TODAY: In 1917, Diana Athill, British literary editor, novelist, and memoirist, is born.
- The best book covers of 2017, as chosen by the book designers. | Literary Hub
- Charles Dickens really didn’t like America (which led, in part, to the writing of A Christmas Carol). | Literary Hub
- Counting down the literary world’s most-talked about news stories of the year: 50 to 41… | Literary Hub
- Margaret Atwood and Andrew O’Hagan do play-by-play on Steve Bannon vs. Mike Pence and wonder how low America might go. | Literary Hub
- The best reviewed poetry, graphic literature, and history and politics books of 2017. | Book Marks
- “It would be possible to write a parody of her novels called Desert Abortion – in a Car. Possible, but why? The best joke you could make wouldn’t touch her.” Patricia Lockwood on Joan Didion. | London Review of Books
- The 2018 PEN America Literary Award longlists have been announced. | PEN America
- “It’s a cliché for people unswayed by religion to still believe in William James, to allow him access to their souls because of the way he sneaks in through their brains.” John Williams reflects on a writer who saved him. | The New York Times
- The Richard Avedon foundation has called on Spiegel & Grau to cease publication and distribution of Norma Stevens and Steven Aronson’s biography Avedon: Something Personal, claiming the book is filled with “countless inaccuracies.” | Hyperallergic
- “Eggnog’s decadence should not be considered sinful; indeed, it is one of those foods whose low-fat variations I believe to be a kind of crime.” Carmen Marie Machado sings the pleasures of eggnog. | The New Yorker
- Meg Wolitzer, Rumaan Alam, Leslie Jamison and more: 50 books to look forward to in 2018. | NYLON
- “It’s all there, in just a few words: enchantment, insecurity, perplexity, risk, embedded in the bashful, roseate ache of love.” On the “curious translucence” of Henry Green’s late novels. | LARB
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