The Carpetbagger: My Oscar Picks: Jeffrey Eugenides
The author Jeffrey Eugenides plumps for "The Tree of Life" but the writer of "Middlesex" didn't even see the gender-bending "Albert Nobbs."... More...
From: NYT > Books
Tuesday, 31 January, 2012
Books of The Times: The Kama Sutra, Newly Translated
A new translation of the original Kama Sutra, like the original manuscript, has no drawings but much detail and advice on sexuality and society.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Tuesday, 31 January, 2012
Whoopensocker dictionary of American dialect completed after 50 years
Collecting regional English from across the US, final volume of 60,000-entry dictionary will be published next monthFrom whoopensocker to upscuddle, strubbly to swivet, 50 years after it was first conceived the Dictionary of American Regional English is finally about to... More...
From: Books: Books + News | guardian.co.uk
Tuesday, 31 January, 2012
Carol Ann Duffy is 'wrong' about poetry, says Geoffrey Hill
Oxford professor of poetry attacks Duffy's praise of text language, and compares hers to Mills & BoonCarol Ann Duffy might have won numerous literary awards and become the country's first female poet laureate, but Oxford professor of poetry Geoffrey Hill... More...
From: Books: Books + News | guardian.co.uk
Tuesday, 31 January, 2012
Books of The Times: Katherine Boo’s First Book, ‘Behind the Beautiful Forevers’
In Katherine Boo’s new book, the striving, perpetually sparring families of a slum in Mumbai come to life.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Monday, 30 January, 2012
ArtsBeat: A New Honor for the Hatchet Job
A new literary award honors the best hatchet job of the year.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Monday, 30 January, 2012
ArtsBeat: Long Wharf Cancels Stage Version of 'Sophie's Choice'
A play based on Chaim Potok's novel "My Name Is Asher Lev" will replace "Sophie's Choice."... More...
From: NYT > Books
Monday, 30 January, 2012
Barnes & Noble, Taking On Amazon in the Fight of Its Life
Barnes & Noble, the giant that put so many independent booksellers out of business, now finds itself locked in the fight of its life, with Amazon.com lurking in the background.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Monday, 30 January, 2012
Books of The Times: ‘Strategic Vision,’ by Zbigniew Brzezinski
Zbigniew Brzezinski’s book “Strategic Vision” surveys current global affairs and assesses a hinge moment in time when the world’s center of gravity is shifting from the West to the East.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Monday, 30 January, 2012
Brontë museum faces closure because of council budget cuts
Supporters launch appeal to save the Red House in West Yorkshire, home of one of Charlotte Brontë's closest friendsOne of the major shrines to the Brontë family is facing closure and sale because of budget cuts and recession – a... More...
From: Books: Books + News | guardian.co.uk
Monday, 30 January, 2012
Gordon Brown to publish predictions for 2025
Subtitled 'Shaping a New Future' the former prime minister's book will outline his view of where the world is headingGeorge Orwell envisaged that a totalitarian state ruled by Big Brother would be in place by 1984; Arthur C Clarke dreamed... More...
From: Books: Books + News | guardian.co.uk
Monday, 30 January, 2012
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo cancelled in India
Oscar-nominated thriller withdrawn from release in India after director David Fincher refuses to cut 'unsuitable' sex scenesOscar-nominated crime thriller The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo will not be shown in India after director David Fincher refused to cut scenes depicting... More...
From: Books: Books + News | guardian.co.uk
Monday, 30 January, 2012
ArtsBeat | Q. & A.: Gary Marcus, Cognitive Psychologist, Answers Readers' Questions
Readers were interested to know the best ways to practice new skills as an adult and how tactics that work for young students may or may not apply for older students.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Monday, 30 January, 2012
Jonathan Franzen warns ebooks are corroding values
Freedom author tells festival audience that the 'impermanence' of ebooks is incompatible with enduring principlesJonathan Franzen has spoken of his fear that ebooks will have a detrimental effect on the world – and his belief that serious readers will always... More...
From: Books: Books + News | guardian.co.uk
Monday, 30 January, 2012
On Education: Dr. Seuss Book, ‘Mulberry Street,’ Turns 75
A tour of Springfield, Mass., where Ted Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss, was raised, suggests that some of the images from his books were inspired by things he saw growing up.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Monday, 30 January, 2012
Women writers turn to the horror story
Jeanette Winterson and Helen Dunmore among famous names venturing into the horror genre this yearAs an icy wind blows in from the east, the grip of a good horror story is tightening its hold on many of Britain's leading literary... More...
From: Books: Books + News | guardian.co.uk
Sunday, 29 January, 2012
For Jonathan Galassi, Unveiling the Heart in Poems
New poems by the noted publisher Jonathan Galassi tell the story of a married, middle-aged man who falls in love with a younger man. “It’s about me,” he said.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Saturday, 28 January, 2012
Bookshelf: Books on a Pastor’s Odyssey, a Politician and Urban Gardens
Authors on the Rev. Forrest Church, the late-19th-century politician Ashbel P. Fitch and transforming vacant lots and rooftops into mini-farms.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Saturday, 28 January, 2012
Scotty Bowers and His Sexual Tell-All of Old Hollywood
Scotty Bower’s new memoir, “Full Service: My Adventures in Hollywood and the Secret Sex Lives of the Stars,” offers a lurid account of trawling an X-rated underworld.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Saturday, 28 January, 2012
ArtsBeat: Book Review Podcast: The Legacy of Henry Miller's 'Tropic of Cancer'
Jeanette Winterson reviews a new book about Henry Miller's controversial novel "Tropic of Cancer."... More...
From: NYT > Books
Friday, 27 January, 2012
ArtsBeat: Graphic Books Best Sellers: Life at a Paranormal Bureau
"B.P.R.D.: Hell on Earth" enters the paperback graphic books best-seller list at No. 7 this week.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Friday, 27 January, 2012
ArtsBeat: 'War Horse' Film Turns Book Into Best Seller in Britain
The novel 'War Horse' sells more copies in two weeks than it did in its first 25 years.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Friday, 27 January, 2012
The Ice Balloon - S. A. Andrée and the Heroic Age of Arctic Exploration - By Alec Wilkinson - Book Review
A Swedish aeronaut made headlines with his 1897 attempt to reach the North Pole.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Friday, 27 January, 2012
TBR: Inside the List
Orson Scott Card, whose novel “Shadows in Flight” hits the hardcover fiction list this week at No. 8, moonlights as a newspaper columnist who addresses everything from Christian rock to high school theater.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Friday, 27 January, 2012
Essay: ‘A Wrinkle in Time’ and Its Sci-Fi Heroine
This year marks the 50th anniversary of Madeleine L’Engle’s “A Wrinkle in Time,” which opened up the world of science fiction to a generation of girls.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Friday, 27 January, 2012
Palestinian bookshop owner celebrates Jerusalem residency ruling
Munther Fahmi's campaign to be allowed to stay in his birth city was backed by eminent literary figuresThe Palestinian owner of an celebrated Jerusalem bookshop patronised by politicians, diplomats, authors and activists has won a rare victory in a six-year... More...
