Single billboard heralds arrival of new Hilary Mantel novel
Earlier this week, a mysterious billboard appeared above an entrance to London’s Leicester Square Tube station. It read, simply, SO NOW GET UP. And it featured a Tudor Rose in the… Read more »
“My recollection is a much older man being creepy with me”
When Then It Fell Apart, the second memoir of musician and DJ Moby (aka Richard Melville Hall) was published earlier this month by Faber, it got glowing reviews. The Guardian… Read more »
What made this year’s Man Booker International winners so damn notable?
The winner for the Man Booker International Prize, literature in translation’s biggest award, was announced on Tuesday as Celestial Bodies by the Omani writer Jokha Alharthi and translated by Marilyn Booth. For… Read more »
Single billboard heralds arrival of new Hilary Mantel novel
81-year-old debut novelist is shortlisted for a literary prize, so take that, ageists!
Are women funny? Prize news confirms yes, of course they bloody are
For first time in eight years, a woman has won the International Prize for Arabic Fiction
Michigan legislators declare a literary crisis—call for more librarians
Following a 2018 report from the Michigan Department of Education showing the majority of third and fourth graders cannot read at grade level, some legislators have declared a literary crisis and… Read more »
Thousands of Franz Kafka’s confidant’s personal documents recovered
File this away as: “Hey, this is cool.” The Associated Press reports that Germany has handed over 5,000 personal documents owned by Franz Kafka’s confidant, Max Brod. The documents range from letters… Read more »
A musical journey through The Great Eastern
Listen along HERE. What would Captain Nemo be without his organ? In The Great Eastern, the organ aboard the Nautilus was built for him by the legendary designer Aristide Cavaillé-Coll,… Read more »
Booklover Sarah Jessica Parker doesn’t want to see budgets for libraries slashed
New York public libraries are finding an ally this week in celebrity (and booklover) Sarah Jessica Parker as she rallies fans to stand against the recent budget cuts mayor, and twenty-somethingth presidential… Read more »
The NYPL’s Fifth Avenue stacks are still empty
In 2007, New York Public Library administrators hatched a plan—the Central Library Plan—to consolidate 3 libraries in Midtown Manhattan into the flagship Fifth Avenue library building. The famous Fifth Avenue stacks,… Read more »
Vanity Fair has an amazing digital archive
Vanity Fair, founded in 1913, created an AMAZING online digital archive with all issues, all pages, and all the fun from the beginning of their time as a magazine until… Read more »
Just being around books reportedly enhances intellectual capacity in later life
On a recent episode of 60-Second Science podcast, Karen Hopkin discussed how new research supports the “radiation effect,” in which children growing up around books, and not necessarily reading the books (at… Read more »
Ernest Hemingway’s reporting expenses were as outrageous as everything else about him
Ever the competitive and spiteful man, Ernest Hemingway once stole his wife Martha Gellhon’s job at Collier’s magazine, so that he could cover the frontlines of World War II himself—without… Read more »
The shifting culture of book clubs
What one does in their spare time is always a personal choice, of course, but is it really a surprise that the after-work book club is finding more and more… Read more »
‘Worse than a twit’ British Politician and Brexit supporter Jacob Rees-Mogg’s new book is panned by critics as ‘stagerringly silly’
Hello friends. Last time we talked Brexit on MobyLives! the UK was due to crash out of the European Union on March 29 and an online petition to Revoke Article 50… Read more »
Sir David Attenborough turns 93; launches remix competition
Never one to stand still, the naturalist, broadcaster, and Genuine Living Legend, Sir David Attenborough, has launched an unusual competition to mark his 93rd birthday earlier this week. Mark Savage at… Read more »
Las Vegas as a literary hub? The city has a surprising history of book culture
Following the Believer Festival last month, the New York Times has announced Las Vegas’s status as a literary hub. Citing the University of Nevada’s Black Mountain Institute, which funds The… Read more »
81-year-old debut novelist is shortlisted for a literary prize, so take that, ageists!
First, the news. As reported by the Bookseller, Silence Under a Stone, by the 81-year-old* Irish writer Norma MacMaster, has been shortlisted for the Society of Authors’ Awards. It is also… Read more »
Listen to Juliet Escoria's curated soundtrack for her debut novel Juliet the Maniac
What happened to Harper Lee’s long lost crime novel?
