It’s officially December! I’m sure you’ve already seen all of Netflix’s new Christmas movies. What now? Well, friend, here are a dozen new books that you can find at your local indie today. * Jane Smiley, Perestroika in Paris (Knopf) “Relentlessly Read more >
There’s a new union on the block: Verso Books announced today that its staff has organized to join the Washington-Baltimore News Guild (WBNG), a unit of the NewsGuild and the Communications Workers of America. Management voluntarily recognized the union last Read more >
Jane Austen lovers (with 4 million pounds handy), rejoice! Three buildings in Bath’s Laura Place, a location described in Jane Austen’s Persuasion, are to be sold in an online auction on December 15. The buildings will be sold together, and Read more >
In another instance of teenagers being wonderful, D.C. teens have partnered with publisher Shout Mouse Press and literacy tutoring program Reach Incorporated to create children’s books that respond to this year’s high-profile incidents of police brutality. In the last seven Read more >
The Talented Mr. Ripley—Patricia Highsmith’s iconic 1955 novel in which a struggling small-time con-man evolves into a full-blown psychopath—is widely considered to be one of the greatest psychological thrillers of all time (its stylish 1999 film adaptation is also a stone Read more >
Merriam-Webster has announced its word of the year, and to no one’s surprise, it is “pandemic.” Merriam-Webster based their choice on a statistical analysis of the words looked up in most in their online dictionary, as well as year-over-year increase Read more >
Dear reader, maybe you’re home for the holidays (and, since your dad has just started asking what exactly it is you are doing with that BA in English, you are trying to remember why you made the drive). Maybe you’ve Read more >
This year has been nothing less than a series of surprises, revelations, and great reminders of the insidious tapestry of the United States. Antiblackness, police brutality, corrupt healthcare systems, eviction crises, transphobia, poverty (i.e. capitalism), general precarity—these have been the Read more >
Yet another musician turns to print! In a November 24 email to her fans, Lorde announced her first book, GOING SOUTH. The book’s release date was not announced, but it is now available for preorder on the musician’s website. GOING Read more >
You can’t beat a good W. B. Yeats quotation, especially in these dour, doomscrolling days. (“The Second Coming”—with its widening gyre, errant falcon, blood-dimmed tide, and slouching beast—has been the English-speaking world’s go-to apocalypse lyric for 100 years now. Whether Read more >
As TikTok continues to balloon as a platform, its most popular content creators are becoming genuinely famous—and with fame comes book deals. 16-year-old Charli D’Amelio, the most popular user on TikTok and the only person to officially hit 100 million Read more >
The Costa Book Awards, inaugurated in 1971, are a set of annual literary awards, which recognize and honor British and Irish writers of the English language. The Award comes with £5,000, and the winner from each category will be announced on January Read more >
When I was a kid, I thought that by the time I had reached adulthood, I would be a seasoned cook. It seemed inevitable that I would someday have to whip up a delicious five-course meal using whatever I had Read more >
Finally in our series of interviews with the shortlisted nominees for the 2020 Albertine Prize is Lyonel Trouillot, author of Kannjawou, (Schaffner Press) translated from the French by Gretchen Schmid. Born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Lyonel Trouillot spent his teenage years in the US, Read more >
On November 16th, Allegheny County Jail’s incarcerated population got a memo from ACJ warden Orlando Harper letting them know that, due to the security issue of potential contraband, they are no longer allowed to receive books from the outside. Instead, Read more >
The Baillie Gifford Prize, founded in 1999 following the end of the NCR Book Award for Nonfiction, celebrates the best non-fiction writing in the English language of the year. The honor comes with £50,000, and each of the shortlisted authors will Read more >
We’ve all had to adapt to the pandemic, and some have adapted more quickly than others—maybe none more so than Ernest Cline, author of Ready Player One, who is touring his new book Ready Player Two on the virtual platform Read more >
In 2003, I wrote my first short story “North Of,” about a girl who brings Bob Dylan home for Thanksgiving dinner. She wants to convince her brother to not go to war. When her plan fails, she and Bob do Read more >
Recognizing the needs of the times, Britain’s National Trust has finally given the people what they really want: the chance to pretend they’re chatting with their employer from Vita Sackville-West’s writing room. It has a fireplace; it is filled with Read more >
Architect Kengo Kuma is designing a public library at Tokyo’s Waseda University, Haruki Murakami’s alma mater, to house the author’s personal archive—as well as tens of thousands of vinyl records Murakami has collected. The library is set to open sometime Read more >
