The Hub

News, Notes, Talk

Sorry nerds, the big Dungeons & Dragons movie is delayed because of coronavirus.

First of all, I didn’t even know there was going to be a big studio Dungeons & Dragons movie; second of all, the reason this is bookish news is because of the crazy and endless spinoff novels based in the Read more >

By Jonny Diamond

Latest Irish literary phenom Naoise Dolan's Exciting Times is coming to TV.

It’s the kind of timing a publisher dreams of. Less than one week out from its U.S. launch, latest Irish literary phenom Naoise Dolan’s debut novel Exciting Times (Ecco, June 2) has been optioned for TV. Yes, following a hugely successful Read more >

By Dan Sheehan

Are people searching “how not to be racist” and finding Ibram X. Kendi’s book?

Views are up 200 percent for the Book Marks’ book page of Ibram X. Kendi’s How to Be an Antiracist. As America repeats its cycles of racist state violence in Minneapolis this is indeed a book we should all read Read more >

By Jonny Diamond

Like the rest of our lives, the National Book Festival will be online this year.

The latest live event to shift its plans in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic: the National Book Festival. Organizers announced Thursday that the festival, which was originally set to take place Aug. 29 at the Washington Convention Center will Read more >

By Corinne Segal

I can't stop watching this old SNL skit in which Maya Angelou pranks other writers.

Here’s something I think about all the time: in 2013, Maya Rudolph played Maya Angelou in a skit on Saturday Night Live. It might be my favorite skit ever? First, there’s the fact that SNL even aired a skit that Read more >

By Emily Temple

All the history I learned in my youth came from the American Girl doll books.

Most of what I learned in elementary school history classes was the history of the state of Illinois. I grew up in the suburbs of Chicago, and I guess the reasoning behind the curriculum was that it would be more Read more >

By Jessie Gaynor

Will the new adaptation of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo be an adaptation at all?

The announcement of a forthcoming Amazon series focusing on Lisbeth Salander, the protagonist of Steig Larsson’s Millennium series, challenges our assumptions about what a literary adaptation actually is. We know that the Amazon show is currently titled The Girl With the Read more >

By Aaron Robertson

Fun fact: John Steinbeck's dog ate the first draft of Of Mice and Men.

“The dog ate my homework” is, perhaps, the oldest excuse in the book. But it really happened to John Steinbeck! His dog, Toby, apparently ate half of the first manuscript of Of Mice and Men. On this very day, May Read more >

By Katie Yee

On Dracula's birthday, remember the copyright battle over the illegally-adapted Nosferatu.

Dracula lay undisturbed and unadapted for twenty-five years after its publication in 1897, before waking up as Nosferatu and dawning perhaps the greatest cultural juggernaut of the century. When F. W. Murnau’s film Nosferatu was released in 1922, Bram Stoker, Read more >

By Olivia Rutigliano

12 new books to keep the quarantine blues at bay.

Back at the Literary Hub office, we would get a dozen donuts whenever we were feeling down, or had something to celebrate, or if we were just hungry. Basically, what I’m saying is: we were always eating donuts. I miss Read more >

By Katie Yee

There are serious 2020 quarantine vibes in Edith Wharton's first published short story.

Edith Wharton’s first published short story, “Mrs. Manstey’s View,” was accepted on this day one hundred and twenty-nine years ago, in the year of our lord 1891, by the clever folks at Scribner’s magazine. I sat down to read the tale Read more >

By Dan Sheehan

Your Week in Virtual Book Parties, May 26 to May 31

Lockdown Lit @ Lunch with Mary South and Erin Somers Tuesday, May 26, 2pm EDT Lockdown Lit @ Lunch, a new weekly salon that spotlights books published during the coronavirus  pandemic, hosts Mary South (You Will Never Be Forgotten) and Read more >

By Penina Roth

Red Dead Redemption 2’s Arthur Morgan binge-reads the books of the Van der Linde Gang.

The following short commentaries were discovered in 1908 by Mr. Thomas Finnimore, scholar, as appendices to the journal of Arthur Morgan, a member of the now disbanded gang of outlaws led by Dutch van Der Linde, presumed dead. * Wellll, all Read more >

By Arthur Morgan

Raymond Carver explains your health insurance coverage.

Can the master of literary minimalism make sense of the labyrinthine hell that is American health insurance? Let’s find out! You’re well. That’s swell. Terrific. That’s covered. You’re sick. Is it bad? That’s bad. Well, that’s covered, too. If it’s Read more >

By Jessie Gaynor

George R.R. Martin, lover of trains, is co-buying a historic New Mexico railway.

Taking quarantine hobbies to a new level, George R.R. Martin is purchasing a historic railway in New Mexico along with two others in the hopes of revitalizing it with entertainment options and cultural events. The line runs from Santa Fe Read more >

By Corinne Segal

It's always a good time to read Julie Otsuka's underrated novel The Buddha in the Attic.

Julie Otsuka’s The Buddha In the Attic is the only book by an Asian-American writer that I was assigned in all four years of college. (Ahem, professors, diversify and decolonize your curriculums!) Since it’s AAPI Month, I’ve been thinking about Read more >

By Katie Yee

Here's a rare recording of Raymond Carver reading one of his best-known stories.

If you’d like to spend the long weekend before Raymond Carver’s birthday revisiting some of his short stories, be sure to add this to the list: There’s only one recording of Raymond Carver reading his iconic short story, “What We Read more >

By Corinne Segal

The absolute weirdest episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer still slaps 20 years later.

On May 23, 2000, fans of Buffy the Vampire Slayer tuned in for the finale of season four, expecting another huge production (the last season finale was the two-part “Graduation Day,” after all), though possibly confused as to how the show was Read more >

By Emily Temple

Emily Ratajkowski is spending her quarantine writing a book of essays.

Turns out, model and feminist Emily Ratajkowski, known for fighting back against slut-shaming after her droll performance in Robyn Thicke’s Blurred Lines video earned her undeserved criticism (hey, it’s hard out there for a model with giant boobs!), is currently Read more >

By Molly Odintz

Antidepressants or Tolkien: a quiz for actual sad nerds.

Ever have one of those days when you just need like a half-dose of Lothlorien™ (street name=Mirkwood) to get to sleep? Well friend, you’re not alone—I, too, could occasionally benefit from a little over-the-counter Tolkien at bedtime, to ease my Read more >

By Jonny Diamond