Books

This month marked the 125th anniversary of the birth of essayist, novelist, and all-around with James Thurber. To celebrate the occasion, HarperCollins has published Thurber's Collected Fables (edited by Michael J. Rosen), which combines an…

This time last year, we were telling you all about the exploits of former social media manager Jason Ginsburg, who turned his successful @FakeThemePark Twitter account into a book. Well, now there's a sequel, and we're here to share a bit of that…

Everybody loves a good foreword - you know, those bite-sized introductory essays, in which an expert or admirer or maybe even just some random celebrity tells you all about their very personal connection with the book you're about to read.…

It's easy to feel hopeless. We're knee-deep in a backslide into fascism and lawlessness, and structural change seems all but impossible. But in historical moments like this, as they say, you can't know your future if you don't know your past - and a…

Few movie buffs would argue that Sidney Lumet – whose output included such classics as 12 Angry Men, Serpico, Dog Day Afternoon, Network, and The Verdict – was one of the finest filmmakers of the 1970s (one of the most important eras in the medium’s…

The Brady Bunch is one of the strangest success stories in the history of television, running five modestly-rated and poorly-reviewed seasons from 1969 to 1974, then becoming a (sometimes ironic) hit via its seemingly endless reruns - resulting in…

Thanksgiving week is upon us again, and you know what that means: it’s time to start thinking about some gift-giving. (Or maybe not! Things are tight all over, that’s undeniable, and if the holidays have always been overtly commercialized, they seem…

When novelist Elena Ferrante embarked on a year of writing weekly columns for The Guardian, she saw it as a writing challenge - to work as, in her words, "an author of novels, taking on matters that are important to me and that—if I have the will…

In the new novel Big Bang (out this week in paperback from Little, Brown), author David Bowman peeks into the real-life history of America in the 1950s, cheerfully intermingling real events and figures with imaginary intersections, crafting an…

Few names in modern publishing are as widely recognized as Dean Koontz, whose novels have sold over 500 million copies to date in 38 languages. Fourteen of his novels have topped the New York Times best-seller list. And now, at 74, he's embarking on…

In retrospect, my first mistake was probably re-watching Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining the night before my press screening of Doctor Sleep, Mike Flanagan’s new film adaptation of Stephen King’s follow-up novel. I was explicitly encouraged to by the…

Practically since its advent, fashion and art photography has been dominated by the male gaze - with women presented, and often objectified, by male photographers, and seen only as vessels for their pleasure and desire. But in recent years, a new…

“In New York, you are constantly faced with this very urgent, quick decision that you have to make about every 20 minutes," David Cross once explained. "About every 20 minutes, immediately, you have to go, [gasp] 'Oh my God. Do I look at the most…

In her scorching new memoir Ordinary Girls (out now from Algonquin Books), author Jaquira Diaz takes on the coming-of-age story from her unique, queer Puerto Rican perspective - tackling racial and sexual identity, domestic abuse, poverty, mental…

Few figures have been as lionized by popular culture as Joan of Arc - so much so that it's become difficult to separate fact from mythology. This is one of the many achievements of Joan of Arc, Helen Castor's best-selling, meticulously researched…

In the new novel How Beautiful They Were, author Boston Teran - the anonymous writer behind twelve acclaimed books - continues a tradition of looking at contemporary themes through the lens of historical fiction with this story, set in the bustling…

In their new book The Style of Movement: Fashion and Dance, photographers Ken Browar and Deborah Ory - the husband-and-wife team behind NYC Dance Project - follow up their collection The Art of Movement with a collection of stirring images that…

The witching season is upon us, and Laird Hunt’s In the House in the Dark of the Woods (out this week in paperback from Little, Brown and Company) is the perfect October read: a story of witchcraft in colonial America, in which a law-abiding Puritan…

What if you could go to Cleopatra for dating advice? Ask Frida Kahlo about maintaining your independence in a relationship? Get Marilyn Monroe's thoughts on female pleasure? We Came First (out now from Laurence King Publishing), the insightful,…

