Restyling the Classics: Don't Judge a New Cover by the Old Book
There's a whole world of re-imagined book covers for classic novels, and it goes well beyond those new Leonardo Di Caprio editions of The Great Gatsby.
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Allow me to present a hypothesis: Dan Brown is the Anne Hathaway of authors. Hard-working, serious about his craft (even if others aren't), with lots and lots of money to show for his work. And people love to hate him as much, and sometimes even more, than they love to love him.
There's a whole world of re-imagined book covers for classic novels, and it goes well beyond those new Leonardo Di Caprio editions of The Great Gatsby.
Let's just go ahead and call Meg Wolitzer's fantastic The Interestings the book of the moment, the novel you should really read, if you haven't already. At a cafe in Manhattan recently, I spoke to the author about the need to "radicalize your work," why a novel is like an accordion, and how getting a bad review is like having your head shaved in public, to name just a few things.
You've heard of the book. You've heard of the major motion picture. But what's in a name, when the name is Gatsby? An investigation into the popularization of a word that is only sort of a word.
Nobody told Kurtz, but four years before Collins came out of the closet, he was engaged to Carolyn Moos. And nobody told Moos that Collins was gay until a few days ago, but now she wants to tell — or at least sell — her story to the world.
Putin biographer Masha Gessen will apply her long history reporting on Russia and its surroundings and her own experiences emigrating to America in a book on the Tsarnaev brothers, which Riverhead Books announced today.
The merger between the two huge publishers is on schedule, and may even happen more quickly than anticipated, according to an internal memo that went out Friday morning.
It is a fact, whether sad or happy, that when a book becomes a movie with a big star or two and a lot of press, that book generally gets a new cover. Such is the case for The Great Gatsby, and some people are sad about that.
In the upcoming New York Times Sunday Review, American novelist Amanda Filipacchi writes of a recent discovery that further evinces the issue of sexism as it persists in the literary world. This time, it's happening on Wikipedia.
For the last two years, 20-year-old Shane Burcaw has shared his tales of life with spinal muscular atrophy on the wildly popular Tumblr called Laughing at My Nightmare. Now he's writing a memoir, which he just sold to Macmillan.
David Itzkoff's piece in The New York Times about nine letters sent from a 22-year-old (pre-Catcher in the Rye) J.D. Salinger to a young Toronto woman reveals that the author was flirty, a bit of a fibber, and maybe a little bit heartbroken.
The photographs in Alex Vadukul's New York Times story about Neale Albert, a 75-year-old collector of miniature books, are as squee-inducing as anything you might see on Cute Overload—except, of course, the subjects pictured are not piglets or puppies but books.
This weekend brought the news that beloved children's author E.L. Konigsburg had died at the age of 83. But in our minds, the authors of our childhood favorites never grow old, nor does their writing.
Author and New Yorker editor Ben Greenman recently faced a slight Twitter addiction problem, has "dozens of secret sources," and tries "like hell to read normal books."
Thursday, April 18, is Support Teen Lit Day, a YALSA-declared holiday meant to raise awareness among the public that Y.A. is great. One way to participate is with Rock the Drop, a teen book drop initiative begun by literacy and social media project Readergirlz.
High school teacher Matthew Thomas, 38, has sold his debut novel for an impressive sum. And he seems like a really nice guy, too.
Last year, the biggest honor in all of American letters went without an honor. Now, as the publishing world awaits the big announcement from the Pulitzer board, one juror looks back — and we look at the contenders.
Following up on last week's adult spring book preview, here's the list of Y.A. novels I can't wait to read (or have already devoured) this spring.
Beth Reekles has a three-book deal with Random House, is working toward her physics degree, and is 17 years old. What have you done lately?
It looks like 2014 will be a busy year for book readers hoping to learn more about the inner workings of the Obama administration. Financial crisis + foreign adventures + re-election = The Lord of Rings, White House Edition.
Blair Koenig is the 30-year-old Brooklynite behind the four-year-old blog STFU Parents, which is now also a book. I talked to Koenig about what it's like to see her Internet baby grow up into print.
There's some very exciting news for Y.A. readers and nostalgists today. Via a new imprint, Lizzie Skurnick Books, an array of long-forgotten reads from the '30s to the '80s will be back.
As we ping-pong temperature-wise on the East Coast between winter and spring, spring books are arriving, regardless of the weather. Here are a few we can't wait to dive into.
