books
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Imagining the future with Claire Vaye Watkins and Leif WenarWe look ahead to a dystopian California and a world where the wealth brought by oil no longer fuels autocrats and extremists -
Bret Easton Ellis: today's American Psycho would be an online trollThe author’s novel is now a musical due to make its Broadway debut – prompting Ellis to muse about what the murderous banker would be up to in 2016
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Finland ranked world's most literate nationReport pooling studies of ‘literate behaviour characteristics’ from around the world puts the Nordic country first, 16 places ahead of the UK -
Volunteer finds letter written for dying soldier by Walt WhitmanRare letter penned by American poet to wife of private Robert Jabo discovered among civil war pensions applications in US National Archives
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Freya by Anthony Quinn – swimming against the tide in Fleet StreetThe fortunes and friendship of two aspiring female writers who meet in 1945, in an unexpected sequel to Curtain Call
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Has a book ever changed your view of an artist?Biographer John Richardson inspired a love of Picasso while novelist Somerset Maugham demolished Gauguin. Which writers have changed your opinion?
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Neil Gaiman's Sandman: maybe a film adaptation just isn't meant to beAttempts to bring the Neil Gaiman comic books to the screen have foundered repeatedly – but is filming such a complex work a good idea in the first place?
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regulars
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Top 10sTop 10sTop 10 books about breastsThe performance poet and mother Hollie McNish considers the best literature that ‘these ingenious areas on a woman’s body’ have inspired
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Reading groupReading groupHigh-Rise: Ballard's detached tone presents a steep moral challengