lover (Avid Reader Press) Read more >
Today, Penguin Press released a book trailer (yes, they still exist!) for Ottessa Moshfegh’s much anticipated upcoming novel, Lapvona, which follows a deformed boy living in a depraved and corrupt medieval village. On the other hand, the trailer, directed by Read more >
That would be the advice of acclaimed American poet Mary Reufle, who—as tweeted by poet and director of Bennington College’s MFA program Mark Wunderlich yesterday—keeps this creepy decaying book in her yard to remind herself that all literature is vanity, and Read more >
America’s sad little homegrown fascist brigade, the Proud Boys (like the Brownshirts, but with less no sex!), have taken their victimhood/insecurity-driven agenda to new depths of idiocy (Proud? See image above.) This past Saturday a group of around ten men Read more >
America has its newest and coolest young librarian: 10-year-old Cora Newton of Lafayette, Louisiana, who decided she wanted to create a Little Queer Library after witnessing recent conversations in her area about banning LGBTQ books. Claire Taylor reported for the Read more >
If there was any justice in the world, we would give LeVar Burton, lifelong champion of reading, the last word on book bans. (There isn’t, of course, so we will have to continue writing about them any time some new Read more >
On Saturday, Lambda Literary announced the 24 winners of its 34th annual Lambda Literary Awards, chosen from more than 1,300 submissions and selected by more than 60 judges in the literary field. In addition to prizes in the categories below, Read more >
The most common entries for ‘x’ in alphabet books nowadays are probably ‘x-ray’ and ‘xylophone’—based on anecdotal evidence only, someone do this research please—but of course, it wasn’t always so. The x-ray was invented in 1895, and, as the editors Read more >
As we’ve noted over and over again, the hottest new book trend sweeping the country is to ban them and/or burn them if they don’t align with your weird, paleoconservative, theocratic prejudices. Not great! But as ever is the case Read more >
The Costa Book Awards, which was founded in 1971 and known as the Whitbread Book Awards until 2005, is no more. Today, Costa Coffee announced that the 2021 Costa Book Awards, held in February 2022, would be the last iteration Read more >
Congratulations to PEN America‘s staff, who announced yesterday that they won voluntary recognition of their union! This milestone has been a long time coming. After months of organizing, they wrote to management to formally demand recognition last December and will Read more >
