Books & Literature

Few writers have published and been damned with quite the ferocity Julie Myerson was back in 2009 for her memoir The Lost Child. The book, which included descriptions of her 17-year-old son Jake’s cannabis addiction and her painful decision to lock him out of the family home, was debated everywhere from Mumsnet to newspaper opinion pages – “a betrayal of motherhood itself” – and even the House of Commons. Extended family members were doorstepped and Jake was approached by a tabloid to sell his story at a time when he was extremely vulnerable.

Akwaeke Emezi’s newest book You Made a Fool of Death With Your Beauty is not a typical romance novel. If you’ve ever read anything by Emezi—a wonderfully insightful, critically honest master of language—that's no surprise. What’s surprising is that Emezi, who grew up reading romance novels in Nigeria and uses they/them pronouns, did set out to write a typical romance, until their heroine Feyi led them down a different path.

In March 1965, the festering corpse of 64-year-old Herberts Cukurs was discovered stuffed into a trunk in a seaside bungalow in Montevideo, Uruguay. During the 1930s, Cukurs’ exploits as a dashing aviator had made him one of the most celebrated men in Latvia. Under the Nazi occupation, he found a new calling as a prominent member of the Arajs Kommando, the SS-affiliated killing unit responsible for the burning of the Riga ghetto and the massacre of around 25,000 Jews in Rumbula forest, among other barbarities.

Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin has acknowledged the frustration about the next book's lateness, saying impatient fans can be "vicious." Indeed, the next entry in the acclaimed A Song of Ice and Fire series, on which HBO's Game of Thrones and upcoming House of the Dragon series are based, is very late. George R.R. Martin began work on the novel in 2010 just ahead of the release of the most recent book, A Dance with Dragons. It was originally planned for release back in 2016, and then in 2017, and then just... whenever it's done.

We remember George Floyd as we approach the second anniversary of his murder. We'll speak with Washington Post reporters Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa. They argue that George Floyd's struggles in life reflect the challenges and pressures of institutional racism in the country. Their new book is His Name is George Floyd.

In March 2021, I was driven by a stranger down to the Essex coast, and there I found myself at the end of the 19th century, in a place that had never existed, full of people who’d never been born. At any rate, that was the impression; in fact,...

The short story “Go, Team,” by Samantha Hunt, traces a series of conversations within a group of mothers after a woman disappears into the woods during a children’s soccer game. They aren’t sure if the vanished woman is a mom, though they wonder if she might be. But even when it’s only suspected, motherhood is such an all-consuming identity that the possibility suffuses every element of their discussion. Her potential death would be a tragedy, one implies, because “she might have been somebody’s mother.”

NBC News’ Alison Morris is joined by CNBC senior personal finance correspondent Sharon Epperson for “Now Reading” to discuss their favorite writers and current book recommendations. May 20, 2022.

Jennifer Egan: Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now by Jaron Lanier. Lanier’s provocatively titled book may in itself appear divisive, but the tools for unity are abundant within this brief and lucid volume. Chief among them is Lanier’s reminder that strife and division –– conflict, in other words –– are encouraged, incited, stoked and rewarded by the online platforms that many of us use to communicate. Lanier is a longtime tech insider (he coined the phrase “virtual reality” in the 1980s) who still works for Microsoft, but he pulls no punches when it comes to indicting his industry. Insisting that we call “engagement” by its true name, “behaviour modification”, Lanier argues that we are being nudged into discord by the seemingly neutral conduits of our online communities – all to the profit of data-gathering systems in which we, the users, are actually the products. There is a silver lining to this frightening vision: we are not as far apart as we may think. Walking away is possible, and awareness itself is a useful tool. Lanier’s book provides that.

Watch: Jazmyn Simon Shines Light on Self-Love in New Kid's Book. Gather around Jazmyn Simon's dinner table and prepare to speak your truth. As the actress and her actor husband, Dulé Hill, raise 17-year-old daughter Kennedy and 3-year-old son Levi, both parents are trying to build a space where expressing feelings is not only welcomed but encouraged.

A few years ago, heart surgery forced Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, the Kenyan writer and perennial Nobel shortlister, to give up driving. He misses it. He misses getting behind the wheel for a few hours with no end point in mind, randomly exploring the roads. “Like writing a story,” he said.

May 20 (UPI) -- A British library said a book checked out more than 60 years ago was finally returned to the facility after being found at another library in Croatia. Vedran Levi, an employee of Dubrovnik Libraries, found a copy of The Loving Couple by Virginia Rowans in a bag of apparent donations left at the Croatian library.

Longtime New Yorker writer and editor Roger Angell has died. He was 101. The New Yorker announced his death on Friday. Other details were not immediately available. Angell, the son of founding New Yorker editor Katharine White and stepson of E.B. White, contributed hundreds of essays and stories to the magazine over a 70-year career. He also edited such authors as John Updike and Garrison Keillor. Angell also was a past winner of the BBWAA Career Excellence Award, formerly the J. G. Taylor Spink Award, for meritorious contributions to baseball writing. Angell’s books included “The Five Seasons,” and a book of personal essays, “Let Me Finish.”

Inspiring new books to help entrepreneurs build their dreams. Starting your own business can be intimidating, but that doesn't mean you have to do it on your own. Books for budding entrepreneurs can offer valuable advice and are a great way to learn from those who have excelled before you.

Whether summer of 2022 will be a season of sex or celibacy is yet to be revealed, but the best books of May 2022 feature enough vivid sex and descriptions of desire to last through the hot weather. There’s Lillian Fishman’s protagonist in Acts of Service, who believes that her...

Watch: "Game of Thrones": How the Franchise Will Continue to Live On. We love these products, and we hope you do too. E! has affiliate relationships, so we may get a small share of the revenue from your purchases. Items are sold by the retailer, not E!. Forget winter, adaptations...

Bill Gates' advice to young people looking to change the world for the better is very simple: Pick up a book. Participating in his 10th Reddit "Ask Me Anything" session on Thursday, the billionaire Microsoft co-founder was asked what advice he'd offer to a young person looking to "make a positive impact" on the world. "The ideal thing is to read a lot and hopefully find a skill you enjoy that can have [an] impact," the world's fourth-wealthiest person replied.

Asmodee has announced cookbooks inspired by the classic tabletop games CATAN and Ticket to Ride. Asmodee will partner with Ulysses Press to publish the new cookbooks, which will feature original recipes and full-color layouts. Each cookbook was inspired by the core theme of their respective game. CATAN's cookbook will focus on the building of a new civilization, while Ticket to Ride's cookbook will be inspired by traveling a rail line. Both books are scheduled for release in Spring 2023.

If you’re an active social media user, perhaps you’ve noticed a surge in posts recently about paprika, reflective shaving glasses and castle hospitality in Transylvania. One hundred twenty-five years after its initial publication, Bram Stoker’s “Dracula” is having a resurgence. The current popularity bump is...