Books

Books

At the window he put his nose against the glass, which was beautifully cold, then drew away and saw the new consistency of the air: quick and blurred and sputtering white. The changed air was leaving itself on the tree branches. The care in those words, the sensitivity! Snow-dreaded, beloved; oppressive, angelic; shoveled, ogled-with the agency to leave itself so wonderfully on the branches! For no fault of his own, James is often in need of salvation. Like snow, he is the most beautiful problem.

Wild Swans, first published in 1991 and written by Jung Chang with the help of her husband, Irish-born historian and writer Jon Halliday, had a global impact few authors dare to dream of. It told the story of three generations of women in 20th-century China Chang's grandmother, her mother and herself and became one of the most popular nonfiction books in history, selling more than 13m copies in 37 languages and collecting a fistful of awards and commendations.

bell hooks's teachings provided me with a new lens through which to view my role as a father, encouraging me to redefine what love and responsibility truly mean.

The Second Wednesday of every Month, The Setup presents"A Funny Thing Happened", a night of world class storytelling. You'll be joining bestselling authors, Emmy-Award winning writers, TED speakers, stars of The Moth Radio hour, Snap Judgment and accomplished comedic voices in an intimate setting right in the heart of San Francisco. "A Funny Thing Happened" Storytelling Night Every Second Wednesday | 8 pm The Beer Basement, 222 Hyde St,

Just over two years ago, I interviewed Katriona O'Sullivan - then a senior lecturer, but now a professor in Maynooth University's department of psychology - in her sparse on-campus office. We talked, and cried a little, as she detailed the story that would become her memoir, Poor. A remarkable and powerful account of poverty, addiction, neglect, homelessness and trauma, O'Sullivan recalled how she was born in Coventry to parents battling addiction.

This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here. Nonfiction books sometimes get a reputation for being hard to slog through. But the qualities that make good novels so enjoyable-the well-paced plot, the engaging characters-can also be found in many of their fact-based counterparts. The Atlantic 's writers and editors answer the question: What is a nonfiction book that reads like fiction?

Every answer is a famous person whose first or last name is geographical -- city, state, country, or otherwise. Ex. Novelist Jack --> Jack LONDON ("The Call of the Wild") 1. Actor River 2. Actor Gooding Jr. 3. Artist O'Keeffe 4. Media personality Hilton 5. Composer Irving 6. Actress Fanning 7. Actress Ferrera 8. Adventurer in film Jones 9. Spy in film Powers 10. Video game traveler Carmen 11. Artist Pollock 12. [Phonetic:] Jazz pianist Chick

It was in a Guardian image gallery that I read Justine Kurland describing her son as giving her pictures. When I read that, I knew I could never put it better myself. I only photograph people I have ties with. These people give me these pictures, particularly my husband, Dylan.

The plot heats up when the siblings enter their truck in a competitive cooking show for publicity, only for a contestant to turn up dead, turning the event into a real elimination challenge. With help from their loyal assistant and Beth's best friend Rylie, they follow clues to solve the twisted case before danger strikes closer to home. This blend of mystery and mouthwatering elements keeps pages turning, offering an escapist read filled with banter and surprises.

Which version of a story we choose to tell, which characters we place in the foreground, which ones we allow to fade into the shadows: these reflect both the teller and the reader, as much as they show the characters of the myth. Considerations of culture and bias have been central to the recent wave of mythic retellings focused on women,

I want to begin with a hard truth most authors don't find out until it's too late: 96% of books sell fewer than 1,000 copies. 🫣 This is not because the authors didn't work hard. Not because the books weren't good. But because the launch (the part that gets the book into readers' hands) didn't have the right strategy behind it.

When Beverly Cleary's fictional Henry Huggins made his debut in 1950, he was a third grader whose "hair looked like a scrubbing brush and most of his grown-up front teeth were in." He was also bored. Apart from having his tonsils out and falling out of a cherry tree, "nothing much happened to Henry." But pretty soon after we meet him, by page three in fact, Henry comes upon a scrawny mutt who stares at him eating an ice cream cone and the adventures begin.

Once in a while, mistakes happen. I mention this mistake because it testifies to something powerful about Patrick Ryan's new novel, Buckeye. When I made a late request for an advance review copy of Buckeye, the copy I received looked fine, but when I opened it I realized it was mistakenly bound backwards. The title page was at the very end of this over-450-page novel.

