Barack Obama's favorite books of 2019
If you've already made your way through President Barack Obama's summer reading list, and you're waiting for anticipated new releases in 2020, get ready to add some more books to your stack—because...
View ArticleIf you love books, you owe a debt to Sonny Mehta
Publishing giant Sonny Mehta, editor-in-chief of Knopf and chairman of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, died December 30 in New York City. He was 77. Although his name may not be familiar, Mehta...
View Article"Colors of the Mountain" author Da Chen dies at 57
Da Chen, the brilliant storyteller who drew from the hardships he suffered as a persecuted child growing up in the midst of China's Cultural Revolution to create the critically acclaimed memoir Colors...
View ArticleWard Just, 84, dies; ex-journalist found larger truths in fiction
Ward Just, a journalist for whom the Vietnam War was both a personal trauma and a national tragedy, inspiring him to write novels about people whose lives are shaped by war, political intrigue, myopic...
View ArticleWhite romance novelist in racism row says she was used
A white romance novelist's ethics complaint against the author Courtney Milan for calling her book a "racist mess" led to the censure of Milan and sparked an uproar across the publishing world. Now...
View ArticleElizabeth Wurtzel, journalist and author of Prozac Nation, dead at 52
Elizabeth Wurtzel, the journalist and author who chronicled her life with depression in the bestselling memoir Prozac Nation, has died at the age of 52. Writer David Samuels, Wurtzel's friend since...
View ArticleRomance Writers of America cancel 2020 awards
As a controversy over bias and a lack of transparency at the Romance Writers of America continues to roil the country's foremost writers association for romance writers, the RWA has announced that it...
View ArticleJonathan Coe and Sara Collins win Costas
The 2019 Costa Book Award winners were announced yesterday. The novel goes to Jonathan Coe's Middle England, a scathingly comic portrayal of the social and family divisions that bedevil Brexit...
View ArticleWords of the Year: A Decade in Review
Miriam Webster have published a summary of their Words of the Year for the 2010s, with each year's top word and one runner-up (in brackets) that their editors thought was especially significant. As a...
View ArticleDon Winslow and Stephen King offer $200K if White House holds a press briefing
Bestselling novelists Stephen King and Don Winslow have offered to donate $200,000 (£153,000) to a children's hospital if the White House press secretary, Stephanie Grisham, will hold a press...
View ArticleRam Dass, Proponent of LSD Turned New Age Guru, Dies at 88
Baba Ram Dass, who epitomized the 1960s of legend by popularizing psychedelic drugs with Timothy Leary, a fellow Harvard academic, before finding spiritual inspiration in India, died on Sunday at his...
View ArticleNBCC Awards Finalists Announced
The National Book Critics Circle has announced 30 finalists in six categories––autobiography, biography, criticism, fiction, nonfiction, and poetry––for the annual National Book Critic Circle Awards.
View ArticleNew York Public Library's most checked-out books say a lot about what we...
The New York Public Library has just released the titles of the 10 most checked-out books in its 125-year history. Bestsellers may offer a snapshot of passing fads, but this remarkable list compiled...
View ArticleRomance novelist Johanna Lindsey dies, aged 67
Bestselling romance novelist Johanna Lindsey, whose debut title, Captive Pride was released in 1977, died in October aged 67 (her family only recently made the news public). She published around 55...
View ArticleJason Reynolds named National Ambassador for Young People's Literature
Since the 2014 publication of his first YA novel, When I Was the Greatest, Jason Reynolds has produced 15 books—a bounty that seems even more impressive considering he has also spent hundreds of days...
View ArticleBookselling 2019 Update: U.K., France & Germany
Shelf Awareness reports on the state of independent bookstores in the UK, France and Germany: In the U.K., the majority of respondents to The Booksellers Indie Bookshop Christmas Trading Survey saw an...
View ArticleDon Winslow and Stephen King offer $200,000 if White House holds a press...
Bestselling novelists Stephen King and Don Winslow have offered to donate $200,000 to a children's hospital if the White House press secretary, Stephanie Grisham, will hold a press conference. White...
View ArticleBill in Missouri raises fears of book banning in public libraries--and...
Free speech and library advocates are sounding the alarm this week over a bill proposed in Missouri that seeks to establish "parental library review boards" as a condition of state funding, with the...
View ArticleNew site, ReadTribe, launches to match readers and book clubs
Nicole Sullivan, who owns the BookBar in Denver, Colo. has launched a new venture. ReadTribe, a free service to bookstores and to individuals, is a website connecting readers with book clubs, and book...
View ArticleChristopher Tolkien dies, aged 95
Christopher Tolkien, who published the posthumous works of his father J R R Tolkien, has died at the age of 95. The Lord of the Rings writer's third and youngest son, Tolkien went on to edit or...
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