Category: words

The book was important enough that, in 1164, he sent his closest confidant to do something about it as he fled trial in England for exile in France. But he never named it. Fast-forward to 2014 (and later), and a tale of academic adventure and record-keeping that began over coffee. – BBC

Inspired by stories about the woes of local indie bookstores, the couple at the head of a skin-care company (this is Los Angeles, after all) decided to do what they could to aid small businesses, including indie bookstores, in the area. “The thing I’m fearful the most of after this is, when we lift our heads and look around our communities and neighborhoods, I think we’re going to see a lot missing, and we have to rebuild our main streets in our neighborhoods because otherwise we just don’t have a point of connection.” – Los Angeles Times

Anthony Veasna So’s Year in Reading is a heartbreaker. The 28-year-old died suddenly at the beginning of December, but his essay for The Millions was nearly finished. “I did love Girl, Woman,Other by Bernardine Evaristo. Or maybe I loved knowing the characters of this kaleidoscopic novel. Maybe I need to record the lives of as many archetypal Khmer queers I can imagine.” – The Millions

Kiley Reid, the author of Such a Fun Age, published a year ago to strong sales and a spot on the Booker longlist, is helping change publishing’s mind, she believes. Talking to another writer, she found out that “she was saying that she’s used my novel to point out to editors that if this person is doing humour that is literary fiction, why can’t I do it too? The premise that literary fiction has to be a drag – it’s just so silly.” – The Observer (UK)

More than a thousand books have been published about the 45th president during his ruinous four years in office. Now, “publishers are racing to acquire news-breaking works about his final days in office, as well as comprehensive historical accounts of the Trump era, sober expositions examining how he has changed the Republican Party and the country, and gossipy insider accounts of what really went on in the White House.” – The New York Times

It was pretty bad, overall. Some parts were okay. There were some good books. There were some bad actions. There were some much-needed reckonings. – LitHub

“As deconstructionist reading started becoming more widespread, disseminated in the United States, a lot of people noticed the similarity—rightly so—between the reading style and New Criticism because of the close reading and the attentiveness to language. That was a major thing that happened that actually influenced the course of English study in the United States for a couple of decades—and, actually, still.” – LitHub

“Brian Calle, the chief executive of Street Media, the owner of LA Weekly, said on Tuesday that he had acquired the publication from its publisher, Peter D. Barbey. … [Calle] added that he planned to restart The Voice‘s website in January and would publish a ‘comeback’ print edition early next year, with quarterly print issues to follow.” – The New York Times

“Considered one of Dürer’s best-known writings, the Lament on Luther could instead have been the work of a contemporary monk that was slipped into the artist’s diary, possibly for political reasons, according to what the National Gallery describes as ‘very convincing evidence’.” – The Guardian