The Hub

News, Notes, Talk

15 new books to add to your TBR pile.

The sun is shining, the temperatures are rising, and the books just keep on coming! Here are fifteen of the biggest new titles hitting bookshelves today. * Adrian Tomine, The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Cartoonist (Drawn & Quarterly) “A hilarious, Read more >

By Katie Yee

Julia Roberts, Denzel Washington cast in adaptation of Rumaan Alam's Leave the World Behind.

Today in adaptation news: Neflix has won the rights to adapt Rumaan Alam’s forthcoming novel Leave the World Behind, with Sam Esmail—of Mr Robot and Homecoming fame—directing, and Julia Roberts and Denzel Washington starring. In the novel, an unspecified global Read more >

By Jessie Gaynor

All the books mentioned in Clueless.

Clueless, one of the best literary adaptations of the 90s, has just turned twenty-five. And would Lit Hub miss out on a chance to celebrate it? AS IF. Because of the pandemic, we can’t celebrate by making a cameo at Read more >

By Olivia Rutigliano

Noted immortal Keanu Reeves to bless our lives with a comic book in October.

Noted immortal man, Keanu Reeves, is writing a comic book with the help of bestselling graphic novelist Matt Kindt. Called BRZRKR, the first of 12 issues will debut in October just in time to save the world / distract us Read more >

By Jonny Diamond

A math teacher has painted 45 book rocks to hide in her local library (when it reopens).

Look, these days, I’ll take my cheering wherever I can get it. And this weekend, Ella Dickson put a smile on my face with her thread of book rocks, each one painstakingly painted to look like a novel. They are Read more >

By Emily Temple

It's a good day to rewatch John Lewis accepting the National Book Award.

In case you forgot: in 2016, legendary civil rights leader and Congressman John Lewis won the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature, along with co-writer Andrew Aydin and artist Nate Powell, for his graphic novel March: Book Three, the Read more >

By Emily Temple

J.K. Rowling's sales suddenly slowed down in June. I wonder why.

Variety reports that sales for J.K. Rowling’s books slowed down in June, in a period that appears to be somewhat of an anomaly for the author, as well as out of step with the wider industry. Last year, as sales Read more >

By Corinne Segal

Why do people on the internet care so much about how other people organize their books?

Yet again, a debate about color-coordinated bookshelves has sprung up on the internet. This time, it was catalyzed by a tweet from writer and journalist Jennifer Wright, which features said bookshelf style as well as a very fun dress (which is Read more >

By Emily Temple

A new emergency fund will help literary organizations hit hard by the pandemic.

Let’s welcome Friday with a little bit of light. This morning, three major arts nonprofits, supported by a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, announced a $3.5 million fund that will be used to give one-time grants (between $5,000 Read more >

By Aaron Robertson

Still stuck at home? Read these 7 books in which . . . very little happens.

I started writing this post as a counterpoint to the “describe your favorite book in the most boring way possible” trend. It was meant to be something along the lines of “describe a plotless book in the most exciting way Read more >

By Aaron Robertson

Take a look at the dreamy book tunnels in this beautiful Beijing bookstore.

Here’s another one for our ever-growing post-quarantine travel wish lists (assuming U.S. passports aren’t just cancelled forever now): Beijing’s Zhongshuge bookstore, which features some very dreamy book tunnels. According to X+Living, the design firm behind the literary wonderland, the tunnels Read more >

By Jessie Gaynor

Mary Trump's book sold almost a million copies by the end of its publication day.

Mary Trump’s book Too Much Is Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man, which focuses on the history of the Trump family and the psychology of the president, had sold 950,000 copies by the end of Tuesday, Read more >

By Corinne Segal

I'm obsessed with Rick Beerhorst's surrealist odes to reading.

I recently discovered the art of Rick Beerhost, a printmaker, painter and sculptor from Grand Rapids, Michigan, who creates, among other things, many paintings of young women reading books. Often the women have their eyes obscured—hummingbirds are favored; the influence Read more >

By Emily Temple

On Lydia Davis's birthday, read her advice on language, writing from reality, and more.

Over the years, Lydia Davis has gifted us with dozens of interviews chronicling her relationship to literature, laying out her writing process, and analyzing the many craft-related choices that writers make every day. Today is her birthday and a great Read more >

By Corinne Segal

After controversy, the National Book Critics Circle has announced its new board members.

One month after controversy over an anti-racism pledge led most board members of the National Book Critics Circle to resign, the organization has announced its newest slate of board members. In June, a working committee led by Hope Wabuke drafted Read more >

By Aaron Robertson

Wishbone is getting a film adaptation.

Wishbone—a kids’ series which aired on PBS from 1995-97, in which a Jack Russell terrier, surrounded by a cast of humans, acts out works of classic literature (while the kids in his orbit navigate vaguely thematically related kid problems)—is getting Read more >

By Jessie Gaynor

The 10 best sentences from Lorrie Moore's ecstatic anti-millennial review of Normal People.

Lorrie Moore has written a kind of ecstatic, intergenerational, theses-nailed-to-the-door review of Sally Rooney’s Normal People (both the novel and the TV show). I like the fiction of both Moore and Rooney. I am also a Gen X’er. I think Read more >

By Jonny Diamond

Someone has written a prequel to The Great Gatsby and it's coming next year.

On January 1, 2021, The Great Gatsby will become the latest masterwork of 20th century literature to enter the public domain, and because time and tide wait for no man, just a few days later, on January 5, we’ll all be Read more >

By Dan Sheehan

Lisa Lucas is stepping down as executive director of the National Book Foundation.

Lisa Lucas is stepping down as executive director of the National Book Foundation to become Senior Vice President & Publisher of Pantheon and Schocken Books. According to a press release from the NBF Lucas, who took over the ED role Read more >

By Jonny Diamond

A former Mueller prosecutor's upcoming book will cover "mistakes" the team made.

Andrew Weissmann, who served as a prosecutor for Robert Mueller during an investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election, is releasing a book this fall—and says it will include details on the investigation’s “mistakes.” Random House will publish Where Read more >

By Corinne Segal