Tom Stoppard, the Czech-born English playwright who entwined erudition with imagination, verbal pyrotechnics with arch cleverness, and philosophical probing with heartache and lust in stage works that won accolades and awards on both sides of Atlantic, earning critical comparisons to Shakespeare and Shaw, has died at his home in Dorset, England. Read more
Month: November 2025
‘This Year: 365 Songs Annotated’ by John Darnielle
Too often, lyrics collections can be little more than keepsakes for fans, easily thrown together and presented without any context or new material. That was never going to be the case for Darnielle—the indie folk musician has always had a strong literary bent, as evidenced by his three well-received novels, Wolf in White Van (2014), Universal Harvester (2017), and Devil House (2022). His new book, which shares its title with one of his most well-known songs, is structured as a book of days, with a song for each one. He writes, “Some are accompanied by detailed explications, and some by autobiographical reflections; some get elliptical glosses and some get extended question marks.” The lyrics are brilliant; Darnielle is one of the best songwriters of his generation, and his words are achingly beautiful, sometimes angry and triumphant… Read more
(We earn a small commission if you click above and buy the book at Bookshop.org)
Did You Know Mapmakers Used to Make Up Fake Towns in Order to Catch Plagiarists?
Incidentally, this concept where creators add subtle little incorrect details to protect their copyright isn’t just limited to maps. You can (or, if they’re doing it right, you can’t) find made-up words in dictionaries, fictional entries in encyclopedias, fake phone numbers in phone books, non-existent businesses in business directories, meaningless strings in software code, extra screws in architectural plans, bad advice in medical textbooks and glaring factual errors in light-hearted books about maps. Read more
(We earn a small commission if you click above and buy the book at Bookshop.org)
‘The Pornographic Delicatessen’ Wins Diagram Prize for Oddest Book Title of the Year
The Pornographic Delicatessen edged early bookies’ favourite Whack Job: A History of Axe Murder by a mere two votes – and it finished only four ahead of Why the Hindenburg Had a Smoking Lounge: Essays in Unintended Consequences. Read more
(We earn a small commission if you click above and buy the book at Bookshop.org)
‘Languages of Home’ by John Edgar Wideman
Novelist, essayist, and critic Wideman delivers a profound, career-spanning collection of essays on literature, sports, and culture … Incisive and enthralling, the collection puts Wideman’s keen critical eye and cultural awareness on full display. The result is an essential chronicle of the American experience. Read more
(We earn a small commission if you click above and buy the book at Bookshop.org)
Here Are the Winners of the 2025 National Book Awards
When author Rabih Alameddine accepted his National Book Award for Fiction on Wednesday night, he thanked his agent, his editor and early readers of his work. He also thanked his psychiatrist, his drug dealers and “all gastrointestinal doctors.”
“I guarantee you that I wouldn’t have been able to write a single word in the last 10 years without their help,” he said. “There would have been no movement.” Read more
(We earn a small commission if you click above and buy the book at Bookshop.org)
Souvankham Thammavongsa Wins the 2025 Giller Prize
Souvankham Thammavongsa has won the 2025 Giller Prize for her novel “Pick a Colour,” an intimate story that follows a boxer-turned-manicurist over the course of a single summer day at her nail salon. The Laotian-Canadian writer claimed the $100,000 prize for literary fiction on Monday night, at a gala ceremony hosted at the Park Hyatt Toronto. This is Thammavongsa’s second Giller and comes after she previously won the prize in 2020 for the novel “How to Pronounce Knife.” She joins a small group of writers who have won the Giller twice, including Alice Munro and Esi Edugyan. Read more
(We earn a small commission if you click above and buy the book at Bookshop.org)
Silent Book Clubs Are Happy Hour for Introverts
No assigned reading. No forced discussion. Just you, your book and a roomful of fellow book lovers, quietly reading. Read more
(We earn a small commission if you click above and buy the book at Bookshop.org)
‘The History of Money’ by David McWilliams
Religion, technology, power, and the rise and fall of entire empires are tied up with economics and commerce in McWilliams’ excellent whistle-stop tour of the way money has shaped world history. Covering centuries of innovations—from an ancient baboon femur called the Ishango Bone, possibly used for accounting, to digital-age solutions like M-Pesa, a service in Africa that turns mobile-phone credit into money—it’s a blast of a book. Read more
(We earn a small commission if you click above and buy the book at Bookshop.org)
‘Flesh’ Wins 2025 Booker Prize
Szalay is a Hungarian-British author. Flesh is his sixth novel. In 2016, he was shortlisted for the Booker prize for his book All That Man Is. He told the Booker Prize that he was inspired to write Flesh after his own time living between Hungary and England, and noticing the cultural and economic divides that exist within contemporary Europe. “I also wanted to write about life as a physical experience, about what it’s like to be a living body in the world.” Read more
(We earn a small commission if you click above and buy the book at Bookshop.org)
