As publishers vie to persuade us to pack their titles for the holidays, we chart the evolution of the ’beach read’Summer reads, beach reads, holiday reads … at this time of year, the publishing world works itself into a sweat trying to force its novels into our carry-on luggage, or over the ether on to our Kindles. There are more books sold in the summer than during any other season: the well-established publishing calendar tends to see hardbacks released in the autumn to be given as gifts at Christmas, then repackaged as paperbacks in late spring. As Donna Harrington-Lueker sets out in her history of the beach read, Books for Idle Hours, the summer publishing rush is at least a century old, and has typically aimed “airy and froth-like” books on “young ladies” (the quote is from an 1888 work on summer books by Arlo Bates). The summer fiction market is changing, though, with more and more “serious”, “literary” novels showing up where once there were only thrillers and crime novels, bonkbusters and romances. So it is that Normal People by Sally Rooney is currently piled high on the tables of WH Smith’s Travel alongside Lee Child, Jodi Picoult and Bernard Cornwell.I’m aware of how contentious and porous discussions of genre can be. Generic labels, though, are the terms that booksellers and publishers think in and for literary novels, the chances of summer success are still relatively slim. Tom Tivnan, managing editor of the Bookseller, points to Nielsen BookScan data that... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2019-07-14 07:00:23 UTC ]
Book Reviews Statue of renowned Kurdish historian, author, and poet Mastoureh Ardalan (1805–1848) in Erbil / Photo by Levi Meir Clancy / Unsplash Even though they appear to have a lot to say about the historical, political, cultural, and literary... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2022-02-23 21:05:41 UTC ]
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Literary novelists are struggling with whether, and how, to incorporate Covid into their fiction. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2022-02-20 22:17:31 UTC ]
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“Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.” –Arthur Ashe * Years ago, when I was still a budding fiction writer, I published an essay about how hard skateboarding is to write about. I focused on a few novelists who had skater characters in their books but who clearly didn’t skate […] Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2022-02-09 09:55:45 UTC ]
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At the risk of reigniting the Sally Rooney Discourse—today, Hulu and BBC Three released a few early images from their upcoming adaptation of Sally Rooney’s bestselling first novel Conversations With Friends, which will premiere sometime this spring. (If you somehow don’t know what this novel is... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2022-02-04 13:53:52 UTC ]
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Axel Scheffler has usurped Tony Ross in the list of 2021’s most lucrative illustrators through Nielsen BookScan’s TCM. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2022-01-29 03:07:14 UTC ]
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Kay Featherstone and Kate Allinson's Pinch of Nom: Comfort Food (Bluebird) has notched up a second consecutive week and a fourth week in total atop the UK Official Top 50, selling 54,410 copies through Nielsen BookScan's Total Consumer Market. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2022-01-11 22:26:58 UTC ]
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Booming appetites for crime, sci-fi and romance drive fiction sales 20% higher than in 2019, with Richard Osman the year’s bestselling authorBook sales continued to climb last year despite lockdowns, with more than 212m print books sold in 2021 – the highest figure of the last decade.Driven by... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2022-01-11 17:21:11 UTC ]
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Alyson Sinclair is the new owner of online literary publication the Rumpus, acquiring it from Marisa Siegel, its former managing editor and owner since 2017. Alysia Li Ying Sawchyn has been named editor-in-chief. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2022-01-10 05:00:00 UTC ]
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Who is Elena Ferrante? One of the most widely-acclaimed and beloved contemporary novelists is also the most unknown. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2021-12-29 11:33:00 UTC ]
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When it comes to great novels, this year felt like an embarrassment of riches. The books collected here are ambitious—in intellect, in scope, in subject matter, and in size. Some are perfect encapsulations of the unique problems of our time, while others illuminate the human threads that connect... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2021-12-16 12:05:00 UTC ]
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It’s safe to say that in general, 2021 was an improvement on 2020—but that doesn’t mean it was a big one. Among the many disappointments of this year was the fact that we lost far too many members of the literary community, from poets to novelists to editors to critics to publishers. To them, we […] Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2021-12-15 09:49:46 UTC ]
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I’ve been writing this column for seven years, now, and it never gets old for me. Getting to sift through each previous month’s fiction titles is the best kind of treasure hunt, always rewarding and sometimes astonishing. For the second year in a row I’m gathering up my favorites from the... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2021-12-14 09:51:28 UTC ]
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It was a chance to finally get around to Tolstoy or Proust, but the charts tell a different story. Which books did we actually turn to in the lockdowns? • Let us know in the comments what you were reading Back in spring 2020, when it became clear that coronavirus wasn’t going away, book lovers... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2021-12-11 09:00:06 UTC ]
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PW looks back at the library stories that captivated the publishing world this year—and what they portend for 2022. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2021-12-10 05:00:00 UTC ]
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Are there certain books with topics you avoid? That you fear may leave you a little worse for wear? Here's what may happen if you read them. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2021-12-07 11:38:00 UTC ]
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Novelists and short-story writers have created some classic narratives about man’s best friend, the dog. But what are the very best stories and novels about dogs? Where should we begin in assessing the classic, canonical literature that features dogs? From Homer’s Odyssey onwards – where the... Continue reading at Interesting Literature
[ Interesting Literature | 2021-12-03 15:00:29 UTC ]
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The following first appeared in Lit Hub’s Craft of Writing newsletter—sign up here. * While writing my first novel, I was hungry for advice, like many young writers, and soaked up tenets like write every day or wake up before work to go to your desk or hit 1000 words every session. But these... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2021-11-12 09:55:05 UTC ]
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Marlowe Granados is the guest. Her debut novel, Happy Hour, is out now from Verso Books. Subscribe and download the episode, wherever you get your podcasts! From the episode: Marlowe Granados: I think that you have to wait a little bit for the correct timing. That was my main gripe with the... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2021-11-09 09:50:34 UTC ]
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Following the acclaimed author’s decision not to have Beautiful World, Where Are You translated by an Israeli publisher, two major retailers have removed her work from their shelvesBooks by Sally Rooney will no longer be sold in two Israeli bookshop chains, after the acclaimed writer’s decision... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2021-11-05 16:14:29 UTC ]
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News and Events (c) Rama, Cc-by-sa-2.0-fr NORMAN, OKLA. – World Literature Today, the University of Oklahoma’s award-winning magazine of international literature and culture, announced late Tuesday evening that Boubacar Boris Diop is the 27th... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2021-10-26 21:56:54 UTC ]
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