White supremacists storm reading of Dying of Whiteness at Politics and Prose
Melville House authors Jenny Odell and J. J. Mulligan Sepúlveda at the Bay Area Book Fair
Stan Lee’s former manager charged with elder abuse
Before comic book writer Stan Lee’s death in November 2018, there were rumors swirling about elder abuse by Lee’s daughter J.C., his business manager Keya Morgan, his road manager Mac… Read more »
Self-professed master of fraud tries to fake his way to the top of the bestseller lists
The title says it all, really: Oobah Butler tried to get his book, How to Bulls*t Your Way to #1: An Unorthodox Guide to 21st Century Success, onto bestseller lists… Read more »
BookBar in Denver giving away free copies of The Mueller Report
Last week, BookBar (exactly what it sounds like, a heavenly bookstore-bar combo) in Denver kicked off a Mueller Report giveaway. While supplies last, the indie bookstore’s nonprofit organization, BookGive, is offering… Read more »
British booksellers vote Rooney’s Normal People the “British Book of the Year”
After an already award- and praise-filled spring, Sally Rooney’s latest novel, Normal People, just took home the biggest prize of the night at the British Book Awards, beating, according to… Read more »
Chelsea Manning to publish memoir in 2020
The life of Chelsea Manning—an international caper that has had her called a traitor by some and a hero by others—could be described as operatic. (Indeed, there is literally an… Read more »
Actually, we do publish manuscripts sent to the slush pile
This month the editors are looking daily through our submissions inbox. I know this because I am one of them. One question I get when encouraging people to submit is,… Read more »
Publishers making it easier for indies to order directly
Independent Bookstore owners felt anxious after Baker & Taylor announced they are leaving the wholesale market. The changes at Baker & Taylor mean Ingram is the only national wholesale retailer… Read more »
Susan Sontag ghostwrote her ex-husband’s most notable book
The forthcoming biography by Benjamin Moser, Sontag: Her Life, details extensive evidence that Sontag may, in fact, be the author of her ex-husband’s biggest book, Freud: The Mind of the… Read more »
Multi-disciplinary Kathy Acker exhibit comes to London
London’s Institute of Contemporary Art is now hosting the UK’s first exhibition dedicated to Kathy Acker. The show is amazingly titled I, I, I, I, I, I, I, Kathy Acker, and… Read more »
Former B&N CEO Parneros continues the fight against former employer, winning backpay on legal fees
According to last Friday’s Shelf Awareness newsletter, a judge has ordered Barnes & Noble to pay half of all legal fees and legal expenses for former CEO Demos Parneros, who… Read more »
Copy of David Copperfield from 1910 South Pole expedition on display
Imagine only having three books to carry you through seven months—and having to share them with your companions. Such was the luck of the men of Captain Robert Falcon Scott’s… Read more »
Are women funny? Prize news confirms yes, of course they bloody are
The Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize hasn’t had the best form since its inauguration in 2000. The only big award in the UK to celebrate comic literature, it has shamefully just three… Read more »
Single billboard heralds arrival of new Hilary Mantel novel
What made this year's Man Booker International winners so damn notable?
81-year-old debut novelist is shortlisted for a literary prize, so take that, ageists!
For first time in eight years, a woman has won the International Prize for Arabic Fiction
Day of the shred: interactive PC game invites you to destroy a book
In a move that will prompt shocked-face emojis across the publishing world, Bristol-based indie game developer Alistair Aitcheson has released The Book Ritual, an “interactive art-piece played using a real-world book of… Read more »
Testing out Google’s poem generator
Earlier this week, Google launched its AI poem generator, PoemPortraits, and you bet people all over the internet are tossing everything they can at it. How it works? It’s really… Read more »
Creepy Men: An unpublished chapter from Juliet the Maniac
This chapter didn’t make it into the published book (which you can find here), but we’re excited to share it as a standalone! CREEPY MEN #1 By late summer after… Read more »
Library of Congress releases digitized version of Rare Children’s Books Collection
The Library of Congress celebrated the 100th anniversary of Children’s Book Week this year by launching a digital version of their Rare Children’s Books Collection. The Library of Congress website… Read more »
“Equal parts David Lynch and James Ivory”: help support the I Await the Devil’s Coming short film
One of the most popular installments in our Neversink Library of re-discovered classics is Mary MacLane’s confessional memoir I Await the Devil’s Coming. It is the diary of a 19 year… Read more »
Listen to Juliet Escoria’s curated soundtrack for her debut novel Juliet the Maniac
It’s publication week for Juliet Escoria’s long-awaited debut novel Juliet the Maniac! Book critic Kristen Millares Young really kicked things off when she wrote in her rave Washington Post review: “To read Juliet the… Read more »
81-year-old debut novelist is shortlisted for a literary prize, so take that, ageists!
What happened to Harper Lee’s long lost crime novel?
White supremacists storm reading of Dying of Whiteness at Politics and Prose
Melville House authors Jenny Odell and J. J. Mulligan Sepúlveda at the Bay Area Book Fair
Woody Allen unsuccessful in selling a memoir that literally no one asked for
Much of today’s news is bad news, but there is some good still left in this world: According to a report from the New York Times, Woody Allen can’t find… Read more »
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We, Robots
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