From: Books: Books + News | guardian.co.uk
Friday, 27 January, 2012
The Street Sweeper - By Elliot Perlman - Book Review
A sense of history links the characters in Elliot Perlman’s novel.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Friday, 27 January, 2012
The Translation of the Bones - By Francesca Kay - Book Review
The troubled women in Francesca Kay’s novel are caught up in strange happenings at a South London church.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Friday, 27 January, 2012
Sometimes There Is a Void - Memoirs of an Outsider - By Zakes Mda - Book Review
A memoir by Zakes Mda, a writer who has flourished in democratizing South Africa.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Friday, 27 January, 2012
Glock - The Rise of America’s Gun - By Paul M. Barrett - Book Review
How one semiautomatic became our weapon of choice.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Friday, 27 January, 2012
City Of Fortune - How Venice Ruled the Seas - By Roger Crowley - Book Review
Roger Crowley traces the rise and fall of Venice’s naval empire.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Friday, 27 January, 2012
New Novels by Alan Lightman, Karin Altenberg and Bret Lott — Book Review
Stories and novels by Robert Walser, Alan Lightman, Karin Altenberg, Bret Lott and Daphne du Maurier.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Friday, 27 January, 2012
Up Front
Sara Wheeler’s experience with the rigors — and the literature — of polar exploration.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Friday, 27 January, 2012
Jack Holmes and His Friend - By Edmund White - Book Review
Edmund White’s novel follows the friendship of two libertines, from 1960s New York to the advent of AIDS in the ’80s.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Friday, 27 January, 2012
I Know Who You Are and I Saw What You Did - Social Networks and the Death of Privacy - By Lori Andrews - Book Review
Lori Andrews looks at how personal data is exploited by Web sites, search engines and other Internet technologies.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Friday, 27 January, 2012
God’s Jury - The Inquisition and the Making of the Modern World - By Cullen Murphy - Book Review
Cullen Murphy sees the Inquisition as a template for the war on terror.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Friday, 27 January, 2012
Wanted Women — The Lives of Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Aafia Siddiqui — By Deborah Scroggins — Book Review
A double biography of high-profile Muslim women, one who denounces Islam, the other, the West.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Friday, 27 January, 2012
Jews And Booze - Becoming American in the Age of Prohibition - By Marni Davis - Book Review
Marni Davis explores how Jews balanced assimilation with historical continuity during America’s failed “noble experiment.”... More...
From: NYT > Books
Friday, 27 January, 2012
Elizabeth The Queen - The Life of a Modern Monarch - By Sally Bedell Smith - Book Review
The author taps a host of public sources and tracks down friends and former courtiers of the queen who are willing to share intimate tidbits.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Friday, 27 January, 2012
Editors’ Choice
Recently reviewed books of particular interest.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Friday, 27 January, 2012
Paperback Row
Paperback books of particular interest.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Friday, 27 January, 2012
Reconsidering the Genius of Gertrude Stein
Two reissues reveal the development and revisions of a novel and a long experimental poem.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Friday, 27 January, 2012
First ever crime writing MA launched
London's City University says creation of course is in response to student demandAs the underworld steadily increases its grip on literary culture, City University in London is turning to crime, with the launch of an MA devoted to teaching crime... More...
From: Books: Books + News | guardian.co.uk
Friday, 27 January, 2012
Renegade — Henry Miller and the Making of ‘Tropic of Cancer.’ — By Frederick Turner — Book Review
On the 50th anniversary of “Tropic of Cancer,” this study examines how it was written and banned, and went on to become an American classic.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Friday, 27 January, 2012
Battle of the authors' sexes continues
Jennifer Weiner complains of gender bias in reviewing, Teddy Wayne argues male writers are worse off than womenMale and female authors in America are competing over who has it harder, with bestselling chick lit author Jennifer Weiner arguing the New... More...
From: Books: Books + News | guardian.co.uk
Friday, 27 January, 2012
Books of The Times: ‘The Fear Index,’ by Robert Harris
In Robert Harris’s new thriller, a hugely complex trading program runs dangerously amok.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Thursday, 26 January, 2012
Umberto Eco: 'It's culture, not war, that cements European identity'
The writer and semiologist advocates a sexual revolution to make us all 'European'Outside Umberto Eco's office window in Milan looms the intimidating mass of Sforzesco castle, a reminder, with its towers and blackbirds, of various continental wars. Here once stood... More...
From: Books: Books + News | guardian.co.uk
Thursday, 26 January, 2012
Bloomberg, No Fan of Fiction, Finds ‘Tinker, Tailor’ an Exception
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, not ordinarily a fiction reader, made an exception for “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.”... More...
From: NYT > Books
Thursday, 26 January, 2012
Roald Dahl and CS Lewis among writers revealed to have refused honours
List of authors to turn down OBEs, CBEs and knighthoods also includes Aldous Huxley, Robert Graves and Evelyn WaughAuthors CS Lewis, Roald Dahl and Aldous Huxley all turned down honours from the Queen, newly released documents have revealed.... More...
From: Books: Books + News | guardian.co.uk
Thursday, 26 January, 2012
Vladimir Putin plans 100-book Russian canon all students must read
The Russian prime minister prescribes his top 100 books for the nationVladimir Putin has laid out his plans to compile a canon of 100 Russian books "that every Russian school leaver will be required to read" in an attempt to... More...
From: Books: Books + News | guardian.co.uk
Thursday, 26 January, 2012
Gary Marcus, Professor at N.Y.U., Picks Up a Guitar
An academic who had no rhythm spent a sabbatical finding a way to learn to play the guitar.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Thursday, 26 January, 2012
Books of The Times: Ryan Boudinot’s Novel ‘Blueprints of the Afterlife’
In Ryan Boudinot’s genre-bending novel, humanity struggles to survive in a post-apocalyptic world that may or may not be real but is certainly a mess.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Wednesday, 25 January, 2012
Kim Dotcom's brash jetset image 'hid sharp business mind'
File-sharing millionaire refused bail in New Zealand could motivate others into doing what he wanted, claim associatesHe lived a life dominated by fast cars, holidays on $10m super-yachts and an obsession with shoot 'em up computer games. But on Wednesday... More...
From: Books: Books + News | guardian.co.uk
Wednesday, 25 January, 2012
Court Keeps Hitler’s ‘Mein Kampf’ From German Newsstands
The controversy surrounding the attempted publication of “Mein Kampf” is the latest round in an ideological clash over whether modern Germany can cope with the work that sowed the seeds for the Holocaust.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Wednesday, 25 January, 2012
Charla Krupp, Self-Help Author on Women’s Looks, Dies at 58
The author dispensed down-to-earth style tips.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Wednesday, 25 January, 2012
Children's Books: In the Company of Bears
Three picture books about bears, both teddy and real.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Wednesday, 25 January, 2012
Planned copyright changes could stop authors writing for schools
Hundreds of authors including Philip Pullman and Anne Fine say government plans would drastically reduce writers' incomesHundreds of writers including children's laureate and Gruffalo author Julia Donaldson, Philip Pullman and Anne Fine are protesting the government's plans to amend educational... More...
From: Books: Books + News | guardian.co.uk
Wednesday, 25 January, 2012
Megaupload investigation: Kim Dotcom denied bail
File-sharing multimillionaire faces four more weeks in jail in New Zealand after judge warns he could try to flee to GermanyThe file-sharing multimillionaire, Kim Dotcom, is facing a further four weeks in custody after a judge in in New Zealand... More...
From: Books: Books + News | guardian.co.uk
Wednesday, 25 January, 2012
Costa adds short story award to its books prizes
Publishers hoping that Costas' prominence could provide 'breakthrough moment' for neglected genreNews that the Costa is to add a new short story category to its roster of awards this year has left the book industry hoping that this will prove... More...
From: Books: Books + News | guardian.co.uk
Wednesday, 25 January, 2012
Jodi Kantor on her book The Obamas: A Mission, A Marriage - video interview
From: Books: Books + News | guardian.co.uk
Wednesday, 25 January, 2012
Books of The Times: ‘The Mormon People,’ Matthew Bowman’s Timely Church History
Matthew Bowman’s timely new history offers rich context while delivering few opinions.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Tuesday, 24 January, 2012
Costa book award: Andrew Miller wins for sixth novel, Pure
Vivid tale of life in pre-revolutionary Paris beats Matthew Hollis's biography of Edward Thomas to £30,000 prize chequeA vividly told story of life in pre-revolutionary Paris on Tuesday won the 2011 Costa book award in what turned out to be... More...
From: Books: Books + News | guardian.co.uk
Tuesday, 24 January, 2012
Council spent £70,000 fighting judicial review of library closures
Conservative-led Somerset county council lost high court battle over its plan to withdraw funding for 11 librariesA council that had its library restructuring plans quashed in the high court spent more than £70,000 fighting the judicial review.... More...
From: Books: Books + News | guardian.co.uk
Tuesday, 24 January, 2012
Salman Rushdie goes on offensive after Indian festival appearance is cancelled
Satanic Verses author attacks Indian politicians for failing to protect free speech after video link appearance is scrapped... More...
