November 13, 2020, 11:26am It is a truth universally acknowledged . . . that the CW is developing an anthology series inspired by Jane Austen’s works! The series, titled Modern Austen, will tackle a different Jane Austen novel each season and reimagine it as six modern stories. Modern Austen’s first season will set Pride and
Literature
TODAY: In 1968, Spanish philologist Ramón Menéndez Pidal, who holds the record for most times nominated for a Nobel Prize, on 23 different occasions between 1931 and 1966, dies. (He never won.) “The aftereffects of an evil dictatorship are hard to get rid of, to scrub clean. It usually involves a steadfast struggle, and justice
November 13, 2020, 12:02pm Tomorrow marks sixty years since civil rights icon, activist and writer Ruby Bridges was the first Black child to integrate a Southern elementary school—and today, Scholastic announced three forthcoming books written by Bridges, which will be released from spring 2022-23. The three new books are I Am Ruby Bridges, an illustrated
In this week’s Dispatches from The Secret Library, Dr Oliver Tearle reads Morgan Robertson’s prophetic novel The Wreck of the Titan What connects the invention of the periscope to the sinking of the Titanic? Nothing specifically technical or naval: it’s a literary link, of sorts. The man who claimed to have invented the periscope also
November 13, 2020, 1:07pm In quarantine, some of us have more time on our hands than others—maybe none more so than the anonymous architect-cum-political critic who has taken the time to digitally render their take on the Trump presidential library. The library serves as a reminder of Trump’s greatest hits, featuring exhibits like the COVID
Cats suffer from dementia too. Did you know that?Ours did. Not the black one, smart enoughto be neurotic and evade the vet.The other one, the furrier’s muff, the piece of fluff.She’d writhe around on the sidewalkfor chance pedestrians, whiskertheir trousers, though not when she started losingwhat might have been her mind. She’d prowl the nightkitchen,
November 12, 2020, 3:32pm Today, Penguin Press announced plans to publish New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman’s book about Donald Trump. The currently untitled book, set to hit shelves in 2022, will span several decades of the president’s life, from his early days as a property developer to his time on The Apprentice to his
November 11, 2020, 1:23pm Wow, yet another upside of quarantine—according to thinkpieces everywhere, they just keep coming! Research compiled by writing and proofreading service Global English Editing shows that 35% of people in the world have read more books than usual since COVID began. This statistic feels pretty intuitive—people are at home, out of work,
Retirement – by which we mean not only ‘giving up work after a lifetime of service to enjoy a well-earned rest’ but also ‘retiring away somewhere from something, for relaxation or contemplation’ – has been a topic of poems for centuries. The Romantics loved to retire among nature; modern and contemporary poets talk about reaching
November 11, 2020, 2:52pm The PEN America/L’Engle-Rahman Prize for Mentorship honors four mentor/mentee pairs in PEN America’s prison writing mentorship program, which links established writers with those currently incarcerated. The Award is named after the late acclaimed author Madeleine L’Engle and her 10-year written friendship with scholar, writer, and former Black Party leader Ahmad Rahman. Each winner
November 10, 2020, 12:37pm Kamala Harris-related books have seen a sharp increase in popularity post-Biden/Harris presidential win. On Sunday, a whopping four books on Amazon’s Top 10 bestsellers list were either about or penned by the vice president-elect. The books in question: Harris’s memoir The Truths We Hold: An American Journey, her children’s book Superheroes
November 10, 2020, 2:44pm You know what they say: November is the new December! When’s the best time to support your local bookstore and get holiday gifts? Well, there’s no time like the present. (Get it?) (I’m sorry.) (But seriously, support your favorite indie and check out these new books!) * Jonathan Lethem, The Arrest(Ecco) “Told in
Every Monday through Friday, AudioFile’s editors recommend the best in audiobook listening. We keep our daily episodes short and sweet, with audiobook clips to give you a sample of our featured listens. Vivienne Leheny’s narration captures each character’s outward persona and true self in Confessions on the 7:45. In today’s episode, host Jo Reed and
There aren’t perhaps many canonical poems written about Liverpool blacksmiths, but there is ‘Felix Randal’ by Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-89), which is one of the poet’s most famous poems and, like all of Hopkins’s work, deserves closer analysis. Before we offer some notes towards a commentary on this wonderful poem, here’s the text of ‘Felix
November 9, 2020, 3:32pm By my count, 2020 has seen the publication of quite a few books featuring cannibalism. From Maria Dahvana Headley’s new translation of Beowulf to Shalom Auslander’s Mother for Dinner, this has been the year of books that feature people eating people. Honestly, that sort of tracks. This year has been so horrific, so
November 6, 2020, 10:06am In 1934, The Observer’s crossword writer, Edward Powys Mathers, wrote a short mystery novel that was also a fantastically difficult literary puzzle. The book, Cain’s Jawbone—named after the “first recorded murder weapon” and published under his nom de plume, Torquemada—consists of 100 pages, bound out of order; the reader’s job was
November 6, 2020, 11:00am Aside from his scintillating prose, deadpan wit, and fearless approach to dealing with some of the darkest corners of American history, Colson Whitehead’s literary career has been marked by an audacious versatility. Though many of his works feature some element of the outlandish or fantastical, no two are alike. Over a
November 6, 2020, 12:00pm Happy Friday. We made it. It’s the end of the longest week of the longest year, and here’s a really cool looking cover for Anthony Veasna So’s forthcoming debut short story collection, Afterparties. Blurbed by Bryan Washington, George Saunders, and Mary Karr, So’s collection about Cambodian-American life has been called “immersive