Posted on

C. J. Sansom Awarded Diamond Dagger

CJ Sansom has been announced as the recipient of the highest honour in British crime writing, the Crime Writers’ Association (CWA) Diamond Dagger. One of Britain’s bestselling historical novelists, Christopher John Sansom was born in 1952 in Edinburgh. He was educated at Birmingham University with a BA and then a PhD in history. After working in a variety of jobs, he retrained as a solicitor and practised in Sussex, until becoming a full-time writer. Read more

(We earn a small commission if you click above and buy the book at Bookshop.org)

Posted on

He risked his life to become a founding father of civil rights. Why was he forgotten?

Mention Walter White and it will likely conjure an image of Bryan Cranston from “Breaking Bad,” playing the man who snarled, “I am the danger.” But there’s a real-life Walter White who deserves to be a household name — a Black man who faced unfathomable danger in pursuit of truth and justice as he did battle with the American way. White should rank alongside Thurgood Marshall, Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X as a founding father of the civil rights era. Yet he is all but forgotten today. Read more

(We earn a small commission if you click above and buy the book at Bookshop.org)

Posted on

Weird Short Story Writers for Strange Times

Weird short stories are gifts from strangers. After you’ve torn away the wrapper and set the curiously odd item on the table you might say, “WTF is this?” It’s nothing you asked for but maybe something you need. It captures your attention. Sure, you don’t understand what you’re supposed to do with it but it’s better than another scented candle. Luckily, your gift comes with an instruction manual. And if you pay attention, take your time, and keep yourself open to the possibility of discovery, it may prove to be the best present you’ve ever received. Read more

(We earn a small commission if you click above and buy the book at Bookshop.org)

Posted on

Olga Tokarczuk’s ‘The Books of Jacob’ is finally here. Now we know why the Nobel judges were so awestruck.

The challenges here — for author and reader — are considerable. After all, Tokarczuk isn’t revising our understanding of Mozart or presenting a fresh take on Catherine the Great. She’s excavating a shadowy figure who’s almost entirely unknown today … As daunting as it sounds, The Books of Jacob is miraculously entertaining and consistently fascinating. Despite his best efforts, Frank never mastered alchemy, but Tokarczuk certainly has. Her light irony, delightfully conveyed by Croft’s translation, infuses many of the sections. What’s more, it turns out that the story of an 18th-century grifter inflated by Messianic delusions is surprisingly relevant to our own era. The quality that makes The Books of Jacob so striking is its remarkable form. Tokarczuk has constructed her narrative as a collage of legends, letters, diary entries, rumors, hagiographies, political attacks and historical records … This is a story that grows simultaneously more detailed and more mysterious … Haunting and irresistible. Read more

(We earn a small commission if you click above and buy the book at Bookshop.org)

Posted on

Seth Meyers to honor Elaine May, Ngugi wa Thiong’o at PEN America Literary Awards

The first in-person PEN awards ceremony since the pandemic began in 2020 will honor the winners of PEN’s career-achievement awards: Broadway and Hollywood icon Elaine May will receive the $25,000 PEN/Mike Nichols Writing for Performance Award, named in honor of her long-ago partner in comedy. Acclaimed Kenyan writer Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, author of “A Grain of Wheat” and “Weep Not, Child” and a perennial Nobel Prize contender, will take home the $50,000 PEN/Nabokov Award for Achievement in International Literature. And Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Jackie Sibblies Drury, writer of “Fairview” and “Marys Seacole,” will be presented the $10,000 PEN/Laura Pels International Foundation for Theater Award. Read more

(We earn a small commission if you click above and buy the book at Bookshop.org)

Posted on

‘Uplifting’ book of sonnets by Hannah Lowe wins Costa book of the year

Judges said The Kids was “a book to fall in love with”. “It’s joyous, it’s warm and it’s completely universal,” said chair of judges, the BBC News journalist and broadcaster Reeta Chakrabarti. “It’s crafted and skilful but also accessible.” Read more

(We earn a small commission if you click above and buy the book at Bookshop.org)

Posted on

Toni Morrison’s only short story is available in book form for the first time

Recitatif was originally published in a 1983 anthology that has since gone out of print and was rarely seen in intervening decades, as the Associated Press has reported. But it’s making a comeback, this time in book form. Read more

(We earn a small commission if you click above and buy the book at Bookshop.org)