Following some of the arguments in Ernest Becker's 1973 study The Denial of Death, he proposes that such crises are at least partly the result of the western reluctance to face mortality. In Britain, we eschew open coffins, for instance. When our relatives die, as my mother did two years ago, they die in a hospital rather than at home. We can hardly even bring ourselves to say die, preferring euphemisms such as pass away.
If Heaven, according to Talking Heads, is the place where nothing ever happens, the Bardo, according to George Saunders, is as jam-packed and frantic as Costco on Black Friday. We Saunders fans have been to the Bardo before that suspended state between life and death where, according to Tibetan Buddhism, a person's self-awareness helps determine what kind of existence they'll enter next.
You may know the story by now: Rachel Reid began posting what would become Heated Rivalryon the fan-fiction site Archive of Our Own, one chapter at a time. Eventually, the Halifax-based author reportedly removed the posts, reworked the book, submitted it to publishers, and sold it in 2019 to Carina Press, a digital-first imprint at Harlequin. While the first book in her "Game Changers" series found a solid fan base among romance readers, no one expected just how many more would join them.
Perhaps best known for taking over The Wheel of Time, Sanderson made his electric debut 21 years ago with. Now, more than two decades later, Sanderson's complex fantasy books, including the Mistborn series and The Stormlight Archive, are finally getting adapted for film and TV. As revealed by The Hollywood Reporter, Sanderson's Mistborn books will be adapted into a series of films, while The Stormlight Archive will become a TV series.
While working on a graduate school paper on the mystical powers of coral, gemologist Anna Rasche ventured deep into the archives of the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum's library. Coral is the most powerful material to ward off the evil eye-a belief Italians have held since ancient times. Romans often gifted newborns coral amulets to prevent sickness and bad luck.
In this collection of essays, reported pieces, and criticism dating back to the nineteen-seventies, Frazier's sharp eye for finding the complex in the quotidian is on full display. From tales about monster trucks and the Maraschino-cherry empire to musings about lantern flies and Lolita, the collection-much of which was published in this magazine-spotlights the vibrancy of topics often under-noticed. In the playful and diligent hands of the seasoned staff writer, these ordinary things feel extraordinary.
After finding this seam of gold, miner Michael dreams that his son will be able to go to school, rather than join the other children who work in the mine, like blind, bald rodents unearthing themselves in search of scraps of candlelight. In the novel, which won the 2023 Betty Trask prize, everything closes in on Michael: lungs clog, tunnels collapse, horse-drawn narrowboats are attacked by robbers in the sooty dusk. It's a vivid reminder of the cost, in bodily suffering, of resource extraction.
but there's something comforting about knowing that even an ultrarich woman can't make a man act right. You can come from a good family, bring a couple of enormous trusts into the marriage, make some kids, build homes in both New York City and Martha's Vineyard if you'd like, but he'll still leave if he wants to. There's something relieving in that obviousness, in that inevitability, as if no one can truly get heterosexual marriage right, even those with all the resources in the world.
Whatever you might think you're going to get from the familiar setup of Jennette McCurdy's Half His Age (a lonely high-school girl in Anchorage begins an extremely questionable sexual relationship with her teacher), any presumptions are dispelled from the very first page. When Waldo, the teenage narrator of the novel, observes her boyfriend's "slimy tongue that loop-de-loops over and over like a carnival ride, mechanical and passionless," she's setting a tone: irreverent, graphic, bilious.
I'm on a mission here. A collision with immensity awaits: the 2026 Moby-Dick Marathon at the New Bedford Whaling Museum. Programming, scholarship, and-the event's steadily droning core-a 25-hour cover-to-cover reading of the great book itself. Hundreds of volunteer readers, in five-minute increments, from noon on Saturday to 1 p.m. on Sunday. A test of my fortitude as a listener, of my ability to keep my behind in a seat.
Illustoria is a print magazine for creative kids and their grownups. The magazine celebrates visual storytelling, makers, and DIY culture through stories, art, comics, interviews, crafts, and activities. This high-quality triannual publication is geared toward readers ages 6-12 and the young at heart. Illustoria is the official publication of the International Alliance of Youth Writing Centers, publishing writing and art by young people alongside accomplished professionals.
"Go, litel book," he bids the manuscript that's soon to be out of his hands. "That thou be understonde I god beseche!" Had Chaucer stuck around to witness the ensuing six hundred-plus years of literary discourse-and the past few decades in particular-he might have concluded that, when it comes to being understonde, the litel books aren't the ones you have to worry about. It's the big ones that'll get you.
Sacco is from Malta. He immigrated here, I think when he was 11 or 12, and created a whole genre of comics journalism: He embeds himself in conflict zones, then writes a graphic novel. Palestine is incredibly powerful and it's obviously still relevant. It was the story of Palestine in the '90s. That's the book to go to if you wanted to start reading Joe Sacco.