From: Books: Books + News | guardian.co.uk
Tuesday, 24 January, 2012
Jaipur festival cancels Salman Rushdie video link
Owner of festival's hotel venue scraps event featuring Satanic Verses author following police warning of violenceThe organisers of Asia's biggest literary festival have been forced to cancel a video-linked appearance by British author Salman Rushdie after owners of the venue... More...
From: Books: Books + News | guardian.co.uk
Tuesday, 24 January, 2012
Shortlists revealed for British Science Fiction awards
Former winners China Miéville and Christopher Priest vie with Lavie Tidhar, Adam Roberts and Kim Lakin-SmithA murder mystery that unfolds within a travel guide is up against a far–future reimagining of the Fall myth as former winners of the British... More...
From: Books: Books + News | guardian.co.uk
Tuesday, 24 January, 2012
In ‘Love, InshAllah,’ American Muslim Women Reveal Lives
A new book, “Love, InshAllah,” brings together 24 essays about the love lives of American Muslim women.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Monday, 23 January, 2012
Books of The Times: ‘How It All Began,’ by Penelope Lively
In Penelope Lively’s “How It All Began” the mugging of an elderly woman sets off a chain of events that disrupts the dreams and ambitions of numerous people.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Monday, 23 January, 2012
ArtsBeat: Tale of Comic Adventures Wins Newbery Medal
Jack Gantos's "Dead End in Norvelt" was deemed 2011's most outstanding contribution to children's literature.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Monday, 23 January, 2012
Mary C. Henderson, Scholar of the Theater, Dies at 83
Ms. Henderson wrote books that have become standard works on America’s players and playhouses.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Monday, 23 January, 2012
Thérèse Delpech, French Political Adviser, Dies at 63
Respected as a debater, an author and an intellectual, Ms. Delpech counseled foreign ministers. Until her death, she was a director at her nation’s Atomic Energy Commission.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Monday, 23 January, 2012
Doubt Cast on Death Threat That Kept Rushdie From Festival
An Indian newspaper said the assassination plot was invented by the police to keep Salman Rushdie from attending a literary festival in the country.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Monday, 23 January, 2012
The Rest is Noise: Southbank festival to celebrate contemporary classical music
London's Southbank Centre to host year-long festival inspired by Alex Ross's study of 20th-century classical musicWhen Alex Ross started writing The Rest is Noise in 2000 he never expected that a book about 20th-century classical music would go on to... More...
From: Books: Books + News | guardian.co.uk
Monday, 23 January, 2012
'Screwball mystery' by Jack Gantos wins oldest children's books prize
Dead End in Norvelt takes prize for 'most distinguished' American children's book of the yearJack Gantos's "screwball mystery" Dead End in Norvelt has won America's most prestigious award for children's writing, the Newbery medal.... More...
From: Books: Books + News | guardian.co.uk
Monday, 23 January, 2012
Salman Rushdie may address Jaipur festival via video link
The Satanic Verses author could make screen appearance at book event after admitting 'intelligence' of threat may be falseSalman Rushdie, who was forced to pull out of Asia's biggest literary festival in India after authorities revealed "specific intelligence" of a... More...
From: Books: Books + News | guardian.co.uk
Monday, 23 January, 2012
Diane Kruger set to star in Stephenie Meyer's The Host
German actor in talks to join cast of forthcoming science-fiction film based on novel by Twilight authorDiane Kruger is set to join the cast of science-fiction film The Host, based on the novel by Twilight author Stephenie Meyer, which posits... More...
From: Books: Books + News | guardian.co.uk
Monday, 23 January, 2012
Anyone for Quidditch? Harry Potter game kicks off at Oxford
The game that enthralled students at Hogwarts is starting to stir an interest at Oxford UniversityHuddled together in the chill January wind, the players listened as a PPE fresher in a black cape read the rules of the game: a... More...
From: Books: Books + News | guardian.co.uk
Monday, 23 January, 2012
Books of The Times: ‘What It Was’ and ‘Chalk Girl,’ Crime Novels - Review
George Pelecanos’s latest book, “What It Was,” takes place in Washington in 1972; Carol O’Connell’s “Chalk Girl” visits New York City’s Special Crimes Unit.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Sunday, 22 January, 2012
How Birdsong creates a replica of first world war's tunnels
Expert archaeologist helped drama producers make exact model of underground networkThe horrors of tunnel warfare are key to Sebastian Faulks's first world war novel, Birdsong. Much of the action is set beneath no man's land in a terrifying world where... More...
From: Books: Books + News | guardian.co.uk
Sunday, 22 January, 2012
Books: In Beetle’s Creation Story, a Plot Twist
“The Extraordinary Life of Josef Ganz” is an intriguing book about a Jewish engineer whose designs in the 1930s laid out the basics for the Volkswagen Beetle championed by Hitler.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Saturday, 21 January, 2012
Rushdie Backs Out of India Literary Event, Citing Security
Salman Rushdie’s cancellation is the latest in a series of blows to free speech in India that have included a court challenge to Internet sites Google and Facebook.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Saturday, 21 January, 2012
Books of Style: Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip - Books of Style
Two new books help readers appreciate this complex pair in the year of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Friday, 20 January, 2012
ArtsBeat: Book Review Podcast: Ben Jonson, In and Out of Shakespeare's Shadow
Charles Isherwood talks about a new biography of Ben Jonson, the famous British playwright who was eventually eclipsed by Shakespeare.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Friday, 20 January, 2012
Crime: Cheaters Never Win
Walter Mosley’s latest novel starring Leonid McGill ranges from an East River mansion to a shabby house in Coney Island.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Friday, 20 January, 2012
Hergé, Son of Tintin — By Benoît Peeters. Translated by Tina A. Kover — Book Review
In this biography, Georges Remi, creator of the Tintin comics, emerges in three dimensions from behind his famous comic books.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Friday, 20 January, 2012
Salman Rushdie readings threaten future of Indian literary festival
Writers read excerpts from The Satanic Verses in support of Rushdie who pulled out of Jaipur event amid security fearsOrganisers of India's biggest literary festival said on Friday they feared for the future of the event after several high-profile writers... More...
From: Books: Books + News | guardian.co.uk
Friday, 20 January, 2012
Speaking American - A History of English in the United States - By Richard W. Bailey - Book Review
From earthy frontier expressions to late-20th-century urban slang, Americans have eagerly reshaped language.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Friday, 20 January, 2012
Justice And the Enemy - Nuremberg, 9/11, and the Trial of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed - By William Shawcross - Book Review
Long before Guantánamo, military tribunals had a history.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Friday, 20 January, 2012
The Lives of Margaret Fuller - A Biography - By John Matteson - Book Review
A biography of Margaret Fuller: feminist, writer, editor, traveler.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Friday, 20 January, 2012
ArtsBeat: Graphic Books Best Sellers: X-Men Take Over Top Spot
"X-Men: Schism" lands at No. 1 on the hardcover graphic books best-seller list this week.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Friday, 20 January, 2012
Ben Jonson - A Life - By Ian Donaldson - Book Review
A new biography argues that Ben Jonson, Britain’s first literary celebrity, was as central as Shakespeare to the development of the British theater.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Friday, 20 January, 2012
TBR: Inside the List
Jayne Ann Krentz, whose paranormal romance “Copper Beach” hits the fiction list at No. 8, is an ardent defender of her genre, arguing that romances are by nature feminist and subversive.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Friday, 20 January, 2012
This Is a Call - The Life and Times of Dave Grohl - By Paul Brannigan - Book Review
Tracing a star from Nirvana to the Foo Fighters.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Friday, 20 January, 2012
The Flame Alphabet - By Ben Marcus - Book Review
In Ben Marcus’s novel, the sound of children’s speech has become lethal.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Friday, 20 January, 2012
The Quality of Mercy - By Barry Unsworth - Book Review
Dispute over the slave trade looms large in Barry Unsworth’s follow-up to “Sacred Hunger.”... More...
