I believe Helen Fielding’s Bridget Jones’ Diary, first published in the UK 25 years ago this year, is one of the funniest books ever written. This isn’t exactly an unpopular opinion. As of 2016, the book—together with its (less-satisfying) sequel Bridget Read more >
Big publication news: over twenty-five years after they were discovered among her bed linens and towels, Patricia Highsmith’s diaries will be released to the public this fall in a global release by Liveright Publishing (North America) and Weidenfeld & Nicholson Read more >
Talk about following virtue and knowledge: The Visual Agency has created DivineComedy.digital, a digital humanities tool that maps the influence of Dante Alighieri’s narrative world on art around the globe. DivineComedy.digital displays artworks that depict scenes in the Divine Comedy—illuminated Read more >
On your marks, get set… BOOK! The Booker Prize revealed its 2022 judges today, among them a familiar face for fans of Great British Bake Off—no, not Paul Hollywood. It’s OG host Mel Giedroyc! Mel is joined by chair and Read more >
Tomorrow marks the 117th anniversary of the death of the legendary Anton Chekhov. He’s considered one of the greatest short story writers of all time, and his now-classic plays laid the groundwork for realism as the spine of mainstream contemporary Read more >
The Associated Press reported today that booksellers at Hong Kong’s national book fair are heavily curating their books to avoid violating a national security law imposed on Hong Kong by Beijing in June 2020. The wide-ranging law criminalizes, among other Read more >
Since March, we’ve known Dr. Cornel West is leaving Harvard Divinity School for the Union Theological Seminary in New York City, where he will hold the Dietrich Bonhoeffer Chair. But this week, West gave us a fuller picture of his Read more >
It’s never good news when Republicans take an interest in libraries (or anything?). According to a report from Truthout, right-wing groups across the country are organizing both to cut library funds and to remove books that acknowledge the existence of, Read more >
Think you know everything there is to know about Leonard Cohen? A new graphic novel may challenge your assumptions. This fall, renowned publisher Drawn & Quarterly will publish a graphic biography of the late Canadian singer-songwriter, poet, and novelist. Leonard Read more >
In 2006, Roberto Bolaño, who died 18 years ago this week, published a list of “advice on the art of writing short stories” in World Literature Today. The mini essay was translated by David Draper Clark; the original Spanish version Read more >
July is National Culinary Arts Month. (It’s also apparently National Hot Dog Month, National Horseradish Month, and National Lasagna Awareness Month. Hey, I don’t make the rules. I just report them.) To observe National Culinary Arts Month, I recommend taking Read more >
The Alaska Library Catalog allows Alaska’s libraries to borrow and lend materials to each other. Library patrons in Alaska have the Alaska Library Catalog to thank for their access to 3.2 million books, rather than just the contents of their Read more >
Publishers Weekly has released the list of best-selling print books from the last six months, and there are a few interesting trends. Firstly, people still like fiction, despite the near-constant thinkpieces about whether the novel is dead. Nearly half the Read more >
Talk about an ambitious crossover event: the first track off of Jack Antonoff’s upcoming Bleachers album, Take the Sadness out of Saturday Night, is a collaboration with Zadie Smith. Yes, White Teeth/Swing Time/On Beauty Zadie Smith. In an interview with Read more >
You, dear reader of this site, most likely carry a book with you wherever you go. A lot of the time, it’s wishful thinking. How will you read five books on your three-day weekend upstate? Are you really going to Read more >
Since its publication, Queenie, the 2019 debut novel from Vintage senior marketing executive Candice Carty-Williams, has been repeatedly compared to Helen Fielding’s Bridget Jones’s Diary. Kirkus’s starred review called it “A black Bridget Jones, perfectly of the moment.” Entertainment Weekly Read more >
Today marks the 207th birthday of Henry David Thoreau—and we’re taking five minutes out of our day to celebrate by watching a virtual tour of Walden Pond, where Thoreau wrote his famous text of the same name. Though it doesn’t Read more >
This year marks the 50th year of Powell’s Books, beloved Portland landmark and the world’s largest independent bookstore—and to commemorate the occasion, Powell’s is launching a curated collection of 50 books from the past 50 years. The collection, which can Read more >
Exciting adaptation news: Variety has reported that indie studio The Ink Factory (The Night Manager, Fighting With My Family, The Little Drummer Boy) and Endeavor Content are teaming up to develop C Pam Zhang’s debut novel How Much of These Read more >
Karen Joy Fowler has a knack for writing large dysfunctional families (you might remember her novel We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves, which won the PEN/Faulkner Award and was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize). Her new novel, Booth, is Read more >
