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News, Notes, Talk

A new biography of Leonard Cohen—in comic form—is coming this fall.

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 >

By Vanessa Willoughby

Roberto Bolaño's best advice for writing short stories is . . . pretty wild.

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 >

By Emily Temple

5 food memoirs to dig into for National Culinary Arts Month.

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 >

By Katie Yee

Alaska’s libraries are facing devastating funding cuts.

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 >

By Walker Caplan

A few takeaways from this list of the best-selling books of the year (so far).

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 >

By Walker Caplan

Watch Jack Antonoff perform a song he wrote with Zadie Smith.

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 >

By Walker Caplan

21 new books to accompany you on your summer adventures.

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 >

By Katie Yee

Queenie Jenkins is not your “black Bridget Jones.”

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 >

By Vanessa Willoughby

Take a virtual tour of Walden Pond.

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 >

By Walker Caplan

Powell’s Books is celebrating its 50-year anniversary with a curated collection of 50 books.

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 >

By Walker Caplan

C Pam Zhang’s How Much of These Hills Is Gold is being adapted for television.

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 >

By Walker Caplan

Exclusive cover reveal: Karen Joy Fowler's new novel, Booth.

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 >

By Literary Hub

Area woman reads over 150 books… a month!?

It is a painful thing to do the math on how many books you’ll be able to read before you die (no matter how old you are). I’m sorry, it’s just not as many as you think, and you’re never Read more >

By Jonny Diamond

Take this soothing room-by-room virtual tour of Jane Austen's house.

Always wanted to explore Jane Austen’s house but can’t get to England? This video, made by MemorySeekers, is almost as good and definitely more cost-effective, presenting a guided room-by-room tour of Austen’s last home in Chawton, Hampshire—now a museum, of Read more >

By Emily Temple

These are the books Barack Obama thinks you should read this summer.

As you likely already know, President Obama has pretty good taste in books. After all, he’s been a reader (and a writer) since long before he got into politics. “Whether you’re camped out on the beach or curled up on Read more >

By Emily Temple

Here are the best reviewed books of the week.

S. A. Cosby’s Razorblade Tears, Dana Spiotta’s Wayward, Helen Scales’ The Brilliant Abyss, and Michael Pollan’s This is Your Mind on Plants all feature among the Best Reviewed Books of the Week. Brought to you by Book Marks, Lit Hub’s Read more >

By Book Marks