Calling all lovers of musty, dog-eared, yellow-paged books: a new independent shop for secondhand tomes opened last week in Muswell Hill, north London. In a useful repurposing of a high-street space, it occupies the site of an old funeral parlour - but you'll be thankful to know it stocks more than just horror. The shop, which is on Fortis Green Road, opened on September 6 and is run by husband-and-wife duo Chris and Katrina Masson.

But the Revenue Commissioners also found his tax details to be a page turner. It found that he owed €1.44m for the under-declaration of income tax. It added €271,000 in interest and a further €432,000 in penalties to the bill he owed the taxman. It brought the novelist's settlement with Revenue to more than €2.14m. The amount has been paid in full, according to the latest list of tax defaulters.

In this episode, we explain how anchor plates help hold up brick walls; why metal fire escapes are mostly found on older buildings; what impact camouflaging defensive designs has on public spaces; who benefits from those spray-painted markings on city streets, and more. Drawing from stories in the book, we talk about everything from stoplights and crosswalks to speed cushions and easement plaques.

Madinat al-Zahra spotlights the cultural accomplishments of the Umayyads and their capital through architectural elements, luxury goods, pottery, coins, and scientific instruments. These not only showcase how fashions and tastes were shaped through contemporary diplomacy, politics, and trade, but also vividly illustrate the significant cultural impacts of Islamic traditions in al-Andalus. These impacts are explored further in this catalogue, which delves into the pursuits of caliphal court culture such as astronomy, poetry, and medicine, as well as the multicultural nature of society at the time.

The calendar said that Frank Leahy was sixty years old on that last night of January 1969. One look at Leahy would have labeled the calendar a fabulist. He still stood erect, five foot eleven, and his waistline barely had wavered from those postwar days when he strode the Fighting Irish sideline, an American celebrity at the peak of his command. But the crevasses in Leahy's face, the ruddy cheeks, and the thinning gray hair indicated the ravages taken by time and leukemia.

The front tables and shelves that once held paperback fiction now display thickly bound catalogues on artists such as Jenny Saville, Peter Beard, Willem de Kooning and Richard Prince. One series of Ed Ruscha catalogues is priced at $1,600. What do these offerings all have in common? The artists-or their estates-are represented by Gagosian Gallery, the other business of the bookstore's new owner, art world mogul Larry Gagosian.

Sophie Green documents the culture on her doorstep; she's fascinated by who - and what - makes British culture, and its "layered, joyful, and often quietly resistant" communities. Sophie's new book, Tangerine Dreams, is the culmination of a decade of documentation, covering Aladura Spiritualist congregations, modified street car communities, marching bands, dance troupes, British cowboys, dog shows, horse racing fans, Peckham afro hair salons, and Irish dancers.

Dragonlance Chronicles is one of the most celebrated Dungeons & Dragons book series, but physical editions had been difficult to find for reasonable prices in recent years. That changed when Random House Worlds published the original trilogy as an omnibus earlier this year. The 1,056-page hardcover made the New York Times Bestseller list at launch and sold out multiple times at major retailers.

That June, The New Yorker immortalized the boom in a group portrait celebrating the 50th anniversary of India's independence: Salman Rushdie (still in hiding, at the time) stood at the center, flanked by Vikram Seth, Amitav Ghosh, Anita Desai, and Rohinton Mistry, among others. A younger generation was represented by Kiran Desai, Vikram Chandra, Amit Chaudhuri, and-caught in the middle of a laugh-a beaming Roy.

As distractions loom large in our lives, it's vital to focus on the process of growth, recognizing that every small step leads to significant progress.

Turn to the first page of The Couch in the Yard and you tumble into a small town at sunset. A rusty car sits in a bed of flowers and a family readies for an adventure, securing a spare couch to its roof. They follow gravelly roads "up in the mountains, down through the hollow," past "the stormed-down oaks, and the old scrap heap," writes author Kate Hoefler.

The stylish Metroteka, which opened this week in the Kondratowicza M2 line metro station in the Polish capital's Targowek district, offers two reading areas for adults and children, as well as a space for public readings and events. About 16,000 books are on offer in the 150 sq metre and can be borrowed through an express checkout machine using contactless chips.

That's what Canadian artist John Howe has done, following in the footsteps of Bilbo, Frodo, and other characters from J. R. R. Tolkien's works from Bag End, the two hobbits' home in the Shire, to Mordor, Sauron's dark realm, visiting along the way places as famous (and some as ominous) to Tolkien fans as Rivendell, Isengard, Khazad-dum, Minas Tirith, Edoras, and Helm's Deep.