From: NYT > Books
Friday, 20 January, 2012
That’s Disgusting - Unraveling the Mysteries of Repulsion - By Rachel Herz - Book Review
A Brown University psychologist looks into the revolting science of everything that makes us gag.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Friday, 20 January, 2012
Life Sentences - Literary Judgments and Accounts - By William H. Gass - Book Review
William H. Gass — novelist, essayist, philosopher — looks back on a lifelong attachment to literature.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Friday, 20 January, 2012
The Age of Austerity - How Scarcity Will Remake American Politics - By Thomas Byrne Edsall - Book Review
Scarcity turns modest policy differences into showdowns between “haves” and “have-nots,” Thomas Edsall writes.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Friday, 20 January, 2012
The Flight of Gemma Hardy - By Margot Livesey - Book Review
With guidance from Charlotte Brontë, the heroine of Margot Livesey’s novel goes in search of herself.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Friday, 20 January, 2012
An Available Man - By Hilma Wolitzer - Book Review
In Hilma Wolitzer’s novel, a widower struggles with grief and dating.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Friday, 20 January, 2012
India Ink: A Macabre Start to the Sprawling Jaipur Lit Fest
The Indian-born author, Salman Rushdie, said on Friday he would miss Asia’s largest literary festival because of an assassination threat against him.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Friday, 20 January, 2012
Up Front
Charles Isherwood shares his earliest experiences in theater, in the audience and on the stage.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Friday, 20 January, 2012
Editors’ Choice
Recently reviewed books of particular interest.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Friday, 20 January, 2012
Paperback Row
Paperback books of particular interest.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Friday, 20 January, 2012
Essay: Guidebooks to Babylon
For anyone researching a “golden age” of vice, there is nothing quite as satisfying as a guide to local harlots.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Friday, 20 January, 2012
Babel No More - The Search for the World’s Most Extraordinary Language Learners - By Michael Erard - Book Review
How are a select few people able to learn a staggering number of languages?... More...
From: NYT > Books
Friday, 20 January, 2012
Tiger Woods criticises Hank Haney over 'unprofessional' book
• Coach's book 'unprofessional and disappointing', says Woods• Haney defends memoir as 'fair and honest'Tiger Woods starts his season in Abu Dhabi next week unhappy that his former coach Hank Haney is writing a book about their time together. "I... More...
From: Books: Books + News | guardian.co.uk
Friday, 20 January, 2012
ArtsBeat: India Ink: Salman Rushdie's Statement on the Jaipur Lit Fest
Author Salman Rushdie put out a statement Friday afternoon about his decision not to attend the Jaipur Literature Festival.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Friday, 20 January, 2012
Salman Rushdie pulls out of Jaipur literary festival over assassination fears
Salman Rushdie says intelligence sources warned him that 'paid assassins from the Mumbai underworld' might try to kill himSalman Rushdie has pulled out of Asia's biggest literary festival after being warned he is being targeted by killers sent by an... More...
From: Books: Books + News | guardian.co.uk
Friday, 20 January, 2012
Heiresses of Wharton’s Era in Fashion on Her 150th Birthday
As the popular television series “Downton Abbey” proves, stories of Americans mingling with members of the British aristocracy titillate as much as they did when Edith Wharton wrote of them. Jan. 24 is the 150th anniversary of her birth.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Thursday, 19 January, 2012
Books of The Times: ‘New York Diaries: 1609 to 2000’ - Review
“New York Diaries: 1609 to 2009,” edited by Teresa Carpenter, presents a portrait of the city as drawn by residents and visitors.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Thursday, 19 January, 2012
Eight female writers among Waterstones's pick of debut novels
Most talked about novel on Waterstones 11 annual list, however, is by a man – The Art of Fielding by Chad HarbachWaterstones has named its annual pick of the forthcoming year's best debut novels.... More...
From: Books: Books + News | guardian.co.uk
Thursday, 19 January, 2012
Apple: iBooks 2 will 'reinvent textbooks'
Although price is likely to be a barrier, the software will let students watch videos and take notes inside the virtual booksApple has unveiled a glimpse of the classroom of the future, launching a new version of its iBooks software... More...
From: Books: Books + News | guardian.co.uk
Thursday, 19 January, 2012
ArtsBeat: Edgar Allan Poe Fans Say 'Nevermore' to Vigil for Mystery Admirer
For the third year in a row the Poe Toaster has failed to make an annual birthday visit to the Baltimore grave of Edgar Allan Poe and the organizers of a vigil say they will no longer stake out this... More...
From: NYT > Books
Thursday, 19 January, 2012
Salman Rushdie Jaipur festival appearance in doubt
Event cancelled following protest, but festival insists 'invitation still stands'Salman Rushdie's appearance at the Jaipur literary festival in India is still in doubt, after a controversial Muslim cleric said that the author "should not be allowed to visit India".... More...
From: Books: Books + News | guardian.co.uk
Thursday, 19 January, 2012
Pearson reveals profit upgrade and predicts 10% boost in full-year earnings
Financial Times publisher says it earned £2bn in digital revenues last year and £600m from emerging marketsPearson, the owner of the Financial Times and book publisher Penguin, announced a profit upgrade and now expects full-year earnings to be up 10%... More...
From: Books: Books + News | guardian.co.uk
Thursday, 19 January, 2012
Shopping With Arthur Phillips: Writing Desks — Shopping With Arthur Phillips
Arthur Phillips, a novelist, seeks a desk suited for longhand and a computer.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Wednesday, 18 January, 2012
Corey Robin’s ‘Reactionary Mind’ Stirs Internet Debate
Reviews of Corey Robin’s “Reactionary Mind: Conservatism From Edmund Burke to Sarah Palin” set off an Internet debate.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Wednesday, 18 January, 2012
Books of The Times: ‘God’s Jury’ by Cullen Murphy - Review
Cullen Murphy provides a guide to the Inquisition and its contemporary echoes.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Wednesday, 18 January, 2012
New Books From Joe Dunthorne, David Finch and Stef Penney
New books from Joe Dunthorne, David Finch, Jessica Keener, Stef Penney, Matt Bondurant and Melissa Pritchard.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Wednesday, 18 January, 2012
Currents | Q&A: Anthony Giardina on How a House Speaks for Its Owner — Q&A
The writer discusses his new novel, “Norumbega Park,” which features a character who becomes obsessed with a house.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Wednesday, 18 January, 2012
ArtsBeat: Instead of a New Novel, Cormac McCarthy Delivers a Screenplay
Cormac McCarthy has written his first speculative screenplay, a tale of a respected lawyer in the Southwest who tries his hand, unsuccessfully, at dealings in the drug business.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Wednesday, 18 January, 2012
Children's Books: Baby Brothers
In two new picture books, a sheep and a bear cope with the arrival of new siblings.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Wednesday, 18 January, 2012
The Road author Cormac McCarthy turns in first original screenplay
Novelist's 'spec' feature-film script deals with a lawyer who becomes embroiled in drug trade in south-west USHis novels have been adapted into critically acclaimed films such as the Coen brothers' No Country For Old Men and John Hillcoat's The Road,... More...
From: Books: Books + News | guardian.co.uk
Wednesday, 18 January, 2012
Books of The Times: ‘Hope: A Tragedy’ by Shalom Auslander - Review
Shalom Auslander’s “Hope: A Tragedy,” a comic novel about an older Anne Frank, questions the role of optimism in Jewish history and tradition.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Wednesday, 18 January, 2012
Reginald Hill, Prolific Writer of Crime Novels, Dies at 75
Mr. Hill is best known for his 24 idiosyncratic but elegant crime novels featuring the Yorkshire police detectives Andrew Dalziel and Peter Pascoe.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Wednesday, 18 January, 2012
And lo! Gove's Bible project did run into a spot of bother
Sources say thousands of copies are in a warehouse abroad after the education secretary fails to find a private sponsorA plan by the education secretary, Michael Gove, to send a copy of the King James Bible to every school in... More...
From: Books: Books + News | guardian.co.uk
Tuesday, 17 January, 2012
World's largest Qur'an unveiled in Afghanistan
Calligrapher created the 500kg book to show that his country's rich cultural heritage and traditions had survived the warA calligrapher worked for five years to create the world's biggest Qur'an in a bid to show the world that Afghanistan's rich... More...
