Image Credit: BBC
The longrunning British science fiction show Doctor Who has repeatedly portrayed gay, lesbian, and bisexual characters in a positive light — even when the character in question happens to be a green lizard-lady. Now the LGBTQ community is reciprocating that affection in book form.
Scathing book reviews don’t exactly help get readers into bookstores, but they do help us avoid potential stinkers — and mostly, they can be really fun to read. The Omnivore‘s Hatchet Job of the Year Awards dole out honors to the most acid-penned critics and dishonors to the authors on the receiving end of the literary spanking. Last year’s prize went to Adam Mars-Jones for his (in my opinion, completely valid) take-down of By Nightfall by Michael Cunningham. Here are this year’s nominees: READ FULL STORY »
Just as Brandon Sanderson’s final novel in Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time series, A Memory of Light, comes out tomorrow, fans get to look forward Steelheart, Sanderson’s dark dystopian trilogy-starter coming out this September. Check out a sneak peek at the Steelheart cover below! READ FULL STORY »
It’s time for the year end accolades. Check out EW’s awards for the best in books below!
Trend We’d Like to Squash
“Cookbooks” like The Unofficial Game of Thrones Cookbook. Stewed goat, anyone?
Oprah Winfrey rebooted the much-coveted Oprah’s Book Club earlier this year, proving that she didn’t need her network talk show to create a huge impact on the publishing business. Her endorsement of Wild by Cheryl Strayed helped the memoir skyrocket to No. 1 in Hardcover Nonfiction.
Today, Winfrey went back to her love of novels by announcing her newest selection, The Twelve Tribes of Hattie by debut author Ayana Mathis, the release date for which as been moved up to tomorrow, Dec. 6. Winfrey doled high praise on the novel: “The opening pages of Ayana’s debut took my breath away,” she said. “I can’t remember when I read anything that moved me in quite this way, besides the work of Toni Morrison.” (I’ve read the opening pages, too, and they are indeed breathtaking).
The Twelve Tribes of Hattie follows one family over 60 years through the Great Migration, centering on Hattie Shepherd, a mother of nine children.
Follow @EWStephanLee on Twitter.
Read more:
Cheryl Strayed talks ‘Wild,’ ‘Tiny Beautiful Things,’ Oprah, and ‘Dear Sugar’
Oprah Winfrey sits down with ‘Wild’ author Cheryl Strayed — EXCLUSIVE VIDEO
Image Credit: Heidi Jo Brady
[WARNING: MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD!] Gillian Flynn, a former EW critic and current Entertainer of the Year, has had a dream 2012. Not only has her third novel Gone Girl been a giant critical and commercial success, it’s become part of the zeitgeist, stirring heated conversation. You can’t look at Gone Girl‘s Amazon page without reading endless rants about THAT ending. READ FULL STORY »
The annual Goodreads Choice Awards are basically the People’s Choice Awards of books. Users of the literary social network voted on their favorite books of the year in 20 categories, and this year, there were some surprises — J.K. Rowling’s The Casual Vacancy as best novel? — and some slam dunks (Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl for Best Mystery, John Green for Best Young Adult, and Cheryl Strayed’s Wild for Best Memoir). Once again, Veronica Roth proved that she’s pretty much unbeatable when it comes to reader-voted prizes, winning the Best Goodreads Author award for the first time and the Best Young Adult Fantasy award for the second time with Insurgent, sequel to Divergent.
The closest race occurred in Best Historical Fiction, with M.L. Stedman’s The Light Between Oceans narrowly beating out Man Booker-winner Bring up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel. J.K. Rowling’s first adult novel most likely benefited from a large and devoted fanbase, as Casual Vacancy only became a finalist due to write-in votes — its Goodreads user rating of 3.32 stars wasn’t originally high enough to qualify it — yet it won the biggest honor.
Susan Cain’s Nonfiction win for her best-seller Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking made me smile — partly because I could picture a bunch of Goodreads bookworms really relating to it, and also because introverts, a sizable but often ignored and misunderstood demographic, have had a big year in 2012 with the publication of Quiet, Sophia Dembling’s The Introvert’s Way, and a buzzed-about feature in The Atlantic.
See the entire list of winners below: READ FULL STORY »
David Oliver Relin, co-author of the 2006 best-selling inspirational memoir Three Cups of Tea, died on Nov. 14 in Oregon at age 49. Relin had been suffering from depression and committed suicide, according to a family spokesperson.
The book, co-authored with Greg Mortenson, came under fire in 2011 when 60 Minutes and author Jon Krakauer alleged that it misrepresented or fabricated basic facts, particularly passages about Mortenson’s rescue by the citizens of Korphe, Pakistan, and the number of schools built by Mortenson’s charity, the Central Asia Institute. READ FULL STORY »
Image Credit: Etsy
Call it the Fifty Shades bump — literally. BabyCenter has released their yearly list of most popular baby names and — shocker! — the Class of 2030 will be seeing a lot more Anastasias and Greys. Wait, Greys? Yes, readers. When bestowing a Fifty Shades-inspired moniker on their child, parents chose not Christian, but Grey. The name saw a 20 percent jump from last year. On the girls’ side of things, Anastasia rose ten percent, while Ana climbed 35 spots. I suppose we should just be thankful these parents are still together. Make love, not war, right?
As the child of a voracious reader, this news strikes particularly close to home. My father named me for Gone with the Wind, but my brother was not so lucky (in his eyes) — his name is Dickens and he’s been clamoring to change it to Will since he was 10 (don’t even get me started on our dog Trollope). So on that note, what are the worst book-based names you can think of? Here are my top ten: READ FULL STORY »
No, Suzanne Collins’ next book is not going to revisit Panem and Katniss Everdeen, but like The Hunger Games, it will focus on a young girl dealing with the harsh realities of war. Scholastic announced today that it will release Year of the Jungle, an autobiographical picture book, on Sept. 10, 2013. Illustrated by James Proimos, the book centers on Suzy, who must cope with her father’s absence as he serves in Vietnam. She counts down the days until her father’s return, and when he finally comes back, Suzy finds that the war has changed him but he loves her all the same. In a press release, Collins explained the inspiration behind Year of the Jungle: READ FULL STORY »
