Some pleasant news! In honor of “Peace Train”s 50th anniversary, Yusuf/Cat Stevens has announced that the illustrated children’s book Peace Train, using the lyrics of the famous song, will be published May 11th via HarperCollins. It will be followed by Read more >
Alas, Jane Austen’s right: everything is to be got with money. Ever, Jane—the only Jane Austen-themed MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role-playing game)—has announced that due to a shortage of funds, it is shutting down. Created by Judy L. Tyer and Read more >
This morning, while trying to trick myself into forgetting that I was about to leave the apartment to go running in the cold, I happened to watch Lizzo’s 73 Questions interview. (For the uninitiated, 73 Questions is a digital feature Read more >
Today, Haruki Murakami celebrates his 72nd birthday—and we’re celebrating by diving into his recorded interviews. Murakami rarely gives interviews, but the ones he does are packed with insight into how he approaches the writing process. His memoir What I Talk Read more >
Did you hear that a new Sally Rooney novel will be published in September? Personally, I am [HYPERBOLIC ADJECTIVE]. I [FEELINGS VERB] Sally Rooney’s novels because they’re easy and enjoyable to read. She writes in the tradition of [THIN, WHITE Read more >
Notorious fake journalist and target of deadly vegan milkshakes Andy Ngo has a new book coming out called “something something Antifa is under your bed” or some shit; after a small protest yesterday at Powell’s Bookstore in Portland, Oregon (where Read more >
Here’s some great literary news to start your morning: The Story Prize, established in 2004 and sponsored by the Chisholm Foundation, has announced the finalists for its 2020/21 prize, which honors the best short story collection published in 2020. The Read more >
I don’t know who needs to hear this, but your TBR pile absolutely does NOT have too many books and whoever said that to you is a jerk! Here are 20 new titles coming out today to add to the Read more >
Attention Sally Rooney fans: today, FSG announced that they will be publishing Rooney’s next novel, Beautiful World, Where Are You, on September 7, 2021. (The novel was reportedly sold in a two book deal, which means we have another one Read more >
ATTENTION ARTISTS: The Brooklyn Public Library is looking for a new library card design. They are specifically looking for a work of art that celebrates Black American culture and history! What started as a proposal from Wendy A. Robinson of Read more >
It’s been a bad year for libraries and those who love them. Despite some interesting tech innovations (we could have been cleaning our books with UV rays this whole time!), many temporarily reopened libraries are closing again due to surging Read more >
You guessed it: A Promised Land, the first volume of Barack Obama’s presidential memoirs, was always going to lay waste to the competition. We called it back in September, and it has now been confirmed. Yes, as reported by Publishers Weekly Read more >
If you’re anything like me, it feels harder than ever to concentrate—clicking from news of COVID mutations to vaccine rollout issues to stimulus check debates to threats to democracy has a way of splitting your attention. We’ve been glutted with Read more >
Despite the generally disastrous COVID vaccine roll-out, we as a country have done at least one thing right: protected Judy Blume. This morning, Blume, 82, tweeted that she and her husband had received their first doses of the Moderna vaccine. Read more >
As I was scrolling through Lit Hub’s massive 2021 preview, I noticed something: Rainbows. Specifically, several books featuring full-cover, highly saturated, blurrily blended rainbows. I can only assume, considering that rainbows are generally considered to be a) pretty b) gay Read more >
Robert Jones Jr.’s The Prophets, Peter Ho Davies’ A Lie Someone Told You About Yourself, and Anna North’s Outlawed all feature among the best reviewed books of the week. Brought to you by Book Marks, Lit Hub’s “Rotten Tomatoes for books.” Read more >
Here’s some surprising end-of-2020 good news: books are doing . . . well? According to NPD BookScan, unit sales of print books in the United States rose 8.2% in 2020. Units hit 750.9 million this year—57.2 million up from last Read more >
This week, we should have had more time to celebrate Jon Ossoff. In the hours before Wednesday turned into a terrible day for democracy, one very good thing happened: Ossoff defeated Republican David Purdue in the Georgia special election runoff, Read more >
In the perfect collision of quarantine binge-watching and post-quarantine travel dreaming, the 21c Museum Hotel in Lexington, Kentucky has created a Queen’s Gambit-inspired hotel room (the Harmon Room), complete with swinging sixties decor and a ceiling chess set (though presumably Read more >
By now you’ve all probably seen Senator Josh Hawley—the heir apparent to Donald Trump’s dogwhistling, populist demagoguery—getting widely trounced on Twitter for not quite knowing what “Orwellian” means. But, to recap: · Wednesday around noon, Josh Hawley, after inciting for Read more >
