Fern Michaels, a mother of five in suburban New Jersey who responded to her husband’s request to get a job by taking up writing, only to blossom into a best-selling author of more than 200 romances and thrillers, died on Nov. 12 at her home in Summerville, S.C. Read more
Month: December 2025
‘Midnight Somewhere’ by Johnny Compton
Readers who enjoy the imaginative yet unsettling horror of John Langan and Ananda Lima should bask in the uncanny visions of Compton’s haunting tales. It is a solid collection with no weak stories. Read more
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The 10 Best Audiobooks of 2025
Including explosive tell-alls, dreamy fantasy, and what may be the best fiction narration out there. Read more
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The Curious Notoriety of ‘Performative Reading’
Performative reading has emerged as a suspicious activity not because reading books is suspect but because being beheld reading a book is understood to be yet another way for one to market himself, to portray to the world that he is indeed deeper and more expansive than his craven need for attention—demonstrated by reading a difficult book in public—suggests. Read more
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Our Favorite New Cookbooks of 2025
To round up 2025’s best cookbooks, we consulted a large group: Bon Appétit and Epicurious staffers, as well as other food writers and editors, cookbook authors, and chefs. Read more
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100 Notable Small Press Books of 2025
…our reviewers were free to read any small press books they chose, and as a result you’ll find this list dappled with well-known presses, such as Tin House and Europa Editions. But for every Graywolf, we feature presses that are not household names, like LittlePuss and Publication Studio and Kallisto Gaia. Read more
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Daniel Woodrell, ‘Country Noir’ Novelist of ‘Winter’s Bone,’ Dies at 72
Daniel Woodrell, a novelist known for prose as rugged and elemental as the igneous rock of the Ozark Mountains, his birthplace, which he returned to just as his artistic craftsmanship peaked, died on Friday at his home in West Plains, Mo. Read more

