SBTB Bestsellers: February 21 – March 6
SBTB released its latest bestseller list covering February 21 – March 6, compiled from grocery‑shopping trends, sweet‑treat purchases, and affiliate sales data. The list features twelve titles, led by romance and historical fiction such as “Love Interest” by Clare Gilmore and “How to Lose a Lord in Ten Days” by Sophie Irwin. Other genres represented include fantasy (“Dom‑Com”), humor (“Snake‑Eater”), and memoir‑style graphic novel (“Hyperbole and a Half”). Each entry includes direct purchase links for Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and Google Play, underscoring the list’s affiliate‑marketing focus.
If You're Looking For Your Next Immersive Fiction, Here Are Nine To Work Through
BuzzFeed curates nine immersive novels that transport readers into distinct worlds, ranging from Susanna Clarke’s labyrinthine house in *Piranesi* to James Clavell’s feudal Japan in *Shogun*. The list spans genres—fantasy, sci‑fi, western, dystopian, literary fiction, and historical epic—highlighting each book’s unique...
Zoe Strimpel’s Orgy of Contradictions
Zoe Strimpel's new book Good Slut positions capitalist‑driven sexual freedom as the pinnacle of modern feminism, arguing that women now have unlimited access to money, sex and power. The work mixes libertarian and conservative feminist rhetoric, championing individual choice while...
Why You Care If I Think You Matter
Rebecca Newberger Goldstein’s new book, *The Mattering Instinct*, expands a four‑decade philosophical inquiry into why humans crave to matter. Drawing on her earlier "matter‑map" concept, the work blends philosophy, psychology, and behavioral economics to explain the instinct for personal attention...
An Uncomfortable Emotion That’s Worth Feeling
The Wonder Reader newsletter spotlighted Daniel Smith’s essay on boredom, invoking Joseph Brodsky’s 1989 Dartmouth commencement speech that frames boredom as a teacher of our insignificance. Smith argues that feeling boredom—whether while running errands or on hold—can become a conduit...
The Violence of Protection | The Weekly Read
Lee Ann S. Wang’s book *The Violence of Protection* critiques the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), arguing that its funding of law‑enforcement rescue operations creates new forms of racial violence against survivors, especially Asian American women. By framing victims as...
Book Review: ‘Stories,’ by Helen Garner
Australian author Helen Garner’s short‑fiction collection ‘Stories’ has been released in the United States, gathering works first published between 1985 and 1998. The volume highlights Garner’s distinctive voice, which she often credits to the discipline of her diaries and a...
One True Word by Snæbjörn Arngrímsson
Icelandic children’s author Snæbjörn Arngrímsson turns to crime fiction with *One True Word*, a psychological thriller set on a remote Hvalfjörður islet. The story follows freelance writer Júlía, whose impulsive decision to abandon her husband spirals into a web of...
A Beautiful Loan by Mary Costello Review – a Profound Exploration of the Inner Life
Mary Costello’s new novel *A Beautiful Loan* delves into the unquantifiable dimensions of the human psyche, following protagonist Anna as she seeks to know herself and others beyond scientific rationalism. The narrative contrasts Anna’s yearning for emotional truth with the...
Leveraging Standards in the Wake of the Big Boom in Romance
The romance genre is experiencing a renewed sales surge, prompting publishers to revisit metadata standards. BookNet Canada’s Stephanie Small highlighted how BISAC and Thema classifications can be combined to capture both broad categories and nuanced tropes, from sports romance to...
Harold Bloom Made Academics Wince and General Readers Swoon. The Asymmetry Was the Point
Harold Bloom, the controversial literary critic, spent his later career defending a traditional Western canon and a theory of poetic influence that pits writers against their predecessors. His best‑selling books such as *The Western Canon*, *Shakespeare: The Invention of the...
An Emerson for Our Times? Terry Tempest Williams’s “Epic Documentation of the Glorians” Is Full of Celestial Beings and Desert...
Terry Tempest Williams’s new book *The Glorians* offers an "Epic Documentation" of fleeting, sacred moments she calls Glorians—tiny encounters that reveal nature’s hidden divinity. Drawing on Emersonian philosophy, the work weaves personal grief, desert ecology, and climate urgency into a...