Protagonist Edna Pontellier, heartbroken and hopeless, swims out into the Gulf of Mexico until her body tires and the water swallows her up. The act is impossibly sad, but it also feels as if it's not about itself. Or rather, it expresses something about the act, choice, of suicide that so often remains out of focus: how hard our world is to live in.
bell hooks saved me. I say that in all sincerity. At a critical time in my life, when I was at my lowest point, it was bell hooks, through her books, who pulled me out of a hole of profound depression and set me on a path of self-renewal on which I have remained ever since. Newly divorced with two very young sons, I was determined to give a better fatherhood experience than the one I had.
While looking for ways to pass the time during the pandemic, cousins Lucie Gray and Ellie Bruce, 34 and 26 respectively, tried out a metal detector in their grandfather's garden. That same day, they found a button from a naval jacket, which piqued their curiosity. It made us wonder what other hidden things might be out there, Gray recalls. She had recently moved from her native New Zealand to Lincoln, England, where her relatives live.
If you're hunkering down ahead of the big winter storm this weekend, we want to make sure you're well prepared. Yes, with batteries, flashlights, toilet paper, and food but perhaps most importantly with good reading material. We looked back through some recent interviews and Books We Love, our annual year-end reading guide, to find snowy suggestions to get you through the storm.
A couple of years ago, I stumbled across a most unusual story from the annals of old San Francisco. It concerned a 19-year-old woman named Mary Ann Patten who spent two months captaining a 216-foot-long clipper ship after her husband fell deathly ill during an around-the-world journey. In that time, Patten squashed an on-board mutiny, won the loyalty of the crew and kept her husband alive. The kicker? She did all of this while pregnant with her first child.
We are initiated into a world in which historically accurate foodstuffs can be ordered online a half oyster shell, the exposed flesh shining as if with the freshest brine, is 31.25 for a single piece and begin to understand one of the most striking things about this novel: its insistence upon detail, its utter specificity, set against a deliberate lack of specificity regarding the larger details that the reader's mind naturally itches to fill in.
Cubism and Reality is his return to the works by Georges Braque, Pablo Picasso and Juan Gris that define early Cubism. The book has many strands but turns around a highly informed reconstruction of the processes by which their interactions with reality resulted in physical works of art, what Green terms "material things to be looked at". The revolutionary works discussed remain visually difficult; as he acknowledges, they are "most often only slowly penetrated by looking, imagining, reflecting and looking again".
Every season, the Next Big Idea Club editorial team reviews dozens of upcoming books to curate a selection of the most exciting, must-read nonfiction titles. We start with a broad pool of nominees from which we identify a small handful of finalists and, ultimately, an official season selection. Today, it's our pleasure to share our list of five finalists for Season 29! Without further ado, the new books we're most excited about right now are . . .
Sharing knowledge & culture is community care. Our book swap series is back at Town Bar & Lounge - and every other month after that. The Swig: Come and get a drink token for a free glass of bubbly from the bar. (Refills or other drinks are on you, though). The Swap: Bring a book that has meaning to you, gave you joy & escape, changed your mind, or offered knowledge about the world.
San Francisco Poet Laureate emerita invites writers featured in Women in a Golden State to present at SFPL's Monthly poetry reading. was San Francisco's seventh Poet Laureate. Her poetry draws on her multiethnic background which includes Polish and Cherokee heritage, and her experiences as a lifelong resident of San Francisco. Her most recent book of poetry, Pick a Garnet to Sleep In, was published in 2024, and her book of essays, Noodle, Rant, Tangent, was published in 2022.
Natural History Museum Los Angeles County: New: "Unearthed - Raw Beauty," an exhibit of mineral specimens displayed in their natural and uncut form, through April 18, 2027 ( https://nhm.org/unearthed-rare-mineral-exhibition). Ongoing exhibit: "Fierce! The Story of Cats," is an international traveling exhibit, from the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle in France, runs through Feb. 18 (this exhibit requires an add-on ticket price to the museum's general admission; nhm.org/cats). Hours: 9:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Sunday (but closed on the first Tuesday of the month and some holidays).
Hey Demigods and Campers! Show your fandom for the Percy Jackson Universe proudly with our collection of essential apparel and more, like Camp Half-Bloodt-shirts, comfy hoodies, and must-have books. And for a limited time only, fans can get a 15% discount using the code "ABCNEWS15". So whether you're gearing up for your next quest or just want to share your Riordanverse pride, we've got you covered.
"The object of the Museum is to acquire power," announces a crusty old archaeologist in Penelope Fitzgerald's 1977 satire, The Golden Child. It isn't a goal he respects. He wants the museum where he's settled into semiretirement to genuinely devote itself to educating its visitors. Instead, he correctly charges, its curators act like a pack of Gollums, hoarding "the art and treasures of the earth" for their own self-aggrandizement and pleasure.
