Gisèle Pelicot Among Headliners at This Year's Hay Festival
Gisèle Pelicot, a global feminist figure, will headline Wales' Hay Festival for the first time, discussing her memoir about a harrowing rape trial that convicted 46 men. The festival, now in its 39th spring edition, features over 500 events and draws about 150,000 visitors. Other notable speakers include Malala Yousafzai, Nazanin Zaghari‑Ratliff, and Emma Thompson. Organiser Stephen Fry describes the gathering as a "carnival of ideas," underscoring its cultural significance.
‘We All Want to Know What He Was Doing in the Bedroom’: Kerouac’s Unseen Archive Goes on Show in New...
"Running Through Heaven: Visions of Jack Kerouac" at New York’s Grolier Club showcases never‑before‑seen letters, personal objects, and a copy of Dostoevsky that inspired the show’s title. Curated by collector Jacob Loewentheil, the exhibition highlights early drafts of Kerouac’s spontaneous prose, his...
Podcast: I Wish You Died Laughing
Strange Horizons released a new fiction podcast episode titled “I Wish You Died Laughing” on March 9, 2026. The story, written by speculative‑fiction author Lio Abendan, is narrated by Jenna Hanchey and presented by Michael Ireland. It appears in the magazine’s Fiction...
ECO24: The Year’s Best Speculative Ecofiction Edited by Marissa Van Uden
ECO24, edited by Marissa van Uden, is the first annual collection of the year’s best speculative ecofiction. The anthology leans heavily toward grim, dystopian visions that expose environmental collapse, unequal responsibility, and the erosion of empathy. Through stories ranging from...
Omar Musa on His Novel Fierceland, a “Deliberate Critique” Of Conrad’s Heart of Darkness
Omar Musa’s second novel, *Fierceland*, has captured the Victorian Premier’s Prize for Fiction while positioning itself as a deliberate critique of Joseph Conrad’s *Heart of Darkness*. The book intertwines the personal histories of Borneo’s palm‑oil heirs with a broader indictment...
IndyBest’s March Book Club Read Is the Buzzy New Novel From Butter Author Asako Yuzuki
Japanese author Asako Yuzuki releases a new novel, the follow‑up to global bestseller Butter, Hooked, blending psychological thriller with social commentary on women’s lives in Japan. The plot follows Eriko, a solitary trading‑company employee, whose obsession with anti‑trad wife blogger...
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IndyBest Book Club Pick The Wedding People Is Different to Any Romcom We’ve Read
Alison Espach’s novel "The Wedding People" unfolds over a six‑day wedding week at a Rhode Island hotel, using flashbacks to reveal decades of the protagonist Phoebe’s emotional history. The story follows Phoebe’s shift from a devastated divorcee to a self‑reinvented...
Read Harder This Women’s History Month
To mark Women’s History Month, Book Riot curates two titles that also satisfy the 2026 Read Harder Challenge. Wendy L. Rouse’s *Her Own Hero* offers a micro‑history of the early 20th‑century women’s self‑defense movement and its racial contradictions. Edited by...
Book Review: ‘Gunk,’ by Saba Sams
Saba Sams’ debut novel “Gunk” portrays a disaffected young woman navigating precarious work and relationships in Brighton’s working‑class neighborhoods. The narrative follows Jules, a bar employee who marries the bar owner Leon, confronts illness, and forms a fraught friendship with...
Love Magic Power Danger Bliss by Paul Morley Review – Yoko Ono Before the Beatles
Paul Morley’s new biography, *Love Magic Power Danger Bliss*, re‑examines Yoko Ono’s artistic development before meeting John Lennon, charting her wartime childhood, elite education, and immersion in New York’s 1960s Fluxus scene. The book highlights Ono’s radical performance pieces such...
Book Review: ‘Whidbey,’ by T Kira Madden
T Kira Madden’s novel *Whidbey* follows three women whose lives intersect around a convicted pedophile, Calvin, whose release and subsequent murder spark a deep examination of trauma. Birdie Chang flees to an isolated island, confronting her abuser’s apology, while reality‑TV star Linzie...
Why Jane Austen Adaptations Just Keep Coming—And We Keep Watching
Jane Austen’s novels, especially Pride and Prejudice, continue to inspire a steady stream of film, TV and streaming adaptations, with Netflix announcing a six‑part miniseries for 2026. Scholars argue the enduring appeal lies in Austen’s focus on the financial and...
A Gentle Love Story | Review of Once Upon a Summer by Manjul Bajaj
Manjul Bajaj’s *Once Upon a Summer* is a lyrical, cross‑continental romance that follows an Indian stablehand and the daughter of a senior British official as they defy class and racial boundaries from 1950s New York to colonial hill stations. The narrative...
Not the London Book Fair: Richard Charkin’s Utterly Personal Publishing Visitor’s Guide to London
Veteran publisher Richard Charkin offers a personal walking tour of London’s publishing landmarks, linking historic sites such as Brompton Cemetery, Michelin House and John Sandoe Books to modern hubs like King’s Cross and the upcoming Excel Centre. He highlights the...
12 of the Best Leadership Books for People Leaders
The article presents a curated list of 12 leadership books tailored for HR professionals, organized around psychological safety, communication, authentic inclusion, and Stoicism. It cites a 2025 McKinsey study showing CEOs who read regularly outperform peers, underscoring reading as a...
The World’s Salt Lakes Are Drying up, but Solutions Are Hard to Come By
Caroline Tracey’s new book *Salt Lakes* chronicles the rapid desiccation of western United States salt basins, from the historic draining of Owens Lake for Los Angeles water to the ongoing shrinkage of the Great Salt Lake. The work blends scientific survey,...
In the Artillery Trenches of the First World War, a German Jew Named Franz Rosenzweig Began to Create an Audacious...
Franz Rosenzweig, a German‑Jewish artilleryman, composed the core of *The Star of Redemption* from Macedonian front trenches in 1918, later publishing the seminal 1921 work that re‑examines love and divinity after war. He founded the Freies Jüdisches Lehrhaus in Frankfurt,...
Shulamith Firestone’s Fundamental Battle Is with the Grip Which Normalcy and Conformity Have on Every Human Life
Maya Krishnan revisits Shulamith Firestone’s 1998 short‑story collection *Airless Spaces*, positioning it as a radical critique of modern institutions rather than a pure feminist text. The essay links Firestone’s anti‑institutionalism to the legacy of Foucault, Goffman and Rawls’s notion of...
The Best New Novels to Read This Spring
The Economist highlights a curated list of the most compelling new novels debuting this spring, emphasizing titles that blend genre conventions and resonate with contemporary readers. The selection reflects a broader industry push toward diverse storytelling and heightened marketing for...
He Wrote Judy Blume’s Life Story. She Won’t Talk About It.
Long‑time admirer Mark Oppenheimer finally received a green light from Judy Blume in July 2022 to write her authorized biography, after years of correspondence and a tribute he penned in 1997. Blume’s initial enthusiasm included an invitation to her Martha’s Vineyard summer...
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...
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...