20 new books to read right now.
Many years ago, I overheard a woman on the subway say that she tries to read 100 books every year. Personally, I’m much too slow to do that, but I think of her often and hope she’s well. Maybe she’ll Read more >
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Somebody made an exact LEGO replica of this classic movie bookstore.
Remember Ray’s Occult Books, the rundown Manhattan bookstore opened by an unmoored Ray Stantz between Ghostbusters I and II following the city of New York serving him and his fellow ghostbusters with a judicial restraining order for the property damage incurred during their Read more >
By Dan Sheehan
Katie Porter reading a book during the GOP's House speaker fight is all of us.
On Friday, as House Republicans squabbled through their fourth day of unsuccessful voting to elect a speaker, Democratic Representative Katie Porter sat in the lower chamber, reading a book. But not just any book: Mark Manson’s The Subtle Art of Read more >
By Emily Temple
Nope, I do not like these AI audiobook narrators one bit.
Because AI is apparently just like us, it seems to have romanticized the creative fields. So instead of, say, figuring out how to help me dispute denied insurance claims, it’s more interested in writing children’s books, getting into poetry, and Read more >
By Jessie Gaynor
Of course Cate Blanchett reads Rebecca Solnit.
This week, at the New York Film Critics Circle Awards, Todd Field’s Tár was awarded Best Picture, and Cate Blanchett took home Best Actress for her performance. During her remarks, as Sam Adams reported on Twitter, she told the crowd, Read more >
By Emily Temple
When Fay Weldon called out publishers for underpaying staff and treating writers like trash.
Wow. Fay Weldon, who died earlier this week at 91, did not mince words. As chair of the 1983 Booker Prize committee (which awarded top honors to JM Coetzee’s sublimely bleak Life and Times of Michael K) Weldon was given Read more >
By Jonny Diamond
Nicolas Cage as Dracula! Yes, the trailer for Renfield has arrived.
Listen up, my children of the night! There is a new Dracula adaptation in our midst, starring Nicolas Cage. It’s called Renfield, and perhaps you have heard of it, since it has been in development for some time. But if Read more >
By Olivia Rutigliano
18 new paperbacks coming out this January.
Behold: the first paperbacks of the year. * Jean Chen Ho, Fiona and Jane (Penguin, January 3) “A wonderful debut … [Fiona and Jane] is a book that is built on memory, a book that speaks to the importance and Read more >
By Katie Yee
Here are the winners of the second annual Silvers-Dudley Prizes for literary and arts journalism.
Today, the Robert B. Silvers Foundation announced the winners of their second annual Silvers-Dudley Prizes, which recognize “outstanding achievement in literary criticism, arts writing, and journalism.” The prizes, which carry a total value of $135,000, will award between $15,000 and Read more >
By Emily Temple
What to read next based on your New Year's resolutions.
Happy New Year, readers. Recently, I’ve been seeing this trend on Instagram of people proclaiming what is in in 2023, and what is decidedly out. Here are mine. What’s out: Biker shorts. Electric scooters on the sidewalk. Maybe Twitter? Leaving Read more >
By Katie Yee
The story of the husband-murdering author of “How to Murder Your Husband” is coming to Lifetime.
For today’s entry in Stories That Simply Feel Right: The tale of Nancy Crampton Brophy—self-published romance novelist and author of the (in retrospect, ill-advised) essay “How to Murder Your Husband,” who was recently convicted of, yes, murdering her husband—is coming Read more >
By Jessie Gaynor
Elon Musk misunderstands fictional dystopias (and his role in our real dystopia).
Famous meme-lord and loser-of-billions Elon Musk is once again using the $44 billion message board he bought to share his erudition. Last night Musk Tweeted what looks like an old meme whipped up by an edgy 15-year-old who just lost Read more >
By Jonny Diamond
A new indie bookstore named for Octavia Butler is opening in the author's hometown.
Here’s a piece of good literary news to start the year: a new independent bookstore named after the legendary Octavia E. Butler is opening in Pasadena, California, where the late Sci-Fi icon was born and raised. I took the leap Read more >
By Dan Sheehan
Here are the books that just entered the public domain.
In 2019, for the first time in over two decades, a new crop of literary work entered the public domain: everything first published in the United States in 1923 became available for reusing, recycling, and remixing. Since then, we’ve had a Read more >
By Emily Temple
Cover reveal: Safiya Sinclair's summer memoir How to Say Babylon
Lit Hub is pleased to share the cover for Safiya Sinclair’s forthcoming memoir, How to Say Babylon, which Simon and Schuster will publish this summer. Sinclair is the author of the poetry collection Cannibal, winner of a Whiting Writers’ Award, the Read more >
By Literary Hub
Are we really going to start disinfecting our used books?
I get that we live in harrowing times, and that global pandemics can leave us feeling powerless and entirely without agency, but taking the time to laboriously disinfect your used books is *not* going to change that—and it might even Read more >