Amazon announced Thursday that it is acquiring Goodreads, the book-based social network founded by Otis Chandler in 2006. The purchase price was undisclosed, and the deal is expected to close in the second quarter of 2013.
Suddenly, it seems like gay characters are everywhere in young-adult literature. How well is Y.A. doing at reflecting the current state of teen culture with regard to LGBT issues, and how far need we still go?
In the New York Times today, Leslie Kaufman takes on the new proliferation of books about bullying in the Y.A. and children's markets. There are more, yes, but they are also different.
Whether you have a story to tell or not, one of the many versions of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's classic now available in many forms is probably worth putting on your re-read list in honor of its 70 years on this planet.
If the stories we share with friends are some of the most insightful glimpses into our lives, the publication of her correspondence, so long protected by the author's will, should do wonders to present a fuller picture of a woman who later in life became increasingly focused on her privacy.
The author of Things Fall Apart had an influence on African writing that is "impossible" to determine, but he shaped the way the world thinks about the continent.
A summary of the best reads found behind the paywall of The New York Times.
Slaughterhouse 90210 is that Tumblr you may have heard of, created and run by Maris Kreizman, who, four years ago, came up with the high-low brilliance of offering daily screengrabs from popular TV shows paired with literary quotes.
Elizabeth Gilbert, best-selling author of Eat Pray Love, is taking to Facebook to let readers choose the cover of her upcoming novel. Oh, modern life! It is full of high-tech, new-fangled twists and turns, even in old-world paper-and-ink book publishing!
The 21-year-old star of The Descendants has been offered the lead in the film adaptation of the best-selling Y.A. novel by John Green — and he and his fans are pretty excited.
Roth turns 80 today, and we look back at his first book, which, in the words of Saul Bellow, is "not the work of a beginner."
Gayle Forman's Just One Day is a love story mixed with a coming-of-age tale featuring the character of Allyson Healey. Allyson can be a little bit frustrating. What's a Y.A. author to do about that? We asked Gayle Forman, who created her.
Today in entertainment news: The former VP candidate is writing a war-on-Christmas book, The Bible is still a big hit, and David O. Russell's mega-cast movie looks destined for Oscar season.
The first review of It's All Good has arrived, and it appears that Paltrow has settled in comfortably to her position as object of ridicule, forevermore. Indeed, Gwyneth may have finally out-Gwynethed herself.
Upon the announcement of the winners of Yale's new Windham Campell Prizes today, nine writers learned that they would be the recipients of big bucks.
If the act of rereading a book is partly about remembering the you who paged through it the first time, and comparing that version of yourself to the one who's reading the book again, the classics that we read in high school offer endless possibilities for rediscovery.
The notorious recluse, occasional Simpsons joke, and perhaps America's greatest living writer is releasing a novel in 2013, and the word leaked in pretty reclusive fashion.
A summary of the best reads found behind the paywall of The New York Times.
The cover of a self-published new anthology edition of Lucy Maud Montgomery's classic orphan tale has Amazon commenters reaching peak dye-job hysteria right now. Since when is Anne of Green Gables supposed to look like an Abercrombie & Fitch model?
Unemployed Treasury secretaries generally don't stay unemployed for long, but unlike some of his predecessors, newly private citizen Tim Geithner won't be going for the big bucks right away.
A summary of the best reads found behind the paywall of The New York Times.
Though she joins a growing line of female comedians who have ventured into the world of literature, Poehler's proposal sounds more like a hybrid picture book, joke collection, and diary. And it might have more of a cause than that.
On the occasion of the Jane Austen classic's anniversary, here's a selection of covers from years past up through the present — the good, the bad, the jaw-droppingly gorgeous, and a few that pale in comparison to the book's contents.
In 1990, The Face on the Milk Carton was published by Bantam Doubleday Dell Books for Young Readers, introducing 15-year-old Janie Johnson to the world. This month, the final installment in the five-book series, Janie Face to Face, was released.
Last night a sold-out show at Carnegie Hall proved what book publishing and his fans have long known about John Green: There's something deeply powerful about not only the popular Y.A. books he writes, but also about the man himself.
The author of The Da Vinci Code, The Lost Symbol, and Angels & Demons is at it again, filling the world with shadowy symbols and codes and not being very clear about anything. But if you don't figure it out in the end, don't worry: He'll tell you.
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