Books
Pulitzer Prize-winning WSJ writer found dead in apartment
A Pulitzer Prize winning editorial writer for The Wall Street Journal was found dead in his apartment on Thursday night, the newspaper says.<p>Joseph …
Literature4 novels Bill Gates thinks everyone should read
'Seveneves' by Neal Stephenson<p><i>Amazon</i><p>After a science-fiction dry spell of more than a decade, Gates picked up 'Seveneves' on a friend's …
Bill GatesA Handmaid's Tale isn't science fiction, it's a warning
Offred (Elisabeth Moss) in "The Handmaid's Tale", a dystopian world in which fertile women are enslaved as child breeders. Photo: Hulu<p>Local</b> …
Margaret AtwoodAnthony Scaramucci’s already created a new meme with a fake Mark Twain quote
As far as documented history shows, Mark Twain never once wrote, or even uttered aloud, the phrase “Dance like no one is watching. Sing like no one …
MemesThe enduring power and tragedy of Malcolm Lowry’s ‘Under the Volcano’
<i>Under the Volcano</i> by the British novelist and poet Malcolm Lowry is considered one of the most influential novels of the 20th century. But given the …
LiteratureThis week’s must-read books
<b>All Our Waves Are Water by Jaimal Yogis</b><br>(Memoir, Harper Wave)<p>The author of “Saltwater Buddha” is back with a memoir that takes him from the Himalayas …
News Industry4 More Summer Book Recommendations to Fit Your Personality
With about a month to go before classes start up again, time is running out to catch up on all of the books you’ve been wanting to read this …
Too Much Reading To Do? 5 Reasons Having A Large TBR Pile Is Actually A Good Thing
Every book-lover knows the feeling: your to-be-read pile is out of control and you're getting serious book-buying guilt looking at the tower of …
on a whimScott Turow: ‘My characters, like me, find society’s problems in the law’
The American author on the latest outrage from Donald Trump, the frustrations of starting a novel, and his double life as a lawyer and novelist<p>The simple truth, I’m pleased to acknowledge, is that most days writing makes me happy. Usually what’s ahead of me flashes through my mind not long after …
AuthorsClarke Award Shortlist 2017 reviewed — Part 2: The Evil That Men Do
We invited Clarke Award winning author Adrian Tchaikovsky to review this year’s shortlist, with Adrian opting to split the review into three parts …
Here Are the Winners of the 2017 Eisner Awards
Image: Image ComicsAmidst all the craziness of San Diego Comic-Con, with its plethora of movies, shows, and hype, it’s easy to forget the reason the …
Graphic NovelsWinnie the Pooh has been blacklisted from social media in China
Welcome to the weekly Vox book link roundup, a curated selection of the best writing online about books and related topics. Here’s the best the internet has to offer for the week of July 16, 2017.<p>The internet celebrated the life and legacy of Jane Austen on Tuesday, in honor of the 200th …
LiteratureThe Music Shop by Rachel Joyce review – hits all the right notes
Joyce’s heart-warming fourth novel follows a band of shopkeepers in the 80s struggling to halt redevelopment plans<p>Since her bestselling debut in 2012, <i>The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry</i>, Rachel Joyce has established a reputation for novels that celebrate the dignity and courage of ordinary people …
LiteratureFiction for older children reviews – tales of the cities
London and New York both feature strongly in stories from both sides of the pond, while Room author Emma Donoghue makes her children’s fiction debut<p>In the UK, you wouldn’t want under-12s to have much contact with doormen – ours being burly negotiators who remove the ill-behaved from nightclubs.<p>In …
Prufrock: George Strait's Long Ride, the Honest Cocktail, and Virginia Woolf on Jane Austen
<b>Reviews and News:</b><p>Don’t drink a cocktail, unless it’s a Negroni: “The cocktail is designed to lie about its origins; no wonder it reached its apogee …
LiteratureLife Lessons (With Zombies) In 'Minecraft: The Island'
