The Hub

News, Notes, Talk

Literary Earthquakes: Tori Amos is publishing a memoir

Tori Amos—synesthete musical prodigy, RAINN activist, and one of the most iconic singer-songwriters of the 1990s (easily the greatest musical decade)—is releasing a new, politically-themed memoir entitled Resistance: A Songwriter’s Story of Hope, Change, and Courage. The book, Amos’ first since her Read more >

By Dan Sheehan

Florida men deny smalltown library access to the New York Times online, citing “fake news.”

The bullpen of the 1993 San Diego Padres Citrus County Commission (pictured above) has denied funding to county libraries for digital subscriptions to the New York Times. Led by left-handed middle-reliever area man Scott Carnahan, the commission (comprised of Scott, Read more >

By Jonny Diamond

Here are the 10 new books you should read this week.

Every week, a new crop of great new books hit the shelves. If we could read them all, we would, but since time is finite and so is the human capacity for page-turning, here are a few of the ones Read more >

By Emily Temple

Read this great historical profile of one of Kansas City's first black-owned bookstores, The Hub!

It has been heard around the Lit Hub offices that the true “literary hubs” of any given community are in fact, its bookstores*, places that foster conversation about ideas, politics, culture, and community. So it was with great pleasure I Read more >

By Jonny Diamond

Sure, why not: Jonathan Safran Foer and Stella McCartney created a capsule collection.

Here’s a cursed lede: if you have an extra $530, you can buy a Stella McCartney x Jonathan Safran Foer “We Are the Weather” tee shirt from Saks Fifth Avenue! It is 100% cotton, and, according to Saks’ website, dry Read more >

By Jessie Gaynor

Heads up: you can get seven figures for a story collection (if you're Don Winslow).

My personal form of astrology is to anxiously trawl Publishers Marketplace every week. No, wait, hear me out: it’s how I can tell the only future that matters: which books I will be reading a year and a half from now. Also, Read more >

By Emily Temple

Eve L. Ewing's debut poetry collection is being adapted for TV.

I have no idea how one goes about adapting a poetry collection into a TV series, but it looks like I’ll find out soon—AMC Studios is creating an Afrofuturistic anthology series based on Eve L. Ewing’s debut collection Electric Arches. Read more >

By Jessie Gaynor

Oh, look: an early misogynistic review of Frankenstein.

When Mary Shelley first unleashed Frankenstein on the world, just over 200 years ago, it was met with a few pretty mixed reviews. (With the exception of this glowing rave from her husband, the poet Percy Shelley, who had anticipated Read more >

By Katie Yee

An early look at the adaptation of Normal People, with commentary from my Irish colleagues.

Earlier this year, the BBC began filming a limited series adaptation of Sally Rooney’s Normal People, which stars Daisy Edgar-Jones as Marianne and Paul Mescal as Connell. Now, Vanity Fair has graced us with the first few photographs from the show, which Read more >

By Emily Temple

Mary Ruefle is Vermont's new poet laureate!

Beloved Bennington poet Mary Ruefle (Madness, Rack, and Honey; My Private Property; Dunce) has been named Vermont’s poet laureate! She was selected by a panel of judges and will serve as the state’s ambassador for the arts. The honor is Read more >

By Katie Yee

Fires and power outages plague California indie booksellers.

As the wildfire situation in California worsens—with power outages, road closures, red flag warnings, and mandatory evacuations occurring throughout the state—several independent bookstores have been forced to reduce operating hours, cancel events, and in some cases even close their doors Read more >

By Dan Sheehan

If you have €4.5 million, you can buy the house where J.R.R. Tolkien wrote The Hobbit.

Are you a very rich house-hunter who loves Tolkien? Well then, much like Bilbo Baggins when Gandalf saved him from those murderous trolls, you’re in luck! The Oxford home where Tolkien lived between 1930 and 1947, and where he wrote The Read more >

By Jessie Gaynor

Benjamin Percy, owner of the most distinct voice in literature, reads Goodnight Moon.

On this All Hallow’s Eve eve, let Benjamin Percy, who has the most notable voice in American letters (if you don’t know what I’m talking about, smash that play button), lull you to sleep with a reading of the surprisingly Read more >

By Emily Temple

Here are the new books you should know about this week.

Every week, a new crop of great new books hit the shelves. If we could read them all, we would, but since time is finite and so is the human capacity for page-turning, here are a few of the ones Read more >

By Emily Temple

Elena Ferrante's first novel in 5 years has an English-language pub date.

According to the Bookseller, Elena Ferrante’s first novel in five years will be published in English in June 2020 by Europa Editions. The Lying Life of Adults (great title? or greatest title?) is out in Italian this coming November 7, Read more >

By Jonny Diamond

Val Kilmer is releasing a memoir (!!!)

Stop whatever it is you’re doing and pay attention to me because I have, just this morning, stumbled upon some joyous, and potentially game-changing, literary news: Val Kilmer is releasing a memoir. Yes, friends, according to Publishers Weekly, Simon & Read more >

By Dan Sheehan

Want to read a philosophical novel? Here's a flowchart to help you pick one.

So you’d like to read a philosophical novel—but you don’t know where to start. That’s a very nice problem to have, and it has a very nice solution: this clever flowchart, created by Ben Roth, a philosopher who teaches in Read more >

By Emily Temple

Brujas, female horniness, and beauty as terror: the week in book deals.

My personal form of astrology is to anxiously trawl Publishers Marketplace every week. No, wait, hear me out: it’s how I can tell the only future that matters: which books I will be reading a year and a half from now. Also, Read more >

By Emily Temple

And the winners of this year's $50,000 Kirkus Prize are . . .

At a ceremony tonight at the Austin Public Library, Kirkus Reviews announced the winners of their sixth annual Kirkus Prize in three categories: fiction, nonfiction, and young readers’ literature. Each winner was chosen from a shortlist announced last month; the Read more >

By Emily Temple

Trixie and Katya have a book cover.

UNHhhh . . . Trixie and Katya’s Guide to Modern Womanhood—for which Katya “literally wrote haikus about getting your period”—has a cover and a release date: May 5, 2020. EW revealed the cover today, along with an interview with the Read more >

By Emily Temple