From: Books: Books + News | guardian.co.uk
Tuesday, 17 January, 2012
Buy the Guardian ebook, Jazz: From New Orleans to the new generation
Read a collection of the finest writing on jazz from Guardian and Observer critics, including Kingsley Amis and Benny GreenFrom early appearances in London in 1917, to boogie woogie, bebop and beyond, the Guardian and Observer have been writing about... More...
From: Books: Books + News | guardian.co.uk
Tuesday, 17 January, 2012
Thomas Jefferson's revolutionary take on the Bible reissued
Former US president took a razor to parts of the Gospels he did not agree with to compile his own versionHe was one of the men who laid the foundations for God's own country, but Thomas Jefferson had his own... More...
From: Books: Books + News | guardian.co.uk
Tuesday, 17 January, 2012
Michael Jackson's Robert Burns songs to be released
Singer's collection of showtunes inspired by Burns's poetry could be donated to a Scottish museum by David GestA Scottish museum may soon be home to one of Michael Jackson's unreleased albums. More than a decade after Jackson and David Gest... More...
From: Books: Books + News | guardian.co.uk
Tuesday, 17 January, 2012
Louise J. Kaplan, Psychoanalyst and Author, Dies at 82
Dr. Kaplan used a psychological lens, literary allusion and a feminist sensibility to soberly define and explain seemingly titillating topics like sexual perversity and fetishes.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Tuesday, 17 January, 2012
Books of The Times: ‘The Real Romney,’ by Michael Kranish and Scott Helman - Review
Two reporters for The Boston Globe try to explain Mitt Romney by pulling together lots of details into a narrative that is absorbing and fair-minded.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Monday, 16 January, 2012
John Burnside wins most controversial TS Eliot prize in decades
Scottish poet's Black Cat Bone beats strong shortlist in contest mired in protest over City fundingThe Scottish poet John Burnside has won the most controversial TS Eliot poetry prize in years, for a collection described as "haunting", after two of... More...
From: Books: Books + News | guardian.co.uk
Monday, 16 January, 2012
Books on Science: Scott’s South Pole Times: Penguins, Hockey and Serious Stuff Too
On the centenary of Robert Falcon Scott’s arrival at the South Pole, a London publisher is issuing copies of the 12-volume South Pole Times, which captured the substance and spirit of his expeditions.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Monday, 16 January, 2012
Harry Potter magic helps Bloomsbury Publishing to bumper Christmas
Sales of ebooks up 38% thanks to bestsellers such as Heston at Home and Harry Potter box setBloomsbury Publishing has reported a bumper Christmas with sales of ebooks up 38%, thanks to bestsellers such as Heston at Home and the... More...
From: Books: Books + News | guardian.co.uk
Monday, 16 January, 2012
Ian Rankin wants tax incentives to help new authors
Inspector Rebus creator fears for new writing talent as publishers cut advances and internet transforms industryIan Rankin, the author of the Inspector Rebus series, is calling for tax incentives to support new writers, as cash-strapped publishers cut advances.... More...
From: Books: Books + News | guardian.co.uk
Monday, 16 January, 2012
Twilight Saga may continue beyond Breaking Dawn, says studio boss
Lionsgate chief executive suggests vampire series could spawn more sequels – despite there being no more books to adaptIt is a quandary faced by studio executives over the years: what to do with a successful movie franchise that has run... More...
From: Books: Books + News | guardian.co.uk
Monday, 16 January, 2012
Books of The Times: ‘Wanted Women: Faith, Lies & the War on Terror’ - Review
Deborah Scroggins has written a dual biography of Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Aafia Siddiqui, whose lives have shared “a weird symmetry.”... More...
From: NYT > Books
Sunday, 15 January, 2012
Editorial | Sunday Observer: The Whirling Sound of Planet Dickens
Charles Dickens, who would have been 200 next month, had amazing energy, for writing and for life.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Saturday, 14 January, 2012
Bookshelf: Books on N.Y. Crime, Sage Remarks and Brooklyn Heights
Recent written works about New York include a criminologist’s look at the city’s policing, and a compilation of quotations and thin volumes about Brooklyn Heights.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Saturday, 14 January, 2012
ArtsBeat: Julie Andrews to Direct 'Mousical' Based on Her Children's Book
Julie Andrews will direct a musical version of her children's book, "The Great American Mousical," for Goodspeed Musicals.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Saturday, 14 January, 2012
ArtsBeat: Book Review Podcast: Nietzsche Bewitches America and the Science of Middle Age
In this week's Book Review, Alexander Star reviews a new book about how Nietzsche bewitched and bedeviled American readers.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Friday, 13 January, 2012
Riff: ‘Why Write Novels at All?’
Writers of the Franzen Generation have decided that the purpose of fiction is to make us feel less alone. Will that be enough to save the novel?... More...
From: NYT > Books
Friday, 13 January, 2012
Children's Books: Bookshelf: Presidents
Children’s books about George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and other American leaders.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Friday, 13 January, 2012
In Our Prime - The Invention of Middle Age - By Patricia Cohen - Book Review
The scientific and social forces that brought midlife America to its current state.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Friday, 13 January, 2012
Zombie Poetry Takes On a Life of Its Own
The undead seem to be everywhere in popular culture — in television series, video games and, it turns out, poetry.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Friday, 13 January, 2012
ArtsBeat: Graphic Books Best Sellers and the Return of 'The Unwritten'
The latest volume of "The Unwritten," a series partly inspired by the creator of Winnie the Pooh and his son, went on sale this week.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Friday, 13 January, 2012
TBR: Inside the List
With a Spielberg movie, a newly translated biography and a place atop The Times’s graphic books best-seller list, the Belgian comic book character Tintin is having a genuine American moment.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Friday, 13 January, 2012
The Orphan Master’s Son — By Adam Johnson — Book Review
In Adam Johnson’s novel, a young man moves up in Kim Jong-il’s power structure and then becomes a rival of the dictator.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Friday, 13 January, 2012
Hope: A Tragedy — By Shalom Auslander — Book Review
The protagonist of Shalom Auslander’s novel moves to upstate New York for peace and quiet, and finds Anne Frank living in his attic.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Friday, 13 January, 2012
Michel Houellebecq’s Version of the American Thriller
Michel Houellebecq’s novel features an uncommonly successful artist and a gruesome murder.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Friday, 13 January, 2012
American Nietzsche — By Jennifer Ratner-Rosenhagen — Book Review
How Friedrich Nietzsche inspired and provoked his American readers.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Friday, 13 January, 2012
Girl Land - By Caitlin Flanagan - Book Review
Caitlin Flanagan offers observations on the passage to adulthood.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Friday, 13 January, 2012
The Last Holiday - A Memoir - By Gil Scott-Heron - Book Review
Gil Scott-Heron disliked being called “the godfather of rap,” but his spoken-word performances pointed the way.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Friday, 13 January, 2012
Breaking And Entering - By Eileen Pollack - Book Review
The Oklahoma City bombing echoes throughout Eileen Pollack’s novel of family strife.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Friday, 13 January, 2012
Children's Books: The Tenacity of Hope
Sixteen-year-old girls with cancer are the heroines of two very different novels.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Friday, 13 January, 2012
Children's Books: Switched - By Amanda Hocking - Book Review
This tale centers on a teenager who learns she’s really a troll.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Friday, 13 January, 2012
Children's Books: Angel Of the Battlefield — The Treasure Chest, Book 1 — By Ann Hood — Review
Two young time travelers visit with Clara Barton — but can’t escape the challenges in their own lives.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Friday, 13 January, 2012
Kate Winslet and Kenneth Branagh to team up for literary adaptation
Branagh will direct Titanic star for the first time since 1996 in version of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie SocietyKenneth Branagh is set to direct Kate Winslet once again in the film adaption of the 2008 novel The... More...
