Natalie Portman knows a thing or two about fairy tales. Portman’s turn as a dancer whose life goes awry in Black Swan (2010) was, famously, a brooding take on Pyotr Tchaikovksy’s most famous ballet. Swan Lake itself was likely inspired by Russian and German Read more >
Well, beautiful might not exactly be the word—perhaps disquietingly arresting? Chinese architecture firm x+living seems to be channeling the synaptic afterimages of Borges’s brain in their dizzying design for a bookstore in the city of Dujiangyan, in the southwest of Read more >
In the latest chapter of Edward Snowden’s legal battle over his 2019 book Permanent Record, a federal judge has ruled that Edward Snowden needs to forfeit about $1 million in speaking fees and $4 million from other book-related earnings to Read more >
On this day in 1835, history’s most macabre literary lovebirds ghouled their way to Baltimore City Hall to file for a marriage license. At the time, Poe was a gloomy 27-year-old West Point graduate and struggling poet, recently dismissed from Read more >
Today, the Brooklyn Public Library (BPL), in partnership with the Brooklyn Eagles, announced the longlist for the Brooklyn Public Library Literary Prize for fiction/poetry and nonfiction. The prize, one of the few major literary prizes from a public library system, Read more >
Ah, Tuesday rears its ugly head again. But rest assured, there are some good things that have come out of it. Today, we are greeted by new titles from Laila Lalami, Eileen Myles, Noam Chomsky, and more. Happy reading! * Read more >
It used to be there was a season for political memoirs, as candidates thinking of taking a run at the national level would tape together the most flattering aspects of their life story, throw in some hopeful, non-committal bromides with Read more >
Shirley Jackson’s beloved short novel We Have Always Lived in the Castle, which also happens to have one of the best opening paragraphs of all time, was published on this day in 1962. In addition to being one of the Read more >
Yes, that’s right. Apparently, Elliott Roosevelt, the son of Franklin Delano and Eleanor Roosevelt, wrote a long-running murder mystery series starring his mother as an amateur detective. This incredible development was brought to my attention by scholar Bill Black (@williamrblack), Read more >
Here’s a little known fact, of which Mary Karr recently reminded us: as an undergraduate, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died this weekend at the age of 87, was once one of Vladimir Nabokov’s students: she took his legendary class on Read more >
When a group of thieves stole $3.2 million worth of rare books from a London warehouse in 2017, including seminal scientific texts by Isaac Newton and Galileo, they shocked the antiquarian book world and inspired a number of theories about Read more >
It is so easy to be hopeful in the daytime when you can see the things you wish on. But it was night, it stayed night. Night was striding across nothingness with the whole round world in his hands Read more >
Susanna Clarke’s Piranesi, Ayad Akhtar’s Homeland Elegies, Walter Mosley’s The Awkward Black Man, and Ben Macintyre’s Agent Sonya all feature among the Best Reviewed Books of the Week. Fiction 1. Piranesi by Susanna Clarke 14 Rave • 5 Positive Read more >
Last but certainly not least: it’s the time for fiction! The National Book Foundation has announced the ten books contending for this year’s National Book Award for Fiction. The award, created in 1950, is the most prestigious literary prize in the Read more >
“Why do I speak to you from exile? Because a Negro community in the South took up guns in self-defense against racist violence—and used them.” These are the opening lines of Robert F. Williams’ book Negroes With Guns (1962), the work Read more >
Today, the New York Public Library announced the winner for this year’s Young Lions Fiction Award. The award—founded in 2001 by Ethan Hawke, Hannah McFarland, Jennifer Rudolph Walsh, and Rick Moody—was created to honor a writer age 35 or younger Read more >
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