Literature

A line from Jessica Johns’ haunting, atmospheric and beautiful debut novel, Bad Cree, has been tumbling around in my head since I set the book down. “That’s the thing about the [prairie]. . . . It’ll tell you exactly what it’s doing and when, you just have to listen.” Johns’ protagonist, a young Cree woman

Known for his novels exploring the wintry, rural lands of the Northeast including Sweet Hereafter and Affliction, as well as his award-winning work Cloudsplitter, which followed the life of abolitionist John Brown, author Russell Banks was considered by many to follow in the footsteps of other American authors such as Nathaniel Hawthorne and Walt Whitman.

Jami Attenberg (All This Could Be Yours) looks back on her years as a roaming artist in I Came All This Way to Meet You: Writing Myself Home. Attenberg has lived an uncompromising life as a writer, and she muses about her choices in this forthright memoir. Frequently crossing the country to promote her books,

Paperbacks are the ideal book format for me. There’s no screen glare. There’s no figuring out how or where to store a dust jacket. There’s simply a flexible binding and cover that allow for folding and curling pages. I know — many of you likely flinched at the idea, and that’s fine. You can keep

Despite filling feeders and growing native plants, I continue to be disappointed by the birds that frequent our yard. So much of the same old, same old: cardinals, sparrows, chickadees. I do especially love chickadees—but where are the goldfinches, if not the bluebirds? Joan E. Strassmann’s Slow Birding: The Art and Science of Enjoying the

For a while, I thought I was an expert at recognising by the cover alone if a book was a young adult novel or a novel for adults. Then, one day, I picked up an audiobook I was absolutely convinced was YA, but got to such steamy scenes, that I had to stop in my

In her second novel in verse, National Book Award finalist Amber McBride blurs the lines between fantasy and reality. Eighteen-year-old Whimsy has been hospitalized for the 11th time in 10 years. Although her grandmother taught the young conjurer that “Fairy Tales are real, / magic is real,” she also offered a warning: “Careful, Whimsy, /

On the two year anniversary of the day when right-wing terrorist radicals attempted to overthrow American democracy, it seems fitting to talk a little bit about the groups across the country working to ensure democracy remains a fundamental right for every single person in this country. We’re deep into the second year of seeing books

The people of Raddith are used to living with magic. The country bustles with business, bureaucracy and other hallmarks of humanity, but around its edges are whispers of curses—dangerous magic spawned from intense negative emotion. Kellen, an unraveller with the rare ability to undo these curses, and Nettle, his stoic companion with a hidden past,

Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting — who both starred in 1968’s Romeo and Juliet when they were 15 and 16, respectively — have sued Paramount Pictures for more than $500 million. The suit, filed Tuesday in the L.A. County Superior Court, alleges sexual abuse, harassment, and fraud. It comes as a result of the circumstances

In many religious traditions, paradise names an otherworldly realm overflowing with lush greenery, luscious fruits, honeyed scents and cascading waterfalls. In others, paradise can be attained in this world, even in the midst of the clattering cacophony surrounding us. Bestselling travel writer Pico Iyer shares his own search for paradise in The Half Known Life,

In an email sent to victims on Tuesday, the office of the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York said that Filippo Bernardini, the Italian citizen who was arrested last year on suspicion of stealing unpublished books, is expected to plead guilty to wire fraud on Friday. For years, Bernardini used his insider

“Finn was in a horrible mood. Grandpa wanted to talk about it. Finn did not.” So begins author-illustrator Cori Doerrfeld’s picture book that captures what we truly need when we’re not ready to talk about what is happening underneath the surface.  When we first see Finn, the child is little more than a lump, sitting

It’s January, which means it’s out with the Best Books of 2022 lists and in with the Most Anticipated Books of 2023 lists! Goodreads has gathered up the new releases already getting the most buzz in a variety of genres, including horror. They note that horror has increased in popularity in recent years, and that

Thanks to new releases from Colson Whitehead, Lauren Groff, Abraham Verghese, Mary Beth Keane, Tom Hanks, Elizabeth Acevedo and more, we can’t wait for 2023 reading to begin. The Faraway World by Patricia Engel Avid Reader | January 24 When it came out in 2021, Colombian American writer Patricia Engel’s fourth novel, Infinite Country, got

Because New Year’s was on a Sunday this year, we’re taking today off to recover. But don’t worry, we’ll be back tomorrow. In the meantime, we wish you luck in your 2023 reading goals, and we hope your year is filled with a fireworks display worth of five-star reads.

As The Winter Bird opens, author Kate Banks cleverly invites young readers to put their inference skills to work as she describes the change in seasons. “It was the time of year when the sun went to bed early,” she writes. “The big brown bear lumbered off to its winter den. . . . And

Back at the end of October, I attended an event called The RRAW Experience — in which the RRAW stood for Romance Readers And Writers (I love a good double entendre!). It was a day-and-a-half affair including author panels, workshops, fun and games, and a closing gala awarding some of the legends of romance. It

If you’ve ever set foot in an occult shop with genuine interest in its offerings, you’ve probably experienced the wooziness of information overload: What is all this stuff, and where do I start? There is no shortage of books on spellwork, tarot, astrology, witchcraft, Wicca, herbalism and more, but we all know it’s hard to

As readers, it can be a constant struggle to find space to store our book collections. And if you’re in a smaller space (or your books are housed in a smaller room) it can be difficult to make the best use of the space, or to find book storage solutions for small spaces that actually