Few authors get our pulses racing like Margaret Atwood and Octavia E. Butler, and luckily enough, our friends at The Folio Society have just released gorgeous new editions of important works by both. Their release of Atwood's 2003 speculative…

Former Washington Capital Stephen Peat and former New York Ranger Dale Purinton decided at an early age that they would do anything to play hockey at the highest level - to prove that they were worth it, not only as hockey players, but as people.…

One of the most disturbing moments of adulthood - and most, if not all, of us have it - is that terrible flash when we react to something without thinking, and realize we've done so exactly as our parents would. In the new anthology Apple, Tree:…

In some ways, pining for unmade movies is the purest form of movie love - because we can never be disappointed by the outcome of a promising-sounding project. We've looked back longingly at several such almost-movies, so we're kind of the target…

Most photographers count themselves lucky to land a book, a film, or a major show; Stephen Wilkes is so talented, he’s landed all three at once. He directed the independent documentary Jay Myself, which is currently in theaters and garnering…

In the informative and fascinating The Art of Invisibility, the world’s most famous hacker, Kevin Mitnick, looks at our Extremely Online world, analyzes how we got here, and approaches our current state from a standpoint of practicality – i.e.,…

When the late photographer and photo essayist Dennis Stock headed out on the California highway in 1968, his black and white images captured the counterculture scene at its absolute zenith, between the Summer of Love and the summer of Woodstock (and…

In the new novel Dear Haiti, Love Alaine (out now from HarperCollins/Inkyard Press), debuting authors (and sisters) Maika Moulite and Maritza Moulite tell the story of a seventeen-year-old Haitian American from Miami who finds herself shipped off to…

In his new novel Who Are You, Calvin Bledsoe? (out now from Algonquin Books), author Brock Clarke tells the story of Calvin Bledsoe, a recently divorced blogger for the pellet stove industry who finds himself untethered, for the first time in his…

When we think of underwater photography, those thoughts are usually in vivid color, capturing the deep blues of the waters and the bright saturation of aquatic creatures. That's part of why Christian Vizl's photography, captured in the new book…

In her new novel The Nine (out this week from She Writes Press), author Jeanne McWilliams Blasberg peeks behind the curtains of a prestigious east coast boarding school, where secrecy and scandal may as well be on the syllabus. This back-to-school…

Richard Linklater is a filmmaker who wears his heart on his sleeve, and that might be the key to understanding his filmography, which is about as erratic as one can imagine for a genuinely gifted director – when he’s on he’s untouchable, but when…

In "DOPESICK: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company that Addicted America" (out now from Little, Brown), author Beth Macy painstakingly charts the twenty-plus year history of opioid addiction in America, from the tiny towns of Central Appalachia to…

When four Wall Street big shots on a losing streak are thrown together to prove their dedication to their firm, they assume they’re in for an escape room challenge or similar “team-building” exercise. Instead, the four Stanhope & Sons associates…

Confession: We’ve been watching In Search Of… lately. If you’re not familiar with it, this was a syndicated series, hosted by Leonard Nimoy, that ran six seasons in the late 1970s and early 1980s, in which Mr. Nimoy and his producers investigated…

August 15 marks the 50th anniversary of the first day of the Woodstock Music & Art Fair, an “Aquarian Exposition” promising “3 Days of Peace & Music,” and delivering not only that, but the definitive gathering of the hippie generation – 32 acts…

You can barely turn on a television or click a link these days without hearing about how revolutionary 1969 was during this 50th anniversary year. But what exactly made that particularly year so vital, important, and influential? Historian Harlan…

Game of Thrones might have gone out with more of a whimper than a bang (at least if all of your tweets are to be believed) but hey, we’ll always have those early seasons – and, most of all, George R.R. Martin’s book’s. And that’s where our friends…

