Experts once thought that young adult literature was doomed. Now it’s got some of the fastest-growing sales in publishing. What changed? Social media might be the key.
A poor review doesn’t make for a bad book. But a good one doesn’t make for a good one either.
Journalists Alexander Clifford of the Daily Mail and Alan Moorehead of the Daily Express in the North African desert, 1942.
Imperial War Museum, via Wikimedia Commons.
Alan Moorehead’s accounts of the second world war revealed his vital and gripping talent, but his peacetime novels were stilted and corny. A new biography delves into his life and language.
Not shelved by any means – but there’s no room for complacency.
Books by Shutterstock
Many libraries are now being transferred to be run by community groups. These volunteers play an important role but libraries should not be sacrificed for economic or political expediency.
All to often, true crime books have glorified male violence and reproduced crude sexist stereotypes.
Jari Schroderus
The genre that brought us the writings of Mark “Chopper” Read isn’t known for its impeccable gender politics. But two new books cast a critical eye on a culture of male violence.
Argentinian artist Raul Lemesoff drives his vehicle called “Arma de Instruccion Masiva” (weapon of mass instruction) through Buenos Aries. What is Australia doing to protect its publishing industry?
Marcos Brindicci
Books contain ideas. They enable minds to shine. Our publishing industry is under pressure on many fronts – yet cultural matters seem of little significance to the federal government.
Discworld is a wildly inventive literary creation that sprawls over dozens of books.
David Skinner
This Saturday it will be a year since Alzheimer’s stole Terry Pratchett from the world. We mark the occasion with a beginner’s guide to his most enduring creation, the 41-book Discworld series.
William Yang has, maybe more than anyone else, shaped Sydney’s view of itself. A new book, William Yang: Stories of Love and Death, collects his iconic photographs, with scrawled annotations.
While technological advances have rendered some products obsolete, they’ve also spurred the growth of niche markets that cater to people looking to reject mass-produced goods.
Umberto Eco, who has died aged 84.
Reuters/Andrea Comas
The perception of publishing as a business, even a creative one, means that the question of book sales dominates our conversations about it. But publishing offers far more to our culture than that.
Jane Austen horror has burgeoned into a distinctive subgenre of adaptations.
Kevin Harber
England’s green and pleasant land will be beset by a plague of the living dead, corpses will dig their way out of graves … Jane Austen horror is now a distinctive subgenre of Austen adaptations.
The foot is the basic unit for what we consider to be romantic and beautiful: poetry.
Khánh Hmoong
Poetic terminology can be alienating, off-putting. Whispering “dactylic hexameter” in people’s ears won’t necessarily tempt them into reading heroic verse. But there is hope – and poetry – for us all.
Kitty-in-Boots.
Image courtesy Frederick Warne & Co / the V&A Museum
What can we expect from this newly discovered manuscript from a much-beloved author?
On the anniversary of his death, we reflect on how J. D. Salinger’s writing first influenced the world and how it continues to do so now.
July Morning | RU
Today marks six years since celebrated writer J. D. Salinger died at his home in Cornish, New Hampshire, at the age of 91. But his influence remains well and truly alive.