The Latest Breaking News on Books

Forget gadgets and ebooks – nothing beats a real tome in your hand

Letters: We cannot let real books go the way of vinyl records, writes 15-year-old Jude Brayton. Plus letters from Celia Anderson and Jean Jackson

The Guardian - UK · Aug 9, 2024

Wife by Charlotte Mendelson: gifted, hyper-real fiction

Charlotte Mendelson’s last book, 2022’s The Exhibitionist, was hailed for its frank and honest study of dysfunctional relationships. It was longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction and named Novel of the Year by The Times. With such accolades it comes as no surprise that Mendelson should return to themes…

Evening Standard · Aug 9, 2024

Utah bans 13 books from all schools

The state's Board of Education is seeking to comply with a new law that ostensibly aims to ban "pornography"

Salon · Aug 9, 2024

Margolyes & Dickens: The Best Bits review – the nation’s favourite foul mouth

There’s more Margolyes than Dickens here, but her gift for florid characters is on fine display and suits the Victorian master perfectly

The Guardian - UK · Aug 9, 2024

OPINION - Gold Rush book review: A cautionary #MeToo tale of pop stars straight out of 2017

Olivia Petter’s debut novel about nonconsensual sex with a pop star is stuck in an era gone by, says Maddy Mussen

Evening Standard · Aug 9, 2024

The best recent science fiction and fantasy – reviews roundup

Extremophile by Ian Green; Long Live Evil by Sarah Rees Brennan; Monstrilio by Gerardo Sámano Córdova; The Formidable Miss Cassidy by Meihan Boey; Lake of Darkness by Adam Roberts

The Guardian - UK · Aug 9, 2024

A Memoir of My Former Self by Hilary Mantel audiobook review – preoccupations of a vibrant mind

Actor Lydia Leonard and novelist Anne Enright are among the narrators of the Wolf Hall author’s engaging essays on Madonna, Jane Austen and Princess Diana

The Guardian - UK · Aug 9, 2024

The Years: an audacious adaptation of Annie Ernaux’s masterpiece of memoir and sociology

Eline Arbo’s production of The Years at London’s Almeida Theatre is a rare triumph. First adapted into Dutch and premiered in Amsterdam in 2022, the play breathes theatrical life into the Nobel-winning writer Annie Ernaux’s masterpiece of the same name, delineating a composite portrait of a woman and a culture…

The Conversation · Aug 9, 2024

Ravelling by Estelle Birdy review – a gutsy coming-of-age debut

This is a beautifully observed portrait of five young men growing up on the edge of Dublin’s underworld

The Guardian - UK · Aug 9, 2024

I’m not surprised erotic fiction sales have doubled – women have always been sex mad

Steamy books are flying off the shelves; could women’s frustrated libidos be the answer, asks Helen Coffey

The Independent UK · Aug 9, 2024