James Baldwin would have turned a hundred years old today. There are far more than a hundred reasons to celebrate the man. A brilliant, complicated author and one of our most fearsome public intellectuals, he left cultural fingerprints everywhere. And Read more >
I knew the Olympics had begun when my phone started buzzing. Big events like the Games currently underway in Paris are like embers drifting on the wind, igniting thousands of group chats across the globe. Much as Ancient Roman oracles Read more >
Distinct among the literary prizes for its emphasis on debuts, the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize has been recognizing “exciting emerging voices in contemporary fiction” since 2006. This year, a panel of readers and judges selected a longlist of Read more >
August, astonishingly, approaches already. But if time feels like it’s moving too quickly, I have a bit of a blast from the past (and future) for you: twenty-seven books being released in paperback this August (and one from July, accidentally Read more >
Here it is: the 2024 Booker Prize longlist, heavy on previously nominated authors and featuring new voices, including the first Native American and Dutch authors. Edmund de Waal, the head of the judging committee, described the list of 13 novels Read more >
The end of July is upon us. (What a month it’s been, Dear Readers, what a wild, wild month.) And how better to usher in a new, hopefully less wild month than with new things to read and delight in? Read more >
You loved them first at the library. There, they bewitched you with their preternatural gumption, and vulnerability. Their zany ideas and wicked wit. They were your first best friends. But then you lost touch. Life got in the way. And Read more >
Last week, shortly after the announcement that JD Vance would be joining the Republican ticket, I was working my bookstore gig at The Golden Notebook when a woman came in and asked me if we had any copies of Hillbilly Elegy. Read more >
We’re living in the golden age of wacky book merch: Raven Leilani’s Luster nail polish, Sally Rooney’s on-trend Beautiful World bucket hats, and now Sable Yong’s Die Hot With A Vengeance perfume. Of course, this is nothing new — the Read more >
Emily Nussbaum’s latest book, Cue the Sun, chronicles the rise and fall of reality television. In chipper prose, the rigorously researched history explores how certain networks have managed to seize our collective attention span with a spate of “real” programming. Read more >
If you’ve been following the news, July has been quite a month. A lot has happened, some of it sudden and startling, and the idea of focusing, instead, on what I’d like to read next feels pretty good. With that Read more >
When I think of America, some of the first things that pop into my mind are the domestic affairs of the landed elites, dancing a cotillion with your social equals, and enjoying that all-American treat: Mr. Bingley’s white soup, made Read more >
In case you missed it: Keanu Reeves has published a novel. Yes, it’s true: the internet’s boyfriend has teamed up with China Miéville, one of the great speculative fiction writers of all time, to produce a novel set in the Read more >
Over 100 of the country’s most prominent literary translators—including Esther Allen, Susan Bernofsky, Peter Cole, Jennifer Croft, Damion Searls, and Natasha Wimmer—have signed an open letter to the PEN America Board of Trustees, calling for the transfer of the PEN/Heim Read more >
Olivia Laing’s new essay collection, The Garden Against Time: In Search of a Common Paradise, takes a deep look at the garden as enclave, rebel outpost, and a site for exploring “communal dreams.” Essays in the book consider the benefits of practicing nurture. Read more >
Photo by Laurel Chor and NPR NPR reports that this May, the printing press Factor Druk in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv was devastated by a Russian missile attack, taking the lives of seven employees and wounding more than 20 Read more >
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