Book Review: Jen Silverman’s gripping second novel explores the long afterlife of political violence

Book Review: Jen Silverman’s gripping second novel explores the long afterlife of political violence

Earlier this year a former member of the far-left Baader-Meinhof gang who spent decades in hiding was arrested by German police in connection with a string of crimes. It was just another example of the long afterlife of the anti-war movement of the late 1960s, which Jen Silverman explores in a brilliant, beautifully written new … Read more

Maia Kobabe’s ‘Gender Queer’ tops list of most criticized library books for third straight year

Maia Kobabe’s ‘Gender Queer’ tops list of most criticized library books for third straight year

NEW YORK — Maia Kobabe’s graphic memoir “Gender Queer” continues its troubled run as the country’s most controversial book, topping the American Library Association’s “challenged books” list for a third straight year. Kobabe’s coming-of-age story was published in 2019, and received the library association’s Alex Award for best young adult literature. But it has since … Read more

Sex, drugs and the Ramones: CNN’s Camerota ties up ‘loose ends’ from high school

Sex, drugs and the Ramones: CNN’s Camerota ties up ‘loose ends’ from high school

NEW YORK — Wandering the former site of New York’s famed CBGB nightclub, pointing to familiar names on band posters spread amid carefully preserved graffiti, is like being transported to a life that CNN’s Alisyn Camerota has long since left behind. The high-end apparel store there now has kept some of those artifacts to appeal … Read more

Eoin Colfer continues Juniper Lane series with ‘Guardians of Cedar Wood’

Eoin Colfer continues Juniper Lane series with ‘Guardians of Cedar Wood’

NEW YORK — Bestselling author Eoin Colfer has a new set of adventures ready for young Juniper Lane. Colfer’s “Guardians of Cedar Wood” is scheduled to come out in 2025, Roaring Brook Press, an imprint of Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group, announced Thursday. It’s the second book in Colfer’s middle-grade series about Juniper Lane and a … Read more

John Barth, innovative postmodernist novelist, dies at 93

John Barth, innovative postmodernist novelist, dies at 93

ANNAPOLIS, Md. — John Barth, the playfully erudite author whose darkly comic and complicated novels revolved around the art of literature and launched countless debates over the art of fiction, died Tuesday. He was 93. Johns Hopkins University, where Barth was an emeritus professor of English and creative writing, confirmed his death in a statement. … Read more

Maryse Condé, prolific ‘grande dame’ of Caribbean literature, dies at age 90

Maryse Condé, prolific ‘grande dame’ of Caribbean literature, dies at age 90

NEW YORK — Maryse Condé, an acclaimed French-language novelist from Guadeloupe who in novels, stories, plays and memoirs imagined and redefined the personal and historical past from 17th century New England to contemporary Europe, has died at age 90. Condé, winner in 2018 of an “alternate” Nobel Prize, died Monday night at a hospital in … Read more

Sami Michael, Iraqi-born and award-winning Israeli author and activist, dies at 97

Sami Michael, Iraqi-born and award-winning Israeli author and activist, dies at 97

JERUSALEM — Sami Michael, an award-winning Iraqi-Israeli author who was known for writing poignantly about oppressed minorities and the challenges faced by Jews from Arab countries, died on Monday. He was 97. His characters, who were often Arabic-speaking Jews like himself, opened a window into the particular pains and challenges faced by Mizrahi Jews from … Read more

Book Review: Short story anthology ‘The Black Girl Survives in This One’ challenges the horror canon

Book Review: Short story anthology ‘The Black Girl Survives in This One’ challenges the horror canon

Ahh, the Final Girl — a point of pride, a point of contention. Too often, the white, virginal, Western ideal. But not this time. “The Black Girl Survives in This One,” a short story anthology edited by Saraciea J. Fennell and Desiree S. Evans, is changing the literary horror canon. As self-proclaimed fans of “Scary … Read more

Book Review: ‘Glorious Exploits’ turns classical history into an endearing comedy about tragedy

Book Review: ‘Glorious Exploits’ turns classical history into an endearing comedy about tragedy

Best friends Lampo and Gelon are potters by trade, but their souls are filled with poetry. It’s 412 B.C. and the city of Syracuse doesn’t know what hit it when these two hatch up the best worst idea: They’ll put on a play using the Athenian prisoners of war who are starving to death down … Read more

Laurent de Brunhoff, ‘Babar’ heir and author, dies at age 98

Laurent de Brunhoff, ‘Babar’ heir and author, dies at age 98

NEW YORK — NEW YORK (AP) — “Babar” author Laurent de Brunhoff, who revived his father’s popular picture book series about an elephant-king and presided over its rise to a global, multimedia franchise, has died. He was 98. De Brunhoff, a Paris native who moved to the U.S. in the 1980s, died Friday at his … Read more