From: Books: Books + News | guardian.co.uk
Friday, 13 January, 2012
Children's Books: The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight - By Jennifer E. Smith - Book Review
In Jennifer E. Smith’s Y.A. novel, a chance meeting on a flight to London redirects a girl’s fate.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Friday, 13 January, 2012
Distrust That Particular Flavor - By William Gibson - Book Review
In a collection of nonfiction pieces, the novelist William Gibson reveals our own world to us as a science-fictional marvel.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Friday, 13 January, 2012
Editors’ Choice
Recently reviewed books of particular interest.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Friday, 13 January, 2012
Paperback Row
Paperback books of particular interest.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Friday, 13 January, 2012
Essay: My Berlin Airlift
An American author flies to Germany weighed down with 60 copies of a quixotic anthology.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Friday, 13 January, 2012
Dalziel and Pascoe creator Reginald Hill dies
Ian Rankin leads tributes to prolific crime writer from County DurhamThe writer Reginald Hill, who created the Yorkshire detective duo Andrew Dalziel and Peter Pascoe, has died aged 75.... More...
From: Books: Books + News | guardian.co.uk
Friday, 13 January, 2012
Guardian Viral Video Chart: the joy of books, the ugly face of beauty ads
Watch books dance around the shelves and a satire of the fashion industry in this week's rundown of the top online clipsDo you organise the books in your bookshelf alphabetically or by the colour of the sleeves? Possibly not. But... More...
From: Books: Books + News | guardian.co.uk
Friday, 13 January, 2012
Lil Wayne to publish prison memoir
Gone Till November will recount rapper's eight-month stint at Rikers Island jailLike Samuel Pepys, Thomas de Quincey and Henry David Thoreau before him, Lil Wayne is writing a memoir. The rapper has signed a deal for a book that will... More...
From: Books: Books + News | guardian.co.uk
Friday, 13 January, 2012
ArtsBeat: Lil Wayne, the Memorist
His book is based on journals the New Orleans rapper kept during his eight-month stint at Rikers Island.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Thursday, 12 January, 2012
Birdsong comes to Holmes's roost
The BBC is to fill the post-Sherlock Sunday-night void with an adaptation of Sebastian Faulks's first world war novelWith an impatient flick of his greatcoat collar, Benedict Cumberbatch's Sherlock has helped BBC1 re-establish itself as the home of must-watch Sunday... More...
From: Books: Books + News | guardian.co.uk
Thursday, 12 January, 2012
Up Front
Emma Gilbey Keller’s prime view of female adolescence.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Thursday, 12 January, 2012
International prize for Arabic fiction shortlist tells story of region's tensions
Selection for 'Arabic Booker' focuses on 'tyranny formerly present in the Arab world'From family life in Tunisia to a man imprisoned in Dubai for a murder he didn't commit and a man struggling to resolve the contradictions of his multiple... More...
From: Books: Books + News | guardian.co.uk
Thursday, 12 January, 2012
Books of The Times: ‘The Orphan Master’s Son’ by Adam Johnson - Review
Adam Johnson’s novel recounts the adventures of Jun Do, a North Korean soldier, kidnapper and surveillance officer who becomes complicit in the state’s crimes and then falls in love with an actress.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Thursday, 12 January, 2012
ArtsBeat: Out With the New, In With the Newer at DC Comics
A few months after restarting its superhero story lines at issue No. 1, DC Comics is canceling six series and introducing six new ones, including titles written by Grant Morrison and China Mieville.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Thursday, 12 January, 2012
Selfridges to open in-store library
Department store to launch 15,000-book pop-up library in Oxford Street, London, as part of Words Words Words eventSelfridges is putting the shh … into shopping – by opening its own 15,000-book library.... More...
From: Books: Books + News | guardian.co.uk
Thursday, 12 January, 2012
John McWhinnie, an Expert in Rare Books, Dies at 43
Mr. McWhinnie was a rare-book dealer and gallerist known as a champion of words and images on paper in an age of electronic reading.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Thursday, 12 January, 2012
Books of The Times: ‘Fug You’ by Ed Sanders - Review
In “Fug You,” the poet-publisher-singer Ed Sanders recalls the art and politics, and his role in them, of the downtown scene in the 1960s.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Wednesday, 11 January, 2012
Michelle Obama rejects claims of backroom conflict at White House
First lady rebuts 'angry black woman' allegations in new book as election campaign gains momentumShe is a brooding, "unrecognised force" in the White House, a new book claims; in frequent conflict with her husband's aides and quick to impose her... More...
From: Books: Books + News | guardian.co.uk
Wednesday, 11 January, 2012
ArtsBeat: Old Page Turners for a New Presidential Campaign
Norman Mailer, Hunter S. Thompson, Garry Wills and Michael Lewis are some of the authors who have provided peeks behind the curtain of American presidential campaigns.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Wednesday, 11 January, 2012
Emily Brontë portrait goes under the hammer
Painting set to fetch £4,000 at auction, a month after smaller portrait of Wuthering Heights author was sold for £24,000For the second time in two months, a previously unknown portrait captioned "Emily Brontë" is to be auctioned, showing the Wuthering... More...
From: Books: Books + News | guardian.co.uk
Wednesday, 11 January, 2012
Children's Books: Thorny Creatures
Three new picture books feature prickly animals seeking love, comfort and family.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Wednesday, 11 January, 2012
McDonald's to give away 9m Michael Morpurgo books with kids' meals
Fast-food giant will give away Mudpuddle Farm books for younger readers with purchase of foodFrom the red carpet to the golden arches: an unlikely champion in the battle to get children reading has emerged in the shape of McDonald's, which... More...
From: Books: Books + News | guardian.co.uk
Wednesday, 11 January, 2012
Food Stuff: The Culinarian: A Kitchen Desk Reference
“The Culinarian: A Kitchen Desk Reference” is crammed with an unusual amount of information, organized alphabetically from “absinthe” to “zwieback.”... More...
From: NYT > Books
Tuesday, 10 January, 2012
Books of The Times: ‘The Artist of Disappearance’ — By Anita Desai — Review
Decay and disappointment, retreat and regret, are the main themes in the three novellas that make up Anita Desai’s new book.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Tuesday, 10 January, 2012
This week's arts diary
Tony Blair looks different, Bath's controversial theatre season and the last chance to protest library closuresTony Blair as you probably haven't seen him beforeTony Blair is one of our least painted prime ministers – and if he were to visit... More...
From: Books: Books + News | guardian.co.uk
Tuesday, 10 January, 2012
Book critics to get their own prize for reviews
Inaugural 'hatchet job of the year' prize announces shortlist in order to boost profile of professional criticismFrom Thomas Macaulay observing of Socrates: "The more I read … the less I wonder that they poisoned him," to Edith Sitwell on DH... More...
From: Books: Books + News | guardian.co.uk
Tuesday, 10 January, 2012
Cleric calls for Salman Rushdie to be barred from India
Satanic Verses author's scheduled appearance at Jaipur literary festival meets opposition from Muslim seminarySalman Rushdie was at the centre of a row on Tuesday in his native India after an influential conservative Indian Muslim cleric said the British author and... More...
From: Books: Books + News | guardian.co.uk
Tuesday, 10 January, 2012
ArtsBeat: Who Word-Processed First? Professor's History Has Writers Staking Their Claims
Writers are approaching Matthew Kirschenbaum, a professor who is working on a history of word processing, to claim that they were the first to create novels using computers.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Tuesday, 10 January, 2012
Elton John to write book about Aids
Love Is the Cure, due in July, will include reminiscences about Freddie Mercury and teenage activist Ryan WhiteElton John is writing his first book, a collection of memories and meditations on the fight against Aids. Love Is the Cure: Ending... More...
From: Books: Books + News | guardian.co.uk
Tuesday, 10 January, 2012
Books of The Times: ‘The Last Holiday: A Memoir’ by Gil Scott-Heron - Review
In “The Last Holiday: A Memoir,” Gil Scott-Heron, who died last year, describes his life and America in the second half of the 20th century.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Monday, 9 January, 2012
Pasta Inspires Scientists to Use Their Noodle
Equations add a new twist to the way mathematicians, scientists and architects use their noodle.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Monday, 9 January, 2012
Chinua Achebe leads Nigerian authors' fuel subsidy protest
The internationally acclaimed writer joins 35 other writers from Nigeria supporting revolt against cuts to funding for fuel costsChinua Achebe is heading a group of 38 Nigerian authors who are throwing their weight behind mass protests in the country at... More...