Shut Out of Plum Positions because of His Political Sins, Malcolm Cowley Became a Triple-Threat Hired Gun: Reporting, Reviewing, Editing
Malcolm Cowley, once sidelined by his Communist affiliations, reinvented himself as a reporting, reviewing, and editing powerhouse in post‑World War II publishing. He curated the influential "Portable" anthologies for Hemingway, Faulkner and Fitzgerald, and later championed countercultural works like Kerouac’s On...
Which Romance Subgenre Matches You 100%?
BuzzFeed launched a gender‑neutral quiz that assigns users to a specific romance subgenre based on their preferences. The interactive format blends pop‑culture references with personality‑type questions, delivering a personalized result such as "Historical Romance" or "Paranormal Romance." The quiz is...
Listen In: Furious Minds
Laura Field’s new audiobook, *Furious Minds*, examines how Donald Trump’s 2016 victory ignited a radical reconfiguration of American conservatism. Field, a former insider in conservative academia, documents the emergence of the New Right—a coalition of scholars, public intellectuals, and tech‑savvy...
Virginia Dignum on The AI Paradox
Virginia Dignum’s new book *The AI Paradox* argues that the growing capabilities of artificial intelligence actually highlight the irreplaceable value of human creativity, moral judgment, and responsibility. She frames AI’s biggest challenges as enduring paradoxes—tensions between efficiency and control, innovation...
Steven Weitzman on Disasters of Biblical Proportions
Steven Weitzman’s new book, *Disasters of Biblical Proportions*, examines how the ten plagues of Exodus have been continually reshaped by Jews, Christians, Muslims and secular thinkers to make sense of catastrophe. Inspired by the COVID‑19 pandemic, the work traces each...
Cornelia Woll on Corporate Crime and Punishment
Cornelia Woll's book argues US prosecutors increasingly rely on out‑of‑court settlements to enforce corporate criminal law beyond its borders, turning fines into a tool of geopolitical leverage. Data shows foreign companies, which represent only 16 % of cases from 2000‑2020, bear...
An Excerpt From Gwen John: Strange Beauties
The Yale‑University‑Press volume "Gwen John: Strange Beauties" accompanies a landmark retrospective that reunites the artist’s oils, watercolors and drawings for the first comprehensive survey in four decades. Curated by Rachel Stratton and Lucy Wood, the show travels from National Museum...
Publishers File Suit Against Notorious Pirate Site Anna’s Archive
Thirteen leading U.S. publishers, represented by the Association of American Publishers, have filed a federal lawsuit against the pirate site Anna’s Archive, accusing it of copying and distributing millions of copyrighted books and journal articles. The complaint alleges the site...
Pushing the Limits of Historical Fiction
Álvaro Enrigue’s new novel *Now I Surrender* reframes the Apache Wars through a wildly inventive, absurdist lens, intertwining historical figures like Geronimo with fictional personas such as a disguised zarzuela singer. The narrative collapses textbook binaries, presenting the conflict as...
Six Books to Understand the Gilded Age
The Economist highlights six books that illuminate America’s Gilded Age, a period from the post‑Civil War era to World War I marked by massive immigration, industrial expansion, and the rise of “robber barons.” The works explore how vast fortunes were built...
The Surprising Culprit Behind the Death of Reading
The piece links the decline of deep reading to deliberately engineered digital design that fragments attention, arguing that today’s delivery mechanisms are the real culprits. It also highlights Daisy Edgar-Jones’ casting in the upcoming film adaptation of Gabrielle Zevin’s gaming‑industry...
Hampi in Light and Stone | Landmark Publication ‘City of Victory’ Gets a New Edition
The landmark volume *City of Victory: Hampi Vijayanagara (Pictor)* has been reissued in a 2026 large‑format edition, merging George Michell’s refreshed scholarship with John M. Fritz’s original framework. Photographer John Gollings contributes a five‑decade visual archive that captures the stone‑sculpted city in dramatic...
António Lobo Antunes, Portuguese Novelist Who Chronicled Dictatorship and War, Dies Aged 83
António Lobo Antunes, the celebrated Portuguese novelist, died at 83, ending a career that produced over thirty novels and reshaped modern Portuguese literature. A former psychiatrist and army doctor, his wartime experiences in Angola informed his psychologically intense, polyphonic narratives....
