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News, Notes, Talk

Before there was Jessica Fletcher, there were the Snoop Sisters.

You might not have heard of The Snoop Sisters, a largely-forgotten, short-lived detective show from the 1970s, about two single, senior-citizen mystery writers who moonlight as sleuths. Although it has since fallen into obscurity (though I’m not super confident many Read more >

By Olivia Rutigliano

Now is a great time to re-watch this video of Kristen Wiig reading the poetry of Suzanne Somers.

I’ve always been a re-reader and a re-watcher, but my instincts to seek comfort in the familiar have gotten even stronger lately. I don’t want any more surprises, so I’m spending more time with old friends, whose stories I’ve already Read more >

By Jessie Gaynor

The 100-year-old man who raised £32 million for the NHS is publishing two books this year.

Britain’s most recent national hero, the centenarian Captain Tom Moore, will mainly be remembered not for his service during World War II but for his equally admirable efforts during the coronavirus pandemic. You might have heard the touching story: while Read more >

By Aaron Robertson

Barnes & Noble is slowly reopening stores to shoppers in a few states.

At a time when bookstores are weighing the health risks of reopening during a pandemic with the compounding financial consequences of remaining closed—a decision that has been especially fraught for independent bookstores—Barnes & Noble is choosing to forge ahead. Of Read more >

By Corinne Segal

The Good Lord Bird.">

The Good Lord Bird.">Ethan Hawke is ".44 caliber abolitionist" John Brown in The Good Lord Bird.

It looks like Ethan Hawke’s stint as a contemplative Protestant minister struggling with his faith has given way to Phase Two. In the forthcoming Showtime adaptation of James McBride’s novel The Good Lord Bird, Hawke stars as the God-fearing firebrand abolitionist The Good Lord Bird.">Read more >

By Aaron Robertson

Sofia Coppola is adapting Edith Wharton's post-divorce novel.

For lovers of lush literary adaptations, it doesn’t get much more mouth-watering than this. Sophia Coppola—acclaimed director of Lost in Translation, The Virgin Suicides, Marie Antoinette, The Bling Ring, and my own personal favorite, The Beguiled—is teaming up with Apple to develop Read more >

By Dan Sheehan

Read Sally Rooney's first short story about Marianne and Connell.

As is the case with many novels, Sally Rooney’s Normal People began its life as a short story. In “At the Clinic,” Connell and Marianne are 23, Marianne needs to have a tooth removed, and they each have very different Read more >

By Emily Temple

Who will write a short story about the restaurant filling seats with midcentury mannequins?

As we learned on Twitter last week, writing prompts are very bad (or… necessary and good? If you don’t know what I’m talking about, I am so jealous of you). So, this is not a writing prompt, but a simple Read more >

By Jessie Gaynor

Watch the first episode of a forgotten 1970 TV adaptation of Don Quixote . . . set in space.

For about two months in 1970, ITV aired episodes of a bonkers science fiction comedy series based (oh so very loosely) on Miguel de Cervantes’ literary classic Don Quixote. The show, entitled The Adventures of Don Quick, follows an astronaut named Read more >

By Emily Temple

Tiny book YouTube is the most soothing place on the internet.

This morning, after reading the news that the British Library was encouraging kids to make their own tiny books in imitation of the Brontë sisters’ childhood crafting endeavors, I fell down a deep, deep internet hole that ended unlike almost Read more >

By Corinne Segal

Netflix is (already) adapting Elena Ferrante's new novel The Lying Life of Adults.

On the heels of the second season of My Brilliant Friend, the faithful and well-acted HBO adaptation of Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan Quartet, Ferrante fans have received some good news: Netflix will be co-producing a series based on Ferrante’s most recent novel, Read more >

By Aaron Robertson

Haruki Murakami is going to DJ a special “Stay-Home” radio show for his fellow recluses.

Harukami Murakami, who even in the best of times is not a particularly public person, is going to be hosting a special radio show for everyone stuck at home in Japan (which is most of Japan). Murakami is no stranger Read more >

By Jonny Diamond

20 new books coming out today.

You know what they say: April showers bring May books. Here’s today’s brand-new batch coming to (virtual) bookstores near you. Consider this a friendly reminder that it’s never a bad idea to support your local indie. * Samantha Harvey, The Shapeless Read more >

By Katie Yee

I am obsessed with these strangely specific, yet utterly general Hallmark cards.

I first encountered them at a Walgreens in Iowa. The card was long and thin, with a backdrop of blurry purple flowers and a sentiment printed in a cousin of Lucinda Handwriting: There’s no taking back / what I did Read more >

By Jessie Gaynor

A British comedian is writing a "sexy-but-sensible" diary of her (imagined) life with Jürgen Klopp.

Everyone loves Jürgen Klopp. Even I, a longtime Man United fan who finds Liverpool FC’s COVID-interrupted title run almost as hilarious as Steven Gerrard’s slip, love Jürgen Klopp. For those of you unfamiliar with the Champions League-winning Liverpool manager, Klopp Read more >

By Dan Sheehan

This new database shows the reading habits of major 20th-century authors.

When Sylvia Beach, the New Jersey native who published Ulysses and opened Paris’ Shakespeare and Co. (“the most famous bookstore in the world”), died in 1962, Princeton University purchased and catalogued her papers. This trove of materials reveals, among other things, the Read more >

By Aaron Robertson

10 reflections on Orson Welles' drunken champagne commercial outtakes.

Distracted as we are by November’s Clash of the Predators, by the grim slog of the ongoing COVID crisis, by our tiger kings and our last dances and our normal people, we almost forgot about what is, unquestionably, the most Read more >

By Dan Sheehan

An open letter from writers, artists and scientists argues that there's no "back to normal."

Even as local leaders start to talk about re-opening businesses, an open letter signed by artists, writers, and scientists around the world asserts that there is no “going back to normal” beyond the coronavirus pandemic. Anne Carson, Naomi Klein, and Read more >

By Corinne Segal

Elisabeth Moss is playing Shirley Jackson in a new movie, and it looks insanely good.

Um, did everyone else know that there was a movie in the works with Elisabeth Moss playing Shirley Jackson and Michael Stuhlbarg playing her husband, Stanley Edgar Hyman? I for one did not, but after seeing the trailer, which dropped Read more >

By Emily Temple

Anything can be a Penguin Classic with this handy cover generator.

There’s a certain gravitas about a Penguin Classic. I mean, any idiot can publish a book, but not all of them are approved by the cutest flightless bird in the southern hemisphere. Well now, thanks to Nicholas Love’s neat cover Read more >

By Jessie Gaynor