From: Books: Books + News | guardian.co.uk
Monday, 9 January, 2012
Theater Review | 'Sontag: Reborn': Moe Angelos’s ‘Sontag: Reborn’ in Under the Radar - Review
Moe Angelos has adapted the first volume of Susan Sontag’s journals and stars in “Sontag: Reborn,” a Builders Association production at the Public Theater, part of the Under the Radar festival.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Monday, 9 January, 2012
Roald Dahl stamps – in pictures
From: Books: Books + News | guardian.co.uk
Monday, 9 January, 2012
Labyrinth gets graphic novel prequel
Illustrator Brian Froud, who worked on the cult children's fantasy film, will oversee character designNew light is set to be cast on David Bowie's enigmatic, tight-trousered portrayal of Jareth the Goblin King in Jim Henson's cult children's fantasy film Labyrinth... More...
From: Books: Books + News | guardian.co.uk
Monday, 9 January, 2012
Harry Potter director Chris Columbus to write children's fantasy books
House of Secrets, co-written with Ned Vizzini, will be out in spring 2013After directing and producing the first two Harry Potter films, Hollywood VIP Chris Columbus is now set to unleash his own fantasy adventure series for children on the... More...
From: Books: Books + News | guardian.co.uk
Monday, 9 January, 2012
Roald Dahl stamps honour classic children's author
Featuring Quentin Blake's famous illustrations, the stamp series showcases bestselling works including The BFG and The TwitsQuentin Blake's famous illustrations of The Twits, Matilda and Fantastic Mr Fox all feature on a new series of stamps from the Royal Mail,... More...
From: Books: Books + News | guardian.co.uk
Monday, 9 January, 2012
Books of The Times: ‘The Obamas’ by Jodi Kantor - Review
“The Obamas,” by Jodi Kantor, is the first book about the current presidency to give the first lady, Michelle Obama, her due.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Sunday, 8 January, 2012
Mystery Chinese blogger scores a hit with Cultural Revolution novel
Under The Hawthorn Tree has already sold more than a million copies in China aloneA novel by an anonymous Chinese author living in America, which started life as a blog, has become a worldwide publishing sensation. It has been snapped... More...
From: Books: Books + News | guardian.co.uk
Sunday, 8 January, 2012
Off the Shelf: New Investment Books Aim to Right Your Wrongs - Review
One new investment book lists 77 mistakes to avoid, while another recommends a psychology-savvy approach.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Saturday, 7 January, 2012
Universities collected £50m in library fines, figures show
University of Leeds took the most, with £1.8m, while Imperial College London got the least, with only £26,703Universities have raised almost £50m from fining students for overdue library books in the past six years.... More...
From: Books: Books + News | guardian.co.uk
Saturday, 7 January, 2012
Michelle Obama’s Evolution as First Lady
Mrs. Obama’s adjustment to the White House — including, at times, severe tension with her husband’s staff — illuminates some of President Obama’s central challenges.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Saturday, 7 January, 2012
ArtsBeat Blog: Book Review Podcast: Bipolar America
New books that examine the rise of the American oligarchy, the decline of moderate Republicans and the Tea Party's core beliefs about government... More...
From: NYT > Books
Friday, 6 January, 2012
Essay: Why Authors Tweet
Social media sites like Twitter are demystifying the writing profession — and that may be salutary.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Friday, 6 January, 2012
Treasure Island!!! - By Sara Levine - Book Review
In Sara Levine’s first novel, a woman decides to adopt the “core values” from Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Friday, 6 January, 2012
Books About Conservatism and the Tea Party
A new book charts the decline of moderate Republicans, while another explores the Tea Party’s core beliefs about government.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Friday, 6 January, 2012
Pity The Billionaire — By Thomas Frank — Book Review
Thomas Frank argues that conservative politicians and President Obama are governing to please the plutocrats.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Friday, 6 January, 2012
ArtsBeat Blog: Graphic Books Best Sellers: Zombies Continue Their Reign
Compendiums of "The Walking Dead" continue their strong performance on the graphic books best-seller lists.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Friday, 6 January, 2012
The Sounding of the Whale — By D. Graham Burnett — Book Review
D. Graham Burnett looks at how whales have been transformed from species to slaughter into species to save.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Friday, 6 January, 2012
TBR: Inside the List
Tami Hoag’s new mystery, which enters the hardcover fiction list at No. 11 this week, features a cameo from her real-life horse.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Friday, 6 January, 2012
Up Front
Disagreements over solutions to America’s problems have grown, or deteriorated, into profound differences over just what the problems are.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Friday, 6 January, 2012
Editors’ Choice
Recently reviewed books of particular interest.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Friday, 6 January, 2012
Paperback Row
Paperback books of particular interest.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Friday, 6 January, 2012
Crime: Politics as Blood Sport
Sara Paretsky’s latest V. I. Warshawski novel involves fans of vampire books, a murder and a right-wing news operation.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Friday, 6 January, 2012
A More Perfect Heaven - How Copernicus Revolutionized the Cosmos - By Dava Sobel - Book Review
What finally led Copernicus to publish his sun-centered theory?... More...
From: NYT > Books
Friday, 6 January, 2012
The Outlaw Album - Stories - By Daniel Woodrell - Book Review
Gritty stories set in Missouri’s Ozarks delve into death, love, family and neighborly disputes.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Friday, 6 January, 2012
The Anointed - Evangelical Truth in a Secular Age - By Randall J. Stephens and Karl W. Giberson - Book Review
Two writers question the rise of self-styled experts among evangelicals.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Friday, 6 January, 2012
Books about Heinrich Himmler and Reinhard Heydrich — Review
None of Hitler’s lieutenants did more to realize the Final Solution than Heinrich Himmler and Reinhard Heydrich.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Friday, 6 January, 2012
The Tender Hour of Twilight — By Richard Seaver — Book Review
A posthumous memoir by the publishing giant who introduced the avant-garde to America.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Friday, 6 January, 2012
Kayak Morning - Reflections on Love, Grief, and Small Boats - By Roger Rosenblatt - Book Review
Two and a half years after his daughter’s death, Roger Rosenblatt explores the nature of his grief.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Friday, 6 January, 2012
Would It Kill You to Stop Doing That? — A Modern Guide to Manners — By Henry Alford — Book Review
Henry Alford explains how — and why — to behave.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Friday, 6 January, 2012
Nook From Barnes & Noble Gains More E-Book Readers
When the iPad hit the market, some people predicted that it would wipe out e-reader devices. But Barnes & Noble says its Nook is flourishing.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Friday, 6 January, 2012
World's most expensive book, Birds of America, set to fetch $10m
Edition of John James Audubon's masterpiece of ornithological art, one of only 120, expected to break auction recordsA copy of the world's most expensive book, John James Audubon's 19th-century masterpiece Birds of America, is set for auction later this month... More...
From: Books: Books + News | guardian.co.uk
Friday, 6 January, 2012
ArtsBeat Blog: Tolkien Snubbed by Nobel Prize Jury, Papers Reveal
C. S. Lewis nominated Tolkien, the "Hobbit" and "Lord of the Rings" author, in 1961, but the jury said of his work that "the result has not in any way measured up to storytelling of the highest quality," according to... More...
From: NYT > Books
Friday, 6 January, 2012
Dave Eggers latest work: A shower curtain
A monologue written from the point of view of the bathroom accessory, and on it, is the author's latest work of staggering geniusDave Eggers: Pulitzer finalist, McSweeney's founder, tireless literacy campaigner – and now perhaps the first author ever to... More...
