Ben Greenman is a writer who pokes, prods, and sets readers off balance in hopes of generating emotion and thought — and maybe, sometimes, simply because he feels like it. This is a man who has purposely inserted typos in his books.
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.
The Rules, a dating instruction manual of yore by two ladies named Ellen Fein and Sherrie Schneider should, by now, have gone the way of the cave drawing or the horse and buggy, as a relic of times past. Instead it's been updated.
This week in Y.A. for Grownups we chart a course through history by way of books new, old, and upcoming. For your reading convenience, we've categorized the books by historical period or event.
In the wake of the sad news of the death of incredibly talented author and journalist Richard Ben Cramer comes an update on a story about the publishing industry at large.
There's a piece in the Wall Street Journal today about the changing nature of libraries, as not just places where people find and check out books, but as community rec centers in themselves. But is this really new at all?
It's shaping up to be a pretty big year for short stories, and for books from some notable, big-name authors who are returning with new fiction. Herewith, the list of the books we can't wait for.
Author Gary Shteyngart is now almost as renowned in the literary world for his blurbing prowess as he is for his own books, and now there's a 15-minute video on YouTube dedicated to exploring the world of his blurbs.
2012 was an excellent year in Y.A. and middle grade across all boards — sales, growing acceptance for adults who love "cross-under" reads, and most importantly, content. 2013 is shaping up to be equally great. What can you expect, and what do you need to get your hands on now?
Books — staid and intellectual cultural artifacts that they so often are — were not all just staid or intellectual this year. Not nearly. There were, in fact, publishing scandals, dramas, and plot twists galore. Oh, and Philip Roth.
The author of Shutter Island, Mystic River, and Gone Baby Gone is also the owner of a rescue beagle named Tessa. Well, Tessa has gone missing, and Lehane has offered the sweetest sort of reward an author can give.
The Middlesteins novelist sleeps with her phone on the floor next to her bed, but leaves it at home each morning as she writes for an hour in a notebook without facing a screen.
We've compiled a (festive) diagnostic guide to various reading styles for your seasonal enjoyment, with book suggestions for each. Happy reading!
A summary of the best reads found behind the paywall of The New York Times.
A summary of the best reads found behind the paywall of The New York Times.
Adult fiction and nonfiction were pretty phenomenal this year. Here, we celebrate 34 of our favorite reads from the last 12 months — with superlatives!
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders has just undergone a five-year revision process, and it was not as dull as it sounds. Not nearly.
Prepare for over-analysis: Gawker has gotten a hold of a copy of Lena Dunham's $3 million-plus book proposal.
We honor the 33 books that mattered to us in this year's breakout literary genre, with a little help from some writerly and book-loving folks, including authors Eliot Schrefer, Ally Condie, Ruta Supetys, Andrea Cremer, R.L. Stine, and others.
In 2012, enough female writers are still changing their names to appear as men to merit a piece in The Wall Street Journal today. Which is to say, there is still a long way to go.
A summary of the best reads found behind the paywall of The New York Times.
In this week's Y.A. for Grownups column I'm paying special homage to the oft under-applauded but always important art of the books; specifically, the cover art that's appeared on books published for teens and middle-grade audiences this year.
Year of the Jungle will tackle a theme familiar to fans of her hugely popular trilogy: war. But this time the battle won't take place in a dystopian fantasy — the war will be real, and it will be told... in pictures.
Maps of America have recently looked red and blue, but this one is pure ink, with the names of famous authors and their geographic inspiration.
In 1953, Mad Libs was born when Leonard Stern was struggling to come up with the perfect adjective to describe Ralph Kramden's new boss's nose. Nearly 60 years later, Price Stern Sloan is a Penguin imprint, and Mad Libs are still being written and published on a regular basis—maybe more than ever.
Simon & Schuster is holding a jacket-design contest in honor of the Ray Bradbury novel. Here are a few of our favorites so far.
The final movie in the Twilight series is out this week, and the eldest of the four books is now going on 7 years old. My how they grow up fast! What has the equally maligned and adored—yet, either way, incredibly successful—series left us? And what might be next in hyper-popular Y.A.?
Along with Gary Larson's Far Side cartoons and Matt Groening's Life in Hell series, which of course pre-dates The Simpsons, there is a special place reserved in my heart for Bill Watterson's Calvin and Hobbes comic strips, syndicated from November 18, 1985, to December 31, 1995, and the books that compiled them.
There's a bookish love letter from writer Lois Leveen in The New York Times this week. It is an ode to her adored thesaurus, or, as she titles it, "the king of writerly tools."
"At the C.I.A., [adultery] can be a security issue, since it can make an intelligence officer vulnerable to blackmail, but it is not a crime," write Scott Shane and Charlie Savage in the New York Times. Adultery can also sell books, particularly when the book is a gushingly reverential ode to the subject with whom the writer is said to be having an affair.
As weather gets weirder (yes, Sandy. Yes, a nor'easter in November), here are a few of the Y.A. and middle-grade books we've relied on in the past for guidance and clarity when our environment appears to go off the rails.
Everybody knew that the British loved to conquer lots of countries for their precious empire. It's not until somebody sits down and actually counts all of them that we realize just how many.
In the book publishing industry, Sandy's impact has been felt, with downtown Manhattan and Brooklyn stores closed, tens of thousands of dollars in damages sustained, and struggles to regain basic functionality and get things moving again in the business of publishing in general. And then there are the writers.
There may be one small upside to the power going out. You can finally sit down and read the books you've been studiously ignoring.
A summary of the best reads found behind the paywall of The New York Times.
Pippa Middleton is kind of the best, right? But not everyone likes Pippa! Not everyone is approving of her new status as writer, a party-planning and advice writer, to be precise.
There's a new book out this week from bestselling memoirist Julie Klam, and this one diverges a bit from her two recent books, You Had Me at Bark and Love at First Woof. For one, it's about human friendships, not interspecies ones.
Fifty Shades of Grey, according to The Guardian's Paris correspondant Kim Willsher, is not enamoring the French un iota of its alleged sexiness.
Y.A. author Mary O'Connell plans to feature J.D. Salinger's most-famous character, Holden Caulfield, in her upcoming book for adults, In the Rye. How would Salinger have felt about this?
Today, Charlotte's Web, the most famous book by the masterful E.B. White, has turned 60. It is no worse for wear in terms of readability and resonance, even amid a world of dystopias, fantasies, and futuristic plots and themes.
Just a handful of the Y.A. and middle-grade books I read while growing up in the '80s featured overweight or obese characters. Usually they weren't the protagonists. Since then, things have changed a bit, but Skinny, by debut Y.A. novelist Donna Cooner, promises to bring some new conversations to the category.
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