Okay, let's get this out of the way right from the start. <i>The Island</i>, the new book by Max Brooks (yeah, the guy who wrote <i>World War Z</i>, the very good zombie book that got turned into that not-very-good Brad Pitt movie) is about Minecraft. The video game Minecraft.<p>And not a non-fiction book about the …
Valerian: What To Read after Seeing Luc Besson's Sci-Fi Epic
Curious as to where to turn once you’ve seen <i>Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets</i>? There are 21 volumes of <i>Valerian and Laureline</i> available …
Science FictionCritical Essays by Amy Lowell
PERHAPS there never was a time when education received so much general attention as it does today. The world is deluged with books, pamphlets, and …
LiteratureThe Observer view on Jane Austen’s immortality
Two centuries after her death, her influence is still felt<p>Jane Austen, who died 200 years ago last Tuesday, has been enjoying an impressively vigorous afterlife. First, as an icon of her gender, there has been her controversial debut on the new £10 note, an appearance that sent some indignant …
LiteratureThe Best Books on Spanish History
The modern shape of Spain was effectively created in 1579 when the crowns of Aragon and Castile united through the marriage of Ferdinand and …
World HistoryArbitrary Stupid Goal: a memoir of growing up under the tables of the best restaurant in New York
In her memoir -- composed of short vignettes, strung together with lots of white space, interspersed with her expressive and deceptively simple …
‘Goodbye, Vitamin’: A wistful tale of familial love
Book review: Rachel Khong’s debut novel chronicles an adult daughter’s homecoming to care for her parents.
LiteratureThe Unwomanly Face of War by Svetlana Alexievich review – ‘a monument to courage’
From the siege of Leningrad to the frontline, Soviet women recall their wartime lives in these epic first-person accounts, translated into English for the first time<p>First published in 1985, Svetlana Alexievich’s account of the second world war as seen through the eyes of hundreds of women is an …
LiteratureCollections of poems, city-life stories offer window to soul-searching
Print<p><b>nipe wanin: my way back</b><p>By Mika Lafond, Thistledown Press, $20<p><b>GLASS BEADS</b><p>By Dawn Dumont, Thistledown Press, $20<p>Mika Lafond’s first collection of …
‘Devon is a heaven of beauty and inspiration and a hell of damp and dullness’
Blood-red soil and magical place names have inspired writers from Agatha Christie to JK Rowling<p>If you were to ask what place in Britain has inspired most writers, you would probably guess London; Devon comes a close second. So many authors past and present have been drawn to (and have drawn on) the …
LiteratureWinnie the Pooh – the Heffalump in China's Room
Readers, how would you react if people compared you with a famous and beloved character in fiction?<p>What if that character was portrayed by its …
BrisbaneBook reviews: Collections of poems, city-life stories offer window to soul-searching
<b>nipe wanin: my way back</b><p>By Mika Lafond, Thistledown Press, $20<p><b>GLASS BEADS</b><p>By Dawn Dumont, Thistledown Press, $20<p>Mika Lafond’s first collection of …
Canadian NewsJenny Zhang: ‘The young girl has always been reviled and fetishised’
The author, whose stories focus on young Chinese Americans and the immigrant experience, talks imagination, childhood and having Lena Dunham as fairy godmother<p>Jenny Zhang, 33, was born in Shanghai and raised in New York. She is a graduate of Stanford University and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop for …
FeminismEmma Donoghue's new book raises $100,000 for literacy.
Room author Emma Donoghue's new novel, The Lotterys Plus One, her first for children aged 8 to 12, has already raised more than $100,000 so far for …
News (Ireland)Nicola Barker: ‘I find books about middle-class people so boring – I feel like stabbing myself’
The Booker-shortlisted novelist on religion, Love Island and her ‘catastrophic urge’ to destroy narrative<p>As Nicola Barker admits, her new novel, <i>H(a)ppy</i>, “really does mess with you in the end”. About halfway through, she reckons, is where “it gets nuts”, but to be truthful, the signs are there from …