From a spirited shark to a cheerful squirrel, the characters in these four graphic novels will inspire holiday cheer in readers. From a spirited shark to a cheerful squirrel, the characters in these four graphic novels will inspire holiday cheer in readers. Lowery, Mike. Santa Shark: A Great White Christmas. illus. by Mike Lowery. 32p. Orchard. Oct. 2023. Tr $14.99.…

Toronto anthropologist David R. Samson has won the 2023 Basillie Prize for his book Our Tribal Future: How to Channel our Foundational Human Instincts Into a Force for Good.  Established in 2021, the annual $60,000 award recognizes the best nonfiction book that advances public discourse relevant to Canadians.  (Macmillan) “In Our Tribal Future, David R. Samson does something remarkable:…

TikToks captioned #myyearofrestandrelaxationcore consist of slideshow images of lipstick-stained cigarette butts, lacy pink underwear, limp female forms slumped over bathtubs or beds and puckered lips glossy with Dior Lip Oil that flash by to the lugubrious minor chords of “Liquid Smooth” by Mitski. Sometimes an image of Ottessa Moshfegh’s novel “My Year of Rest and…

Enrique Moreiro for The Boston Globe One might expect a book called “The Book at War” to focus on literature about combat, both for and against, but mostly against. Think “The Red Badge of Courage” (Stephen Crane, 1895), “All Quiet on the Western Front” (Erich Maria Remarque, 1929), “Catch-22″ (Joseph Heller, 1961), or other novels…

When bookseller Tim Collie was ten years old, he made his first major book purchase. At the annual TCD Secondhand Book Sale, he bought ten boxes of books from the clearance section, “much to [his] parent’s delight.” He added in conversation with TN that as a child, he was “drawn to anything old and interesting-looking.”…

Murtagh, the fifth book in Christopher Paolini’s best-selling Eragon series–also known as The Inheritance Cycle–dropped earlier this month, and fans who haven’t picked up the New York Times Bestselling fantasy novel can grab a hardcover copy for just $22.48 (normally $30) at Amazon. Murtagh: World of Eragon The Inheritance Cycle is a young adult high-fantasy…

Sometime in the early ’70s, Nora Ephron negotiated a deal for her essay collection Crazy Salad: Some Things About Women over a plate of hot pink steak. Nestled under the ficus trees, Ephron was one of many authors attending power lunches at the Four Seasons restaurant in Manhattan during publishing’s golden age — or as…

Ned Blackhawk spoke about Native American scholarship and archives on November 17 at an event sponsored by Columbia’s Lehman Center for American History. Two days earlier, he had won the National Book Award for Nonfiction for The Rediscovery of America: Native Peoples and the Unmaking of U.S. History. “Was it earlier this week, or earlier…

In her 1993 poem, “won’t you celebrate with me,” author and educator, Lucille Clifton, invites us to wonder at the life she has created: “… i had no model born in babylon both nonwhite and woman what did i see to be except myself?  i made it up.”  As a Black woman existing at the…

TODAY: In 1898, C. S. Lewis is born.    On the Great Poets’ Brawl of ’68, when literary conferences were a lot more interesting. | Lit Hub Yorgos Lanthimos’s adaptation of Poor Things is almost here! But first, let’s talk about the other Alasdair Gray books you should definitely read. | Lit Hub Film Why…