True crime author Ann Rule has died. She was 83. Best known as the biographer of serial killer Ted Bundy, her book about Bundy, The Stranger Beside Me, was published in 1980. Rule was the author of 30 New York Times bestsellers. The author passed away Sunday at a medical center in Burien, Washington. The New York Times reported that the cause was congestive heart failure and respiratory failure. Ms. Rule’s articles had been appearing in […]
There are times when words fail. When you know there should be a word for that but English just doesn’t have it. At times like that, one of the things Anglos have traditionally turned to is French. Babel Magazine’s Brandon Johnson puts together a list of his favorite French words. It includes a bunch that make you think we should up and borrow them in English, including nombril: Nombril is navel or belly button, so […]
How many writers remember the moment they decided to become a novelist? Haruki Murakami (Norwegian Wood, Kafka on the Shore) traces it back to an afternoon in 1978 when he went to a baseball game. In a particularly good moment in the game, he says the thought came to him from nowhere that he could see. “In that instant, for no reason and on no grounds whatsoever, the thought suddenly struck me: I think I […]
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jane Smiley’s quietly brilliant Some Luck was nominated for the National Book Award upon first publication in 2014. Newly out in paperback from Anchor Books, this first book in Smiley’s planned trilogy is stunning. It manages to be warm and vibrant and innovative at one time. There is no author who could have pulled off this particular concept with so much aplomb, though in fairness few would have felt the need to attempt […]
Which authors earn the most loot? Forbes delivers a list of the top 15… with only a few surprises. From James Patterson to George R. R. Martin, the World’s Top-Earning Authors made a combined $355 million between June 2014 and June 2015 before taxes or any fees. Estimates ares compiled by examining print, ebook and audiobook sales from Nielsen BookScan, considering TV and movie income, and talking to authors, agents, publishers and other taxes. You […]
Influential novelist E.L. Doctorow (Ragtime, Billy Bathgate, The March) died in New York on Tuesday, of complications from lung cancer. He was 84. The New York Times remembers the author: The author of a dozen novels, three volumes of short fiction and a stage drama, as well as essays and commentary on literature and politics, Mr. Doctorow was widely lauded for the originality, versatility and audacity of his imagination. Subtly subversive in his fiction — […]
The very best writers need a good coach, that’s what The Telegraph posits today when they say, “Behind many classics, there lurks a brilliant editor.” It’s a point made most graphically this week with the publication of Harper Lee’s “new” book but also, as The Telegraph’s Sameer Rahim points out, a strong editor is part of the success story of many of the books we love best: The 20th century brought the rise of the […]
The truth could cost her everything. Her whole life, Ava Carson has been sure of one thing: she doesn’t measure up to her mother’s expectations. So when Mitchell Carson sweeps into her life with his adorable son, the ready-made family seems like a dream come true. In the blink of an eye, she’s married, has a new baby, and life is wonderful. Or is it? When her picture-perfect marriage begins unraveling at the seams, Ava […]
There has been talk of a big screen adaptation of Stephen King’s epic Dark Tower series almost since the first book: Dark Tower: The Gunslinger, was published in 1982. Roland Deschain’s ongoing hero’s journey has always begged for a big screen interpretation. And there have been lots who would have liked to make it. Getting the right players to the table has been another story. But now Nikolaj Arcel has been tapped to direct and the […]
Between surprising discoveries upon the publication today of Go Set a Watchman, Harper Lee’s long-awaited sequel to To Kill a Mockingbird, and the announcement of the rumored possible discovery of yet a third book by Lee, these late-career books by the well-loved author are beginning to feel like a bad joke. We’ve loved Atticus Finch and what he represents all of these years. Now this? From The Independent: The possibility of Lee having completed a […]
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