Odds & Ends: March 6, 2026
The Art of Manliness roundup highlights Derrick Jeter’s debut novel *Blood Touching Blood*, which immerses readers in post‑Civil War Indian Wars through the eyes of Buffalo Soldiers. It also spotlights BAMF Style, a long‑standing men’s fashion blog that dissects iconic...
Podcast | Christopher Bollas
Granta’s latest podcast features Christopher Bollas, a pre‑eminent psychoanalytic theorist, discussing his forthcoming books *Essential Aloneness* and *Streams of Consciousness*. In the conversation, Bollas examines how psychoanalysis intersects with literature, the role of daydreams in uncovering unconscious material, and whether...
Moral Mysteries
The article examines Iris Murdoch’s moral philosophy, arguing that it has been systematically misread by mainstream analytic philosophers. Mark Hopwood’s new book contends that Murdoch’s work is coherent, metaphor‑driven, and deliberately resists systematic codification. Central to her thought are concepts like "loving...
The Valley of Vengeful Ghosts by Kim Fu
Kim Fu’s new novel, The Valley of Vengeful Ghosts, follows Eleanor Fan as she uses an inheritance to buy a dilapidated house in a rain‑soaked, terraformed valley. The story blends personal grief over her mother’s death with the broader anxieties...
A Healthy, Vigorous National Life
The Library of America has released *George Templeton Strong: Civil War Diaries*, a 701‑page volume that concentrates on Strong’s entries from November 1860 through 1865. About 45 percent of the material is newly published, offering fresh insight into a Manhattan lawyer’s daily...
Gavin and Stacey's Ruth Jones in the Running for Author of the Year
Welsh actress and writer Ruth Jones has been shortlisted for Author of the Year at the 2025 British Book Awards. Her memoir, "When Gavin Met Stacey And Everything In Between," chronicles the creation and success of the beloved sitcom, while...
Lost Plots
Katherine G. Charles’s new Cambridge University Press volume *Lost Plots* examines the pervasive use of interpolated, or “tales‑within‑a‑tale,” in eighteenth‑century novels. The book defines this narrative form, compiles a wide range of examples—from Fielding’s *Joseph Andrews* to Smollek’s *Peregrine Pickle*...
7 Poetry Books That Expand What an Elegy Can Look Like
The article surveys seven contemporary poetry collections that reimagine the elegy, showing how poets blend memoir, lyric, and experimental forms to confront personal and collective loss. It highlights works by Agha Shahid Ali, Victoria Chang, Mary Jo Bang, Diana Khoi...
The Best Recent Poetry – Review Roundup
Recent poetry releases reviewed include Andrew Motion’s *Gravity Archives* and Wayne Holloway‑Smith’s *Rabbitbox*, alongside mentions of JL Williams and Richard Siken. Motion’s collection revisits death and personal loss with a more resolute voice, mixing elegy, humor, and literary allusion. Holloway‑Smith’s *Rabbitbox*...
Lit Hub Daily: March 6, 2026
Lit Hub’s March 6 daily roundup bundles a wide array of literary and cultural content, from criticism and poetry to health and music pieces. Highlights include a story on America’s caregiving crisis, a tribute to librarians for International Women’s Day, and analyses...
The Glencairn Glass Short Story Competition 2026 Is Open for Entries
The Glencairn Glass Crime Short Story Competition 2026 is now accepting entries, inviting writers worldwide to submit original crime stories under 2,000 words with a Scottish protagonist. Partnered with the Bloody Scotland International Crime Writing Festival, the contest offers a...
I’ve Listened to Hundreds of Audiobooks – but These Are My All-Time Favourites
The article lists the top audiobooks to download in 2026, highlighting best‑overall, memoir, romance, kids and new fiction picks, many narrated by high‑profile actors. It notes that UK audiobook revenue jumped a third year‑on‑year, reaching £268 million, and that non‑fiction is...
Benjamin Hale on How to Expand a Magazine Article Into a Book
Benjamin Hale explains how his Harper's article on a 1978 Ozark murder expanded into the book Cave Mountain because he had far more material than the 15,000‑word limit allowed. He outlines his nine‑box grid method, a nine‑square outline that builds...
