Interesting adaptation news: Deadline reported yesterday that Keanu Reeves is in talks with Hulu to star in their Paramount TV Studios-produced limited series adaptation of Erik Larson’s The Devil in the White City. Leonardo DiCaprio will executive produce. Larson’s 2003 Read more >
A happy update: Washington, DC bookstore Politics and Prose’s union, supported by UFCW Local 400, has now been formally recognized by the bookstore, making it the first unionized bookstore in DC. This comes after a banner year for labor activism Read more >
After all, the writer is almost as famous for his love of Gauloises as he is for his novels—this despite, of course, his frequent bouts of tuberculosis, with which he was first diagnosed at 17, and which forced him to Read more >
You’ve probably seen a lot of people on the Internet going on about their reading accomplishments of the past year and their goals for the next one. Maybe you want to explore new genres. Maybe you want to read more Read more >
Today marks the 130th birthday of J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings writer, academic, and, as it turns out, prank enthusiast. It makes sense that the mind behind the extensive lore and joyful traditions of Middle-earth would Read more >
The Libby app came into my life early in the pandemic, when in-person trips to the library weren’t possible and indie bookstores were up against massive USPS delays. The app—which allows users to instantly borrow ebooks from their local libraries—was Read more >
An interesting dispatch from prize world: as The Bookseller reported, a new international survey conducted by Nielsen Book shows publishers, writers, booksellers and media consider the Booker Prize the “most important” literary prize. The Booker’s status isn’t completely out of Read more >
There’s sometimes skepticism about year-end book lists: some say, aren’t they chosen by the whims of just a few writers or editors? Are they really representative of the best books? Well, if you’re a believer in the will of the Read more >
Joan Didion died today at her home in Manhattan, The New York Times reports. The legendary novelist and essayist was 87. According to Paul Bogaards, an executive at Knopf, Didion’s publisher, the cause was Parkinson’s disease. Didion was one of the Read more >
Graciously accepting a gift you don’t like is, I imagine, a lot like being asked to blurb a book you don’t like. In both cases, the trick is avoiding hurt feelings, but also trying to minimize the possibility of being Read more >
Yesterday was the 32th anniversary of the death of Samuel Beckett, writer and pioneering experimental playwright (not to mention style icon)—and we’re celebrating by remembering a charming story from his life. There’s a lot of fun to revisit, like the Read more >
It’s a question you’ve obviously held for quite some time, but you’ve never really thought to look it up, right? Luckily, the annals of history actually have the answer to this one. While Charles Dickens was off writing about orphans Read more >
An educated guess: when we think of The Catcher in the Rye, our mind leaps to its precocious and misunderstood protagonist, Holden Caufield. But The Catcher in the Rye wasn’t Holden Caufield’s first published appearance. In 1946, The New Yorker Read more >
In an interview with La Repubblica, Elena Ferrante has spoken out in favor of University of Bologna student and Egyptian activist Patrick Zaki, who was held in pretrial detention for nearly two years for “spreading false news” by writing an Read more >
Thomas Kinsella, one of Ireland’s most revered poets and a translator of the country’s greatest epic saga, has died in his native Dublin at the age of 93. Considered by many to be the most significant poet of a generation that Read more >
These days, I’ve been feeling a little bit like a Scrooge. It’s not that I’m not stoked for Christmas, but December really got away from me, personally. I haven’t seen nearly enough holiday movies. Garlands were not strung. Supermarket eggnog Read more >
As the omicron variant rages through my body this week, I’m enjoying taking my mind of my concerns by solving crossword puzzles. As it turns out, that’s a timeless (or rather, somewhat time-sensitive but historically precedented) pursuit: crossword puzzles became Read more >
As you probably know, today is the shortest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. It’s a good day for spellcasting, naps, and reading—especially short books that you can knock out in an evening (or even before the sun Read more >
Eve Babitz, known for her joyful, sharp, confessional portrayals of Los Angeles and her personal adventures there, died last Friday of complications of Huntington’s disease at U.C.L.A. Medical Center in Los Angeles. She was 78. Dwight Garner for The New Read more >
The Northman, directed by Robert Eggers and co-written with Icelandic literary hero Sjón, is the story of a 10th-century Viking (played by a shredded Alexander Skarsgård) dispossessed at a young age of his rightful place on the throne, who spends Read more >