Hollywood satire meets crime fiction – an extremely Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup-style combination of two of our favorite flavors – in Plastic (out now from Rare Bird Books), the new novel by Frank Strausser. It tells the story of Previn, a fabulously…

Thanks to The Player, it’s easy to be skeptical of the ol’ “It’s [great thing] meets [great thing]” construction, but when Felicity McLean’s debut novel The Van Apfel Girls Are Gone was described to us as “The Virgin Suicides meets Picnic at Hanging…

Much has been written about how we see New York City on the big screen (here’s a recent example), and for good reason – the city has, for decades, been defined in the public consciousness by the gritty crime dramas and sunny rom-coms that used…

If we learned one thing from this year’s Netflix hit Velvet Buzzsaw, it’s that getting ahead in the contemporary art world can be murder. That idea – and many more besides – is explored in greater depth in Barbara Bourland’s new novel, Fake Like Me…

We’ve made mention (more than once, in fact) of the pleasures of the original illustrations created for The Folio Society’s handsome reissues of literary classics and modern favorites. But we also love their emphasis on new text, seeking out…

It was early in the day on September 23, 2009 when the helicopter lowered onto the roof of the G4S cash depot in the Swedish capital city of Stockholm. The workers there weren’t expecting the chopper, nor were they expecting what followed: its…

The Stewart sisters, Lorena and Elise, make their home in Lone Wolf, Oklahoma in the early 20th century, finding that in a rugged landscape and a tough world, the one thing they can count on is each other. Michael Parker tells their story in his new…

“The 1970s were a pivotal time in my life,” Ira Resnick explains. “I was growing into adulthood during an era of constant flux. I had felt motivated personally, and somewhat politically, to seek clarity. Photography was how I could explore America…

The great New York City movies, as we’ve discussed previously, are great not just because they tell compelling urban stories, or set those stories in recognizable landmarks. They work because they function, in some ways, as documentaries – of what…

The timing of Folio Society’s edition of Joseph Heller’s classic 1961 war satire Catch-22 couldn’t be better – landing, as it does, on the eve of the new George Clooney-produced miniseries adaptation’s debut on Hulu. As per usual, the new printing…

If you set Wuthering Heights in the present day, how would it go? What if Catherine had lived? Whom would she have chosen? Author Meg Donohue answers those question – and more – in her latest novel You, Me, and the Sea (out this week from William…

Every photographer strives to get their image absolutely perfect: the subject carefully posed, the framing carefully composed, everything just so. But in his fascinating new book Extempore, photographer Steve Diet Goedde collects a series of images…

Decades of goofy movies, soft-focus television, and throwaway books have set certain, frankly simplistic notions of motherhood into stone – a specific, and not altogether realistic, version of the journey from “couple” to “family.” But that journey…

They say opposites attract, and it’s hard to image two people further apart than Chris Hawkins, a black sound engineer from Chicago’s south side, and Sidonie Frame is a white, suburban venue manager. They fall in love, and decide that if they can…

Throughout our lives, we’ll encounter colleagues, significant others, and friends who seem impossible to know – but often, the people we understand least are the ones we knew first. Such is the case of Deborah Burns, who grew up in privilege in the…

The seemingly uncomplicated good vs. evil narrative and the complexity of subsequent conflicts, coupled with boomer nostalgia, has allowed modern viewers and readers to view WWII through rather rose-colored glasses; it was “the last good war” we’re…

You’re not supposed to judge a book by its cover, but sometimes the book (or exploitation movie trailer, or hair metal album cover) comes out the winner – a good, lurid book cover sometimes makes promises the prose itself can’t keep. That’s why pulp…

Winter is finally (FINALLY) beginning to morph into spring, and it’s never too early to start piling up your beach reads. And we’ve got a recommendation: Karen Hamilton’s The Perfect Girlfriend (out this week from Graydon House), the story of a…

In his latest novel Lawn Boy (out this week in paperback from Algonquin), author Jonathan Evison (The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving) tells the story of Mike Muñoz, a 22-year-old Chicano who is dead-set on making the world at large aware that he…