8 Badass Librarians We Need to Celebrate This International Women’s Day
The article spotlights eight remarkable librarians—historical and contemporary—celebrated on International Women’s Day. It highlights pioneers like Sor Juana, Dorothy Porter, and modern influencers such as Mychal Threets, Jean Darnell, and Ricci Yuhico who reshape library services, champion diversity, and harness...
Kirsten Kaschock Imagines a New Landscape for the Gothic
Author Kirsten Kaschock proposes a South‑Central Pennsylvania Gothic sub‑genre, arguing that the region’s scar‑filled landscape and turbulent history provide a fertile setting for contemporary horror. She outlines how themes of radical skepticism, lingering decay, and monstrous ecology—exemplified by her novel...
Kate White on Grief, Style in Suspense, and Writing as a Former Editor
Kate White, former Cosmopolitan editor‑in‑chief, has launched her latest thriller, *I Came Back for You*, on March 1, 2026. The novel follows Bree Winter, a grieving mother who returns to her daughter’s college town after a dying serial killer claims...
London Book Fair 2026: Program Highlights
The London Book Fair 2026 will host a three‑day seminar program from March 10‑12, featuring hundreds of publishers, authors, technologists and industry leaders. Highlights include keynotes from Tom Weldon of Penguin Random House UK and Joanna Prior of Pan Macmillan, alongside sessions...
The Infamous Gilberts by Angela Tomaski Review – a Delicious Comfort Read
Angela Tomaski’s debut, *The Infamous Gilberts*, is a meticulously crafted comfort read set in the crumbling Thornwalk estate, echoing the real‑life National Trust purchase of Tyntesfield. The story is narrated by Maximus, the loyal valet, who guides readers through 70...
Eulogy for a Yenta
Jordy Rosenberg’s latest novel, *Night Night Fawn*, follows Barbara Rosenberg, a dying, OxyContin‑addicted woman, as she records a raw monologue to her estranged trans son and former friend. The narrative weaves satire, cultural references—from 1960s Flatbush to Marx—to expose family...
Psycho Masculinity
Bret Easton Ellis’s 1991 novel *American Psycho* has re‑emerged as a cultural touchstone, with its protagonist Patrick Bateman becoming a meme for extreme self‑optimization among young men. A new wave of “looksmaxxing” influencers, exemplified by 20‑year‑old streamer Clavicular, adopt Bateman’s...
Review of Ana Paula Maia’s On Earth As It Is Beneath, Longlisted for the International Booker Prize
Brazilian author Ana Paula Maia’s novella *On Earth As It Is Beneath*, translated by Padma Viswanathan, has been longlisted for the 2026 International Booker Prize. The story follows a deranged prison warden who turns his colony into a hunting ground, forcing inmates into...
Arithmetic of Loss | Review of Mirza Waheed’s Maryam & Son
Mirza Waheed’s novel *Maryam & Son* follows Maryam, a widowed Muslim‑British mother in suburban London, whose son Dilawar vanishes and is suspected—via a 72% algorithmic match—to be an ISIS recruit. The narrative intertwines personal grief with the intrusive scrutiny of...
The Ballad of Ollie Jackson
Eric McHenry’s investigation revisits St. Louis’s 1890s murder‑ballad tradition, focusing on “Ollie Jackson.” The song, captured by Alan Lomax in the 1940s, is the sole surviving recorded Black folk ballad that recounts a real event with precise, reportorial detail. McHenry...
The Wild Robot Sequel Moving Ahead With Nimona‘s Troy Quane Set to Co-Direct
DreamWorks Animation has officially greenlit a sequel to its 2024 hit The Wild Robot, adapting Peter Brown’s second novel, The Wild Robot Escapes. Veteran animator Troy Quane, known for his work on Nimona, will co‑direct the film alongside story head...
2025 BSFA Awards Shortlist
The British Science Fiction Association (BSFA) has released the 2025 Awards shortlist, covering categories from Best Novel to Best Audio Fiction. Highlights include Nina Allan’s *A Granite Silence*, Stewart Hotston’s *Project Hanuman*, and Suzanne Collins’ *Sunrise on the Reaping* among...