Writers tend know a thing or two about bookstores. Not only do they spend time in them touring, reading and signing, but writers tend to be voracious readers, and every voracious reader has a favorite brick and mortar bookstore. Enter My Bookstore: Writers Celebrate Their Favorite Places to Browse, Read, and Shop, which hits shelves today, a fantastic book that collects 82 short essays from noted authors on their best loved bookshops, whether obvious or out of the way, accompanied by great illustrations by Leif Parsons. After the jump, we’ve excerpted just a few of some of our favorite authors’ picks — check them out, and if you feel so inclined, tell us about your own favorite bookstores in the comments! … Read More
Ann Patchett
Madeline Miller Wins the Orange Prize for Fiction
Madeline Miller should be feeling pretty good right about now. Not only does she have the distinction of beating out serious competition from more established writers like Ann Patchett and Cynthia Ozick to win this year’s Orange Prize for Fiction with her literary debut The Song of Achilles, she’s also the final author… Read More
Books to Give Every Kind of Mom on Mother’s Day
Mother’s Day is this Sunday, and everyone should be thinking of ways to make the lady that gave birth to them smile. We’ve already given you a heads up on some last-minute Mother’s Day gifts that don’t suck, but if what your Mommy dearest really craves is a good book, well, we’ve got you covered there as well. We’ve limited ourselves to recommending books that have come out since last Mother’s Day (since we’re sure last year you picked the perfect book), so click through to see our picks of what books to give every kind of mom this weekend. And we know, we know — your mom probably fits into a number of these categories. Looks like you’ll just have to pick her up a whole pile of books, then. She’s worth it. … Read More
American Ladies Dominate This Year’s Orange Prize Shortlist
After yesterday’s strange book prize news — ie, the fact that the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction was awarded to absolutely no one — we’re happy to have much nicer things to report today, namely the fact that three American writers have been named to the shortlist for the Orange Prize for Fiction, Britain’s annual prize… Read More
The Orange Prize for Fiction Announces 2012 Longlist
The Orange Prize for Fiction, the UK’s prestigious annual award celebrating “excellence, originality and accessibility in women’s writing throughout the world,” announced their 2012 longlist today, coinciding with International Women’s Day, and the group of books is a formidable one — we just added a huge stack of books to our to-read list. The prize has a knack for picking out some of the best work by women around: previous winners have included Zadie Smith for On Beauty (2006), Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie for Half of a Yellow Sun (2007), Marilyn Robinson for Home (2009), and Téa Obreht for The Tiger’s Wife (2011), among many other greats. Head over to the Orange Prize website for author biographies and synopses of the nominated books, and let us know which you think should win in the comments. … Read More
The Morning News 2012 Tournament of Books Is Live!
It’s a really exciting day for book worms: The eight annual TMN 2012 Tournament of Books has officially gone live! Click through to see which 16 “of the most cherished, hyped, ignored, and/or enthusiastically praised books of the year” will be battling it out in a NCAA-style bracket beginning March 7th, and let us know in the comments if you agree with the their picks. But be kind. TMN realizes that not everyone will be happy with their list. “Some books were dismissed for petty reasons,” they explain. “Some books were no doubt included for arbitrarily aesthetic ones. And there’s no getting around any of that, as far as we can tell.” Amen. We’re also curious: Are there any voracious Flavorwire readers out there who have already tackled all 16 books? … Read More
Our Favorite Authors’ Favorite Books of 2011: A Compendium
There are so many books out there these days that sometimes — even with every media outlet doing their own Best-Of list this month — it’s hard to decide what to read. To combat the deluge of recommendations, we generally lean towards taking advice from those we consider to be most in the know: our favorite authors themselves. After all, if they can write prose that delights us so much, they must surely be able to recognize it in the work of others, right? Right. And as Henry David Thoreau said, “read the best books first, or you may not have a chance to read them at all.” With that in mind, we’ve collected a few of our favorite authors’ year-end recommendations from around the web. Now, authors are flighty creatures, and many of their 2011 book lists include books published in other years. But we’re confident that you’ll still manage to glean some holiday vacation reading suggestions or last-minute gifts from their choices. Click through to check out our favorite authors’ favorite books from the past year, and if your to-read stack isn’t monumental enough by the end of this list (or even if it is), we highly recommend that you check out the sources for each list for many more recommendations from many more great writers. … Read More
Gift Guide: New Books for Every Member of the Family
Picking out gifts for your loved ones can be one of the most difficult parts of the holiday season. Not only that, but for some reason, picking out books for other people is a lot harder than just picking out a sweater in red or blue. After all, you’re hoping that the recipient will spend hours in rapt attention with your gift, so you have to choose wisely, and you can’t just give the same book to your whole list the way some people give out gift baskets to everyone they know. To help you out while you’re making these monumental decisions, we’ve collected some suggestions of new books for every member of the family — from your nosy aunt to that post-pimply cousin who just made it through puberty. Click through to check out our list, and let us know which books you’re giving to your loved ones this holiday season in the comments. … Read More
What’s On at Flavorpill: The Links That Made the Rounds In Our Office
Today at Flavorpill, we watched a hilarious clip of Miss Piggy, Kermit the Frog, Michael Stipe, and Martin Short playing “Password” on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. We were shocked to learn that Marc Jacobs’ entire spring 2012 collection was stolen from a train leaving Paris for London. We were not-so-subtly… Read More
Great Parties in Literature We Wish We Could Have Attended
After our recent roundup of 25 great parties on film, it occurred to us that movies aren’t the only medium to have depicted fantastic fêtes. So, to help you gear up for a celebratory July 4th weekend, we reached out to Flavorpill staff and readers alike to get their nominations for liteature’s best bash. With their help, we’ve come up with a list of ten great gatherings we would love to have attended. Keep the party going by adding your favorites in the comments. … Read More
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