The Hub

News, Notes, Talk

Then It Fell Apart: Moby has cancelled his book tour.

Remember last week, when Natalie Portman told the world that despite what he said in his memoir, Then It Fell Apart, she did not date Moby when he was 33 and she was 20 (also, that she was 18 at Read more >

By Jessie Gaynor

There's a TV adaptation of Normal People, and it just started filming

Did you know there was a television adaptation of Sally Rooney’s Normal People in the works? I didn’t, until I saw this tweet from the first day of shooting (today!). According to Faber & Faber, Rooney’s UK publisher, the 12-episode, half-hour Read more >

By Emily Temple

You're stuck with the cover, and other advice for debut authors

Debut authors, take note: tomorrow Lit Hub has published some writing advice just for you, from Kelly Link’s speech at the 2019 One Story Literary Debutante Ball earlier this month. Here are a couple of our favorite lines: “When an Read more >

By Corinne Segal

The trailer for Donna Tartt's The Goldfinch looks . . . very sentimental.

You’ve probably heard by now that Donna Tartt’s best-selling novel The Goldfinch, which won the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction, has been adapted to film by director John Crowley (Brooklyn), and Read more >

By Emily Temple

Today in charming commute stories: two strangers bonding over Stay Sexy & Don't Get Murdered.

This morning on the 2 train, I witnessed something really rare and surprisingly lovely. Not screaming schoolchildren or obnoxious tourists or people proselytizing, but two total strangers genuinely connecting over a book! It started like this: the woman sitting next Read more >

By Katie Yee

Remembering Edmund Morris, a great American biographer.

On May 16, 2019, I emailed the biographer Edmund Morris after reading the first pages of his forthcoming book on Thomas Edison: “One of the best first sentences I’ve ever read. And the second one is even better.” He wrote Read more >

By Kerri Arsenault

The first pictures from The Goldfinch reveal how perfectly cast Ansel Elgort was.

As I said aloud in the office just now, I never thought I would say it, but Ansel Elgort was the perfect choice for Theo Decker. Just look at these pictures! That’s a face that could convince you to (SPOILER Read more >

By Jessie Gaynor

The Jonas Brothers are writing a memoir and it is called Blood

Oh yes, you read it right: the Jonas Brothers—sometimes known as the husbands of Priyanka Chopra, Sophie Turner, and the founder of the Jewelry company Moments—are writing a memoir, which according to Publishers Marketplace will tell “the true story of Read more >

By Emily Temple

This Twitter thread of dream book adaptations is the perfect post-long weekend read.

Hey, we’re all easing back into reality after the long weekend, so why not enjoy a lighthearted Twitter thread in which no one’s feelings get hurt? This morning, Rachel Syme asked a very nice, breezy question about dream-adaptations, and Twitter Read more >

By Jessie Gaynor

Edward Carey remembers writer and translator Sergio Claudio Perroni.

[this post contains a description of suicide] In 2000 shortly after my first novel was published in the UK, it was bought in Italy by one of the most charismatic and passionate of publishers, Elisabetta Sgarbi, who was then at Read more >

By Edward Carey

New Books Tuesday: Your weekly guide to what’s publishing today, fiction and nonfiction

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

Your Favorite Books This Week

Hello from Book Marks, Lit Hub’s “rotten tomatoes for books!” How It Works: Every day, our staff scours the most important and active outlets of literary journalism—from established national broadsheets to regional weeklies and alternative litblogs—and logs their book reviews. Read more >

By Katie Yee

The most recent "crisis in the humanities" is really just a case of crossed wires.

Every now and then, a particular conversation flares up online (as it does in the old fabled halls of the academy). This would be the “crisis in the humanities,” a phrase which, though clichéd, refers to real issues typically associated Read more >

By Aaron Robertson

Hulu has ordered a series based North American Lake Monsters from Kelly Link's press.

Today, Hulu announced in a press release that it has ordered a new horror anthology series from writer and producer Mary Laws based on Nathan Ballingrud’s Shirley Jackson award-winning debut collection North American Lake Monsters, which came out from Kelly Read more >

By Emily Temple

Your weekly book deal memo: Marie Kondo, Ottessa Moshfegh, Trixie & Katya

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

This week on Lit Hub Radio: Bob Caro, Bad Mothers, and BDSM.

Lisa Lucas talks Robert Caro and the injustices of NYC urban planning: “I was just absolutely shaken by the clear interest in justice that Bob Caro had, and the loving, tender, thoughtful regard in which he described the people that Read more >

By Kevin Chau

Happy birthday words, happy birthday nouns, happy birthday Margaret Wise Brown!

Children’s book author Margaret Wise Brown was born on this day in 1910. Even if you don’t know her name, you’re probably familiar with her beloved Goodnight Moon. (Goodnight stars, goodnight air, goodnight noises everywhere—yup, that’s the one!) She published Read more >

By Katie Yee

Sharing stories of writer Judith Kerr's kindness, energy, and love for cats.

Judith Kerr, author of beloved children’s books including The Tiger Who Came To Tea and the Mog series, has died at 95, her publisher HarperCollins confirmed. Kerr fled Nazi Germany as a Jewish refugee with her family in 1933 and Read more >

By Corinne Segal

It's been a gratifying journey for Jokha Alharthi and Marilyn Booth, Man Booker International Prize winners.

The announcement on Tuesday that Jokha Alharthi and her translator Marilyn Booth received this year’s Man Booker International Prize for Celestial Bodies brought smiles to many people’s faces, and for good reason. Celestial Bodies is the first novel written by an Omani Read more >

By Aaron Robertson

Marie Kondo is writing another book for you to throw out.

As if to prove once and for all that she does not actually require you to throw away all your books, people, so put down your pitchforks, Marie Kondo is herself writing another one. Her next project will be a Read more >

By Emily Temple