Chauncey, a professor of American history at Columbia, becomes the first scholar in L.G.B.T.Q. studies to receive the $500,000 award. Read more
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Month: June 2022
An Introduction to Stanislaw Lem, the Great Polish Sci-Fi Writer, by Jonathan Lethem
Who was Stanislaw Lem? The Polish science fiction writer, novelist, essayist, and polymath may best be known for his 1961 novel Solaris (adapted for the screen by Andrei Tarkosvky in 1972 and again by Steven Soderbergh in 2014). Lem’s science fiction appealed broadly outside of SF fandom, attracting the likes of John Updike, who called his stories “marvelous” and Lem a poet of “scientific terminology” for readers “whose hearts beat faster when the Scientific American arrives each month.” Updike’s characterization is but one version of Lem. There are several more, writes Jonathan Lethem in an essay for the London Review of Books, penned for Lem’s 100th anniversary – at least five different Lems with five different literary personalities. Read more
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The Best Travel Books of All Time, According to Authors
There are an astounding number of travel books out there. How to choose the best of the best? You can start by asking the experts. Read more
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Bitch by Lucy Cooke: A Joyous Debunking of Gender Stereotypes in Nature
From lemurs to spiders, this gleeful exploration of female sexuality in the animal world overturns a host of outdated assumptions. Read more
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Danica Novgorodoff wins Kate Greenaway medal for graphic novel Long Way Down
Danica Novgorodoff’s “innovative” graphic novel adaptation of Jason Reynolds’ novel Long Way Down has won the Yoto Kate Greenaway medal, making it the first graphic novel to win the illustration prize since Raymond Briggs’ Father Christmas in 1973. Meanwhile, Katya Balen has won the Yoto Carnegie medal, which celebrates outstanding achievement in children’s writing. The “expertly written” October, October was inspired by Balen’s father-in-law, who lives off-grid. Read more
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Inside the Colorful, Campy, Unapologetically Horny World of Erotic Cookbooks
While it’s easy to dismiss them as gag gifts, there’s way more to erotic cookbooks than double entendres and naughty illustrations. Read more
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Ruth Ozeki’s ‘complete joy’ of a novel wins Women’s prize for fiction
The novelist, film-maker and Zen Buddhist priest takes the £30,000 award for a book that “stood out for its sparkling writing, warmth, intelligence, humour and poignancy”, according to the chair of judges, Mary Ann Sieghart. Read more
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How Anton Chekhov became the playwright of the moment
More consumed with questions than with answers, Chekhov’s plays depict human beings rather than heroes or villains. Life is captured in plots in which not much seems to happen yet by the end everything is changed. All of this runs counter to our sensation-seeking, moralizing, politically divisive zeitgeist. But theater artists, filmmakers and novelists, drawn to the interior richness of Chekhov’s dramas, have discovered not only the timeliness of his untimely work but also its aesthetic pliancy and openness. Read more
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Shifty’s Boys by Chris Offutt
Offutt has fashioned a mystery plot that’s fast-paced, efficiently plotted, atmospheric, and compelling, but what again distinguishes the book is the author’s command of and affection for the setting and the people who live there. Come for the thriller, by all means; it delivers nicely. But stay for, and linger in, the marvelous incidentals and atmospherics: arguments about mall names; lore about snakes and birds and mushrooms; descriptions of a local shade-tree tinkerer’s Slinky-like version of a perpetual motion machine … Terrific characters; taut suspense. Another winner from Offutt. Read more
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Costa book awards scrapped suddenly after 50 years
The Costa book awards, after running for half a century, have been abruptly scrapped. The coffee shop chain has said the 2021 awards, which were announced in February this year, were the last. Read more
