On Friday afternoon, Governor Jay Inslee announced an extension of his stay-at-home order through May 31 for residents of Washington State, USA. I totally agree with this decision. I’d rather continue self-isolating now than have to start all over again by opening everything up too soon and letting the virus overwhelm us again. I do […]
Penguin Classics and Others Work to Diversify Offerings From the Canon “Across the industry, publishers are releasing titles by authors who were previously marginalized or entirely lost to history.” The critical and commercial success of these titles is a result of a combination of factors: initiative on the part of writers’ families or estates; changing
More Book-Related Pandemic News Luckily, books still exist, and can be their own vehicle for connection. And what better reading material for right now than books where the characters are, in some way, alone? None of these are dystopian (at least not in the traditional sense), but are instead characterized by protagonists with complex interior
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I’m Not Feeling Good at All “The perplexingly alienated women of recent American fiction” Jess Bergman writes, “the new heroines of contemporary fiction possess a kind of anhedonic equanimity, more numb than overwhelmed.” Doing No Harm: A Look at Writing Suicide and Self-Harm in Fiction Alice Nuttall makes the case that “Suicide and self-harm are
B&N, BAM Remain Open Publishers Weekly reports that Barnes & Noble and Books-A-Million are currently staying open. I would imagine, though, that this situation could change at any time, so you’d probably want to check with your local store. A dystopian reading list: books to enjoy while in quarantine The U.K.’s Guardian advises that, in
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“What Do I Know To Be True?”: Emma Copley Eisenberg on Truth in Nonfiction, Writing Trauma, and The Dead Girl Newsroom Jacqueline Alnes talks with Emma Copley Eisenberg, author of true-crime book The Third Rainbow Girl, “about what it means to seek truth in nonfiction, and how writing the personal can allow for more complicated
American Dirt Starts An Important Conversation But Not The One Author Intended I avoided the recent brouhaha over Jeanine Cummins’ novel American Dirt while it was developing, but most of the dust seems to have settled now. If you looking for a summary of the situation, this article provides a good overview. It also contains
The literary world lost many in 2019, including those listed here (with date of death and link to obituary, where available. Francine du Plessix Gray, 1/13 Mary Oliver, 1/17 Russell Baker, 1/21 Diana Athill, 1/23 Jan Wahl, 1/29 Edith Iglauer, 2/13 Andrea Levy, 2/14 Gillian Freeman, 2/23 Marjorie Weinman Sharmat, 3/12 W.S. Merwin, 3/15 Jonathan
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CANDID PORTRAITS OR GHOSTWRITTEN FLUFF: THE HISTORY OF THE CELEBRITY BOOK Jeffrey Davies looks at the history of the celebrity book, whether it be “a memoir, an essay collection, a cookbook, a book of poetry, or a self-help book.” He discusses the rise of the ghostwriter, what happens when celebrity culture and science clash (for
Romance Is a Billion-Dollar Literary Industry. So Why Is It Still So Overlooked? Samantha Leach writes in Glamour that romance novels have evolved from the steamy bodice-rippers of the early 1970s to mid 1980s into works that deal meaningfully with “whatever is happening to women or marginalized people.” ON FAILING THE GOODREADS CHALLENGE P.N. Hinton