The intersection of feminism and cooking is a mighty tricky one to navigate, since the connotations of working in the kitchen have become so linked to dismissals of movement. But Deepi Ahluwalia and Stef Ferrari’s marvelous new book A Woman’s Place:…

The firm grasp of poverty and the ongoing cycle of violence provide the backdrop for Barbed Wire Heart, Tess Sharpe’s harrowing story of the love-hate relationship between a young woman and her widower father in a rural, meth-fueled community. A…

There’s just something about the work of Ray Bradbury that makes for a good match with our friends over at Folio Society — the richness of his worlds, the intensity of his descriptions, and the vividness of his scenes lend themselves to the…

His name was Richard Reinhardt when the Ramones — coming off a streak of indifferently received and poorly selling albums — recruited the unknown 26-year-old club drummer, rechristening him Richie Ramone. “I think he saved the band, as far as I’m…

Is doing good even possible? That’s the provocative question posed by Such Good Work, Johannes Lichtman’s debut novel (out February 5 from Simon & Schuster). It tells the darkly comic story of Jonas, a newly sober teacher who decides to fully wipe…

Tim Johnston’s debut novel, 2015’s Descent, was both a critical success and a New York Times bestseller — so anticipation is obviously high for his newest book, The Current (out this week from Algonquin Books), a story of loss, survival, and buried…

One of the most distinctive and recognizable studios in the world is Aardman Animations, whose charming and uproariously funny (mostly stop-animation) films, including Chicken Run, The Pirates! Band of Misfits, and the Wallace and Gromit movies have…

On January 10, 1999, HBO debuted The Sopranos — and kicked off a cultural revolution. The series, created by David Chase, sprung from the one-joke concept of “gangster goes to therapy” (there was apparently something in the air; two months later,…

Buffy the Vampire Slayer remains one of our forever faves, a whip-smart, wickedly funny, and proudly empowering series that, unlike a lot of your favorite ‘90s pop culture, still holds up. So we’re just fine with the expansion of the “Buffy…

We love when a Flavorwire alum makes good — Michelle Dean’s book Sharp is popping up on year-end best-of lists and the first look is up for her Hulu true crime anthology series, Judy Berman is killing it as TIME’s new TV critic, Alison Herman has…

When Karina Longworth stumbled upon an Internet forum with a list of the women millionaire mogul Howard Hughes was alleged to have slept with — just names, nothing else — she knew she had a topic for her deservedly beloved Hollywood history podcast,…

This was a splendid year for books that took the political into the personal realm and vice-versa — and that makes sense, because in 2018 America, as in previous years, there was no escaping politics. My own reading was somewhat less wide-ranging…

If you’re a design-savvy bookworm, you love a cool bookend — after all, if you’ve got a lot of books, you’ve got to keep them tightly organized. We’ve seen some pretty good ones, but we’d never seen anything quite like these jaw-droppers from Toyko…

We’ve brought you a fair amount of proof that Folio Society is one of the best gift book publishers in the business, thanks to their handsome new editions of literary classics, beautifully bound and illustrated with new art. But their presentation…

The greatness of Little Women is one of those things that’s become such conventional wisdom, it’s almost taken for granted — as though everyone so accepts the book’s brilliance, it’s become strangely underrated. That’s part of why Little, Brown’s…

When you make your living listening to and writing about music, hearing loss would presumably be a game-ender. That was the dilemma facing British music journalist Nick Coleman, once the music editor of Time Out and music writer for The Independent,…

Edward Gorey was one of the most influential artists of a very specific contemporary pop culture aesthetic; he’s sometimes called the Godfather of Goth. But who was this eccentric illustrator and author, beyond the tall tales of his peculiar dress…

It’s not a surprise that Matt Zoller Seitz’s The Wes Anderson Collection was among the most successful of the recent burst of film-related, design-heavy coffee-table books, because it’s such an ideal merging of subject and format — Anderson’s work…