Month: August 2022

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Stories from the Tenants Downstairs by Sidik Fofana

The interconnected stories in Fofana’s spectacular debut collection feature a range of vibrant characters who are living close to the edge … A range of emotions, from wistfulness to humor, envy, and vengefulness, colors these pages that are often filled with laugh-out-loud passages … Above all, the characters’ voices are unforgettable, crackling with energy and spunk. “Everybody got a story, everybody got a tale. Question is: is it despair or prevail?” Read more

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‘The Butler’ Author Wil Haygood Wins Prestigious Book Award

Writer Wil Haygood, author of multiple nonfiction books chronicling the lives of 20th-century Black Americans including The Butler, has won a prestigious book award. The Dayton Literary Peace Prize announced Wednesday that Haygood — himself originally from Columbus, Ohio — will receive the Ambassador Richard C. Holbrooke Distinguished Achievement Award. Read more

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The New “Tinder for Bookworms” Has the Least Sexy Name on the Planet

Hey, nerds. Do you have more books than you do friends? Do you ever find yourself explaining the plot of the novel you’re reading to your dog? Are you looking for that special someone to lie next to you in bed in the morning while you ignore each other and read your own books? Turns out there’s an app for that (or there will be—it’s still in early beta). Yep, it’s “Tinder for bookworms“—though to be fair, it isn’t actually a book dating app, but rather a “book meetup app.” It’s called Klerb. Read more

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Tatiana Maslany to Star in ‘Invitation to a Bonfire’

Invitation to a Bonfire is a psychological thriller set in the 1930s at an all-girls boarding school in New Jersey. Inspired by Vladimir and Vera Nabokov’s co-dependent marriage, the series follows Zoya (Freya Mavor), a young Russian immigrant and groundskeeper, who is drawn into a lethal love triangle with the school’s newest faculty member — an enigmatic novelist, Leo (Pilou Asbæk)— and his bewitching wife (Maslany). Read more

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Who is Colleen Hoover and Why Are Her Books So Popular?

Fifteen of Hoover’s novels are on this week’s list, with “It Ends With Us” topping them all at No. 2. The novel, which has reached No. 1 before, has been on the list for a total of 76 weeks. Her latest novel “Reminders of Him,” currently on the list, debuted at No. 1 in January. Read more

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What We Owe the Future by William MacAskill

The fate of the world is in our hands. Humanity’s written history spans only five thousand years. Our yet-unwritten future could last for millions more — or it could end tomorrow. Astonishing numbers of people could lead lives of great happiness or unimaginable suffering, or never live at all, depending on what we choose to do today. In What We Owe The Future, philosopher William MacAskill argues for longtermism, that idea that positively influencing the distant future is a key moral priority of our time. From this perspective, it’s not enough to reverse climate change or avert the next pandemic. We must ensure that civilization would rebound if it collapsed; counter the end of moral progress; and prepare for a planet where the smartest beings are digital, not human. If we make wise choices today, our grandchildren’s grandchildren will thrive, knowing we did everything we could to give them a world full of justice, hope and beauty. Read more

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Author’s Therapeutic Writing Program Aims to Help You Move Past Your Trauma

At Five Foxes, a wellness retreat that opened this July in woodsy, bucolic Connecticut and is run by the established private rehab company Privé-Swiss, Augusten Burroughs will coax clients to dig deep and then to find a way to accept what has happened and put the lessons learned to good use … “I’m very good at being useful to people,” he says. “I could not care less about being an author now.” From $50,000 for one week. Read more

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