Whatever you need to do to reestablish a reading habit is a net benefit, and that should extend to what you read, too. That might require divorcing yourself from the notion that books have to be important or educational to be legitimate. “Just give yourself permission to read whatever you’re interested in reading.” Read more
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Mick Herron has won the Theakston Old Peculier crime novel of the year award, after his fifth time being shortlisted in six years. Herron won the award for Slough House, the seventh instalment in his series of the same name, which follows a band of failed spies. In the book, a new populist movement is taking hold on London’s streets, and the spies find themselves on the run in the aftermath of a blunder by the Russian secret service that left a British citizen dead. The series was recently turned into an Apple TV+ show starring Gary Oldman and Kristin Scott Thomas. Read more
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According to “Banned in the USA,” a report issued by the writers’ organization PEN America in April, nearly 1,600 individual books were banned in 26 states between July 1, 2021 and March 31, 2022. Read more
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A project of Harvard University’s Hutchins Center for African and African American Research and Oxford University Press, the dictionary will not just collect spellings and definitions. It will also create a historical record and serve as a tribute to the people behind the words, said Henry Louis Gates Jr., the project’s editor in chief and the Hutchins Center’s director. Read more
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Citing trademark concerns and objections to the author’s views on transgender issues, the sport’s leading groups officially distanced themselves from their “Harry Potter” roots. Read more
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HarperCollins union members went on a one-day strike on Wednesday, with around 100 employees and additional supporters marching in front of the company’s corporate headquarters in Manhattan in the sticky heat for higher wages, better family leave benefits and a stronger commitment to diversity from the company. Read more
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Isaac Fitzgerald grabs readers’ attention with the title of his memoir and never lets go. He’s a mesmerizing storyteller who deploys unexpected delights from his very first line … He fills the 12 essays in Dirtbag, Massachusetts with heaping helpings of humor, joy, pain, sorrow, grace and insight. Throughout, Fitzgerald writes in carefully chosen prose … Fitzgerald joins the ranks of some of the very best memoirists, including Tobias Wolff, Tara Westover and Dani Shapiro. This entertaining and thoughtful book reveals Fitzgerald’s talents as a master craftsman of unusual insight and will leave readers eager for more. Read more
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Five Years Next Sunday, about an ostracised girl who ‘holds the fate of her community in her hair’, wins £10,000 award for African writing in English. Read more
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The Grolier Club in New York City, America’s oldest and largest society for bibliophiles, will present a special exhibition of the daring and influential work of the British artist Aubrey Beardsley, on the anniversary of his 150th birthday. Aubrey Beardsley, 150 Years Young, on view from September 8 through November 12, 2022, in the Grolier Club’s second floor gallery, will explore the meteoric rise of Beardsley (1872–1898), a monumental figure in book and magazine illustration, graphic arts and poster design, as well as the history of gender and sexuality. Read more
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In his grouchy, funny memoir, “A Factotum in the Book Trade,” Marius Kociejowski writes about what a good bookstore should feel like, famous customers he’s served and more. Read more
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