Neil MacGregor, the chair of the judging panel for this year’s Booker Prize, announced its shortlist today. MacGregor said that in each of the six books on the shortlist, “the author has used language not just to tell us what Read more >
If you miss the feeling of going back to school, consider these free virtual literary events like a kind of literary lecture hall. * In Conversation: Jonathan Escoffery and Nicole Dennis-Benn September 7 @ 7pm EST To celebrate the release Read more >
Yeah, it sucks to return to work after a three-day weekend, but on the bright side: there’re only four grueling days ahead, and at least 22 new books coming out today to look forward to. * Maggie O’Farrell, The Marriage Read more >
In one more example of how climate change adversely affects those on the margins, record-breaking temperatures in the Pacific Northwest this summer lead to “130 full- or partial-day closures due to heat” in the Seattle Public Library system. According to Read more >
The winners of the 2022 Hugo Awards—one of science fiction and fantasy’s most prestigious awards, decided by the popular vote of WorldCon members—were presented on Sunday night at the 80th WorldCon in Chicago, in a ceremony hosted by Charlie Jane Read more >
A New Jersey man named Bob Jablonski has finally returned Hitler to the local library. No, this is not The Onion. Bob Jablonski checked out the 1936 biography of Adolph Hitler in 1947, for a school book report, and presumably Read more >
There’s an article on Politico today about Brave Books, a publisher of (longest “ugh” in recorded history) conservative books for children. The article concludes that the books aren’t necessarily “bad” (okay no, they definitely are), they just aren’t going to Read more >
Well…not proof. But very ornate conjecture. Remember the penultimate sequence of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off? For those who don’t: after an impossibly full day of truancy (could he really have attended a Cubs game and toured the Art Institute and Read more >
In case you haven’t read mainstream periodical, Substack, lifestyle website, or know-it-all’s Twitter feed in the past two years: we’re all suffering from burnout. In fact, in a way, the real villain was burnout all along. Armed with this knowledge, Read more >
Even though I’ve been out of school for years, there’s just something about September that inspires a renewed studiousness in me. That first whiff of fall air brings back all my fond memories of Lisa Frank folders and scented erasers, Read more >
Nora Roberts has donated $50,000 to the Patmos Library in Jamestown, Michigan, which has been at risk of shutting down after residents defunded it over librarians’ refusal to remove LGBTQ books. After the town voted to remove a millage—the share Read more >
As a wild colonial I may not have a firm grasp on the rules of succession, but when a reigning monarch dies, doesn’t the title get passed down? Well, apparently if the title in question is totally made-up, subjective, and Read more >
The judge in two obscenity cases in Virginia that targeted two books—Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe and A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas—has dismissed the cases, saying that the books are not obscene under Read more >
Saturday Night Live recently solicited recommendations for hosts, via the show’s Twitter. Whether this was a genuine request or a bid for engagement is anyone’s guess—I’m going with the engagement because I have no joy in my heart—but regardless of intent, Read more >
Years of efforts to preserve Hoocąk, the language spoken by the Ho-Chunk Nation, have yielded a new online dictionary that gives the public access to thousands of words and phrases recorded from native speakers. Sarah Volpenhein reports for the Milwaukee Journal Read more >
Ray Bradbury met his first girlfriend—and his future wife—in a bookstore. But they didn’t lock eyes over the same just-selected novel, or bump into each other in a narrow aisle, sending books and feelings flying. It was a warm afternoon Read more >
They’ve come for librarians, for storytimes, for school boards, held bonfires… and now they’re shooting books. Librarians in Kalispell, Montana have resigned after several bullet-riddled books were dropped off over a two-day period in early August. As library director Ashley Read more >
Don’t walk—run—to your local bookstore/library today! * Taylor Jenkins Reid, Carrie Soto is Back (Ballantine) “Carrie Soto’s deep dive into women’s tennis may be the most ambitious. It’s the perfect novel to close out your summer, and whether Carrie defeats Read more >
With design elements inspired by nearby Tiantai Mountain and the Haishan Islands, a new bookstore in Taizhou City (on China’s central coast) is putting all our cute little corner bookshops to shame. This article was posted in English but is Read more >
May the days be aimless. Let the seasons drift. Do not advance the action according to a plan. Just ahead of its premiere at the Venice Film Festival next week, the first trailer for White Noise—Noah Baumbach’s black comedy apocalyptic Read more >