From: Books: Books + News | guardian.co.uk
Friday, 6 January, 2012
DealBook: Barnes & Noble Considers Spinning Off Its Nook Unit
The company said that it is beginning “strategic exploratory work” to separate the Nook division to help the e-reader business grow. But a spinoff would raise questions about Barnes & Noble’s ultimate fate.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Friday, 6 January, 2012
Books of The Times: ‘Sometimes There Is a Void’ — By Zakes Mda — Review
In Zakes Mda’s new memoir, his life and hard times are mostly played for wistful comedy.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Thursday, 5 January, 2012
Josef Skvorecky, Czech-Born Writer, Dies at 87
Mr. Skvorecky left Czechoslovakia for a teaching position in Toronto after Prague Spring was crushed.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Thursday, 5 January, 2012
Churchill, Henry V and Napoleon? Overrated, says BBC History magazine
Also among the most overrated people in history, according to the magazine, are Charles Darwin, Spartacus and Malcolm XThey may be among the most famous figures from history, but the likes of Winston Churchill, Henry V and Napoleon Bonaparte don't... More...
From: Books: Books + News | guardian.co.uk
Thursday, 5 January, 2012
'Amazing' tops annual vote for words that should be banned
Lake Superior State University's poll shows readers want adjective debased by overuse 'banished'"Baby bump", "man cave" and "amazing" should all be banished from the English language, according to Lake Superior State University's annual survey of the year's worst cases of... More...
From: Books: Books + News | guardian.co.uk
Thursday, 5 January, 2012
Sarah Polley to direct adaptation of Margaret Atwood's Alias Grace
Canadian actor will direct version of Atwood's bestselling true-crime tale, while James Franco signs debut novel dealSarah Polley is poised to direct an adaptation of Alias Grace, Margaret Atwood's 1996 novel about a double murder in the wilds of Canada.... More...
From: Books: Books + News | guardian.co.uk
Thursday, 5 January, 2012
JRR Tolkien's Nobel prize chances dashed by 'poor prose'
Lord of the Rings author, nominated by CS Lewis, rejected by 1961 jury, newly opened archive revealsThe Lord of the Rings might have spawned a thousand pallid imitations, been crowned the UK's best-loved book and sold millions of copies around... More...
From: Books: Books + News | guardian.co.uk
Thursday, 5 January, 2012
Charles W. Bailey, 82, Dies; Wrote ‘Seven Days in May’
Mr. Bailey, a reporter and editor at The Minneapolis Tribune, won renown as a co-author of the novel “Seven Days in May,” about an American coup plot.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Thursday, 5 January, 2012
Books of The Times: ‘American Dervish’ — By Ayad Akhtar — Review
In his debut novel, Ayad Akhtar describes the coming of age of a young Pakistani-American in Milwaukee in the 1980s.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Wednesday, 4 January, 2012
ArtsBeat Blog: The Perilous Art of Giving Books
The dim view of giving books as gifts in novels by Martin Amis and Herman Melville.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Wednesday, 4 January, 2012
ArtsBeat Blog: Amazon to Publish Novel by James Franco
The actor jumps from Scribner in a coup for Amazon Publishing, which will publish "Actors Anonymous" in 2013.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Wednesday, 4 January, 2012
Children's Books: ‘Sora and the Cloud’ — By Felicia Hoshino — Review
In “Sora and the Cloud,” a young boy is given a bird’s-eye view of the world.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Wednesday, 4 January, 2012
Oak tiller bar from Arthur Ransome's yacht up for auction
Swallows and Amazons author named his boat Nancy Blackett – after the fictional pirate captain in his children's books seriesCracked and weather-beaten, a salty little piece of literary history has emerged for sale at auction.... More...
From: Books: Books + News | guardian.co.uk
Wednesday, 4 January, 2012
Mike Skinner announces Streets memoir
The Story of the Streets to be published in March and will include, er, old snaps of Skinner as a schoolboyMike Skinner has announced a new book exploring the precipitous rise and abrupt end of the Streets. The rapper's memoir,... More...
From: Books: Books + News | guardian.co.uk
Wednesday, 4 January, 2012
Simon Doonan’s Eating Guide for Gay and Straight
Simon Doonan’s tongue-in-cheek book says straight food is heavy and gay food is lighter and more decorative. Mix the two, he advises, to stay slim.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Tuesday, 3 January, 2012
This week's arts diary
Geoff Dyer savages Julian Barnes, plus in defence of the hedge fund knight, and the mystery of St CeciliaGeoff Dyer savages Julian BarnesIt was something of a surprise that the Man Booker-winning Julian Barnes missed out on the Costa novel prize, announced... More...
From: Books: Books + News | guardian.co.uk
Tuesday, 3 January, 2012
Books of The Times: ‘Would It Kill You to Stop Doing That?’ — By Henry Alford — Review
Henry Alford’s new book is a whimsical game of tiddlywinks played on the minefield of good manners.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Tuesday, 3 January, 2012
Moira Young's Blood Red Road leads Costa book winners
Debut work wins children's book award and will go up against Carol Ann Duffy, Matthew Hollis, Andrew Miller and Christie Watson for £30,000 main prizeA former chorus girl has been named one of the 2011 Costa book award winners for... More...
From: Books: Books + News | guardian.co.uk
Tuesday, 3 January, 2012
Blood Red Road wins Costa children's award
A dystopian tale of a girl's epic quest to find her captured twin brother has won the children's category of the Costa book awardsRead an extract from Blood Red RoadA first novel by a former opera singer has won the... More...
From: Books: Books + News | guardian.co.uk
Tuesday, 3 January, 2012
Bible becomes 2011 bestseller in Norway
New translation's success, which saw queues outside bookshops, is not linked to Utøya murders, says publisherThe UK's 2011 bestseller lists might have been dominated by cookery, courtesy of Jamie Oliver, and romance, courtesy of David Nicholls, but Norwegian readers were... More...
From: Books: Books + News | guardian.co.uk
Tuesday, 3 January, 2012
Tintin Is a New Breed of Comic-Book Hero for Most Americans
Tintin has been around for decades as a cartoon character, but only through the new Steven Spielberg movie has he been widely introduced to Americans.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Tuesday, 3 January, 2012
Narnia – the next stage spectacular
The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe is to be adapted into a 'less posh' multimedia theatre version, directed by Rupert GooldTilda Swinton may have only just have departed British terrestrial screens – Doctor Who hard on her heels –... More...
From: Books: Books + News | guardian.co.uk
Tuesday, 3 January, 2012
Ronald Searle, St Trinian's creator, dies aged 91
Artist who created the anarchic girls' school and drew the ever-popular illustrations for the Molesworth booksOne of the UK's most beloved cartoonists, Ronald Searle, creator of the tearaway girls' school St Trinian's, has died aged 91, his publisher Penguin has... More...
From: Books: Books + News | guardian.co.uk
Tuesday, 3 January, 2012
Walter Dean Myers: Ambassador for Young People’s Literature
Walter Dean Myers is to be named the national ambassador for young people’s literature, a choice that represents a departure from his predecessors.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Tuesday, 3 January, 2012
Books of The Times: Thomas Frank’s ‘Pity the Billionaire’ - Review
In “Pity the Billionaire” Thomas Frank gives his take on how the right has turned the country’s economic woes to its benefit.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Tuesday, 3 January, 2012
Books of The Times: William Gibson’s ‘Distrust That Particular Flavor’ - Review
William Gibson, the novelist who coined the term cyberspace, offers a collection of nonfiction pieces.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Sunday, 1 January, 2012
Gray Matter: Scientific Answers to the Mysteries of Children’s Literature
What does Brown Bear really see? Applying scientific research to some of the classic mysteries of children’s literature.... More...
From: NYT > Books
Sunday, 1 January, 2012
Simms Taback, Writer and Illustrator of Children’s Books Dies at 79
Mr. Taback won the Caldecott Medal in 2000 for his adaptation of the Yiddish folktale “Joseph Had a Little Overcoat.”... More...
From: NYT > Books
Sunday, 1 January, 2012
Strange case of a fake Ibsen play that has gripped Scandinavia
Literary experts embarrassed after 'lost fragments' of work by Norway's famous playwright are alleged to have been forgedIt's the case that has absorbed Scandinavia's elite artistic circles and tested some of Norway's finest literary experts.... More...
From: Books: Books + News | guardian.co.uk
Sunday, 1 January, 2012
