"Count Dracula — a recluse plagued by yearning, a macabre flair for theatrics and existential loneliness — turned out to be an unlikely patron saint for the uncertain times. ... Serialization made the 125-year-old novel more accessible and created a community of readers when many were looking for connection." - The New York Times
"Ernaux, 82, started out writing autobiographical novels, but quickly abandoned fiction in favor of memoirs. Her more than 20 books, most very short, chronicle events in her life and the lives of those around her. They present uncompromising portraits of sexual encounters, abortion, illness and the deaths of her parents." - AP
The single most influential data in the publishing industry—which, every day, determines book contracts and authors’ lives—is basically inaccessible to anyone beyond the industry. And I learned that this is a big problem. - Public Books
To the eye of an American editor, sometimes the smallest hints of vulnerability, when they don’t service any big and explicit narrative, often end up looking like disposable details. - European Review of Books
This is what the censors refuse to grasp: Librarians are not trying to force your children to read material you don’t want them to read. They are fulfilling their role as information professionals tasked with upholding the constitutional promise of access to information for all. - Washington Post
Among the shortlisted authors are Gayl Jones, Alejandro Varela, Imani Perry, Meghan O'Rourke, John Keene, Sharon Olds, Jenny Xie, Scholastique Mukasonga, Yoko Tawada, and Tommie Smith, one of the Black athletes who raised a fist on the medal stand at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics. - NPR
"The other defining aspect of the collected works on Trump is that virtually nothing in any of them – none of the 'bombshells' or details about his character – seems to have substantially changed people's minds about him." - CNN
The news stories coming from the state have been mostly about bannings on a school district or city/county level. This past spring, Gov. De Santis signed a law requiring all Florida school to remove all books considered "pornographic" or "inappropriate." - Salon
The reading world is divided between those who care about covers (specifically paperback covers) and those who find this odder than worrying what packaging sausages come in. These are often the same people who can’t understand why anyone would keep a book they had already read. - Irish Times
Or, at least, some authors who should. "You would think that in this, post-Squid Games, post-BTS world, the Academy would attempt to reclaim relevance by reading and engaging with works outside their comfort zone, by reading outside of Europe and North America." - LitHub
One Irish writer says yes. "It is through the stories passed down by our ancestors that we can learn how best to live sustainably ... and how to navigate a world that presents existential threats on a daily basis." - Irish Times
For people who came of age in the '80s, the author says, "Slasher movies, Stephen King and Twin Peaks all got mixed with our reality, which was already full of the language of horror: the disappeared, the children of the dead, children of the lost generation." - The Guardian (UK)
The author of Little Fires Everywhere says that as she wrote during the Trump years, she "wanted to look at what had happened in the past, and the dark times in which we have dealt with authoritarianism, and to remember that we’ve gotten through it before." - The Guardian (UK)
Andrea Elliott: "The intensity of my reporting stems from a belief that well-told stories—those with depth and nuance—are the product of intimate knowledge. And that comes from being with people, day after day, deeply immersed in their lives." - LitHub
Tsitsi Dangarembga held a sign in 2020 that read, "We want better. Reform our institutions." On Thursday, she was "convicted of participating in a public gathering with intent to incite public violence," fined, and given a suspended sentence. - The Guardian (UK)
