Number 3 chiller
Listen to A. J. Betts on Radio National’s Life Matters discussing her Text Prize–winning novel, Zac & Mia, and her heartbreaking experiences working with young people in an oncology ward.
Why do writers drink? Besides the usual reasons, I guess.
Guys, The Spare Room is an incredible novel. Nicole Cliffe loves Helen Garner.
Do you know what a ‘plewd’ is? How about a ‘quimp’ or a ‘grawlix’? The fascinating secret language of comic strips.
‘[A] remarkably funny, tender book’: Gabriel Roth’s The Unknowns reviewed in the New York Times.
The murky world of literary libel, or, maybe it’s not a great idea to ‘write out your feelings’ about certain people in fiction.
J. M. Coetzee, Gerald Murnane and the relation between the real and the ideal, in Sydney Review of Books.
Why is English spelling so bizarre?
From the Brontë sisters to J. K. Rowling, a potted history of pen names.
Truly novel bookstores from around the world.
Watch a funny video featuring the grossest words in the English language.
Nicholas Shakespeare’s literary guide to Australia includes Murray Bail’s The Voyage and Eucalyptus, and Patrick White’s Happy Valley.
The greatest American novel? 9 experts share their opinions.
The DOJ has won its ebook antitrust case, to Amazon’s advantage.
For a Song and a Hundred Songs is a compelling and harrowing read: Liao Yiwu’s prison memoir reviewed in the New York Times.
How do we talk about books that are only okay?
Avoiding the passive voice—with zombies.
So Me and Mr. Booker is a book of wavering, hesitant in its sympathies, welcoming readers to find their own allegiances however they please, which is a mark of its confidence, as well as Cory Taylor’s impressive talents. A great review of Cory Taylor’s Read more
‘Women’s desire is an underestimated and constrained force’: an interview in the Guardian with Daniel Bergner, plus an extract from What Do Women Want? Adventures in the Science of Female Desire.
Everything you need to know about the great ebook price war.