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News, Notes, Talk

Greenlight Bookstore is pledging to improve treatment of Black employees and customers.

The owners of Greenlight Bookstore, which has two Brooklyn locations, came forward this week to take responsibility for “negative experiences of Black customers and employees in our stores” with a commitment to improving. In an open letter published Wednesday, co-owners Read more >

By Corinne Segal

Celebrate Marcel Proust's birthday by baking these "very gay" madeleines.

Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust, the man perennially in search of lost time, was born on this day in 1871. The ruminative frenchman is of course best known for his mammoth seven-volume novel À la recherche du temps perdu, Read more >

By Dan Sheehan

Will sports action-adventure-thriller novels become a thing?

I am clearly a coastal elite out of touch with how people really read* because I did not know there’s a robust, overcrowded field of sports-themed romance novels. This is one of the things I learned in this feature at Read more >

By Jonny Diamond

This year's National Book Awards Ceremony will be held online.

The National Book Foundation has announced that this year’s National Book Awards events—including the 71st annual ceremony—will be held digitally, due to the ongoing, not-even-remotely-controlled, coronavirus pandemic. Lisa Lucas, the National Book Foundation’s Executive Director, said of the decision,”As a Read more >

By Jessie Gaynor

All I want for Christmas is Mariah Carey's memoir.

It’s the audio version that I want. Wouldn’t you? Mariah Carey’s memoir, The Meaning of Mariah Carey, is set to come out this fall. Carey herself will be reading the audiobook, which will feature occasional musical interludes. Carey’s career has had Read more >

By Aaron Robertson

Francesca Marciano on the fitting last words of legendary composer Ennio Morricone.

“I, Ennio Morricone, am dead. This is an announcement for all my dear friends, too many to name here. There is a reason for this farewell, as it is my wish to have my funeral celebrated privately: I don’t want Read more >

By Francesca Marciano

Authors are canceling events at a Philadelphia library over its mistreatment of Black workers.

Authors including Colson Whitehead, Eddie S. Glaude Jr., and Adam Rutherford are cancelling events at the Free Library of Philadelphia over complaints from Black employees that they have been mistreated and undervalued there. An open letter from Black employees says Read more >

By Corinne Segal

Ready Player One is getting a part two.

Ernest Cline’s young adult novel Ready Player One was one of 2011’s biggest publishing success stories. Nearly ten years later, fans are getting another chance to visit the world of The Oasis. The sequel’s title? You guessed it: Ready Player Two. The first Read more >

By Aaron Robertson

Your Francophile kids will want to read the winners of the Prix Albertine Jeunesse.

The Prix Albertine Jeunesse is a prize chosen for children, by children—that is, a reader’s choice award in which people between the ages of three and fourteen vote on their favorite book from a selection of Francophone literature. This award Read more >

By Katie Yee

Phoebe Robinson is partnering with Plume to launch a new imprint called Tiny Reparations Books.

Today, Penguin Random House announced the launch of a new imprint, Tiny Reparations Books, founded by New York Times bestselling author, comedian, actress, and producer Phoebe Robinson. Robinson will be partnering with Plume (a division of Dutton, which is itself Read more >

By Emily Temple

MacDowell drops "Colony" from its name, citing the "occupation and oppression" tied to the term.

The artist’s retreat formerly known as the MacDowell Colony announced today that it would drop the “Colony” from its name going forward and be known simply as MacDowell (which is, I gather, what the cool kids have been calling it Read more >

By Jessie Gaynor

There's a new Trump tell-all memoir coming. Just what we need.

The dubious genre of Trump tell-all memoirs has a new member: Melania & Me, written by a previous advisor to Melania Trump, which will be published by the Simon & Schuster imprint Gallery Books on September 1. Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, Read more >

By Corinne Segal

Margaret Atwood tweets support for transgender communities.

Good morning to everyone, but especially to Margaret Atwood, who has enraged transphobic Twitter trolls today with this post. Some science here: “When Sex and Gender Collide.” https://t.co/oOxAsEWJm8 #TransGenderWomen Biology doesn’t deal in sealed Either/Or compartments. We’re all part of Read more >

By Katie Yee

20 new books to fuel your summer reading.

Summer reading had me a blast Summer reading happened so fast I found a book perfect for me Bought a book new as can be… Seriously, friends, what else is there to do on these hot summer days besides belt Read more >

By Katie Yee

The Ayn Rand Institute bootstrapped its way to a PPP Loan of at least $350K.

The Ayn Rand Institute, a nonprofit(??) “devoted to applying Rand’s ideas to current issues and seeking to promote her philosophical principles of reason, rational self-interest and laissez-faire capitalism,” has recently accepted—I assume grudgingly—government assistance to the tune of a Paycheck Read more >

By Jessie Gaynor

Tin House leads the latest VIDA Count (again), with NYTBR gaining ground.

This year is one of unusually salient statistics and overwhelming numbers. As Marcia Douglas writes in her preface to the newly published 2019 VIDA Count—the tenth iteration of this initiative—both the 2020 census and the uptick in COVID cases remind Read more >

By Aaron Robertson

Look inside Oslo's stunning new public library, now open to the public.

On June 18th, Oslo’s new public library, Deichman Bjørvika, opened its doors to the public. Located on Oslo’s waterfront, and spanning six floors and 140,000 square feet, “Norway’s biggest bookshelf” (as its director Knut Skansen calls it) will contain some Read more >

By Emily Temple

Dana Canedy has been named the executive vice president and publisher of Simon & Schuster.

Today, Simon & Schuster named Dana Canedy, a former journalist and the administrator of the Pulitzer Prizes (as well as a Pulitzer-winner herself), as its newest executive vice president and publisher. The New York Times reports that Canedy had been under Read more >

By Emily Temple

On Hilary Mantel's birthday, please enjoy her 1988 review of RoboCop.

Today, Dame Hilary Mary Mantel, author of the Booker Prize-winning novels Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies, and the likely future Booker Prize-winning novel The Mirror and the Light, turns 68. But you probably knew that. What you might Read more >

By Emily Temple

How to donate to Liberation Library, an organization that provides books to incarcerated children.

Yesterday, a tweet from Liberation Library, an organization that provides books to incarcerated children (yes, you read that right), went viral. It was a photograph of thank-you letter written by a child in custody, to the organization, expressing gratitude for Read more >

By Olivia Rutigliano