New Orleans is a thriving hub for festivals, music and Creole cuisine. Here, the novelist Maurice Carlos Ruffin shares books that capture its many cultural influences. Read more
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In the 1950s and 60s, his songs stunned and delighted listeners with their irreverence, wit and nihilism. Then he gave it all up to teach mathematics. Lehrer is still alive at 96 – so I went in search of answers. Read more
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Can a sentence swing and a paragraph bop? Is it possible for prose to be as stripped down and cool as a Miles Davis trumpet solo, or a poem to be as incantatory as John Coltrane’s saxophone? Despite all of the musical genres which the United States contributed to contemporary culture, most of them born from the specifically African American experience it should be added, jazz remains in many ways the lodestar of our melodic and rhythmic firmament, the “Classical Music” of America (as complicated as that assertion might be). Read more
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Looking for some murder and mayhem (fictional, of course)? Read more
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Bob Eckstein recommends some unmissable sights for writers and book lovers across America. Read more
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To help navigate the sea of content, here is our guide to some of the best sources of reading recommendations, author chats, writing advice and literary hot takes. Read more
The videos often begin with every bibliophile’s nightmare: a person ripping the covers off a book. They are not vandals, however; they are bookbinders, taking part in a growing trend for replacing the covers of favourite works to make unique hardback editions, and posting about their creations on TikTok and Instagram. Read more
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Harvard’s recent decision to remove the binding of a notorious volume in its library has thrown fresh light on a shadowy corner of the rare book world. Read more
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Inside the book conservation lab at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Read more
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The Bay Area has had many lives. The Oakland novelist Leila Mottley shares books that paint a picture of the city that lives and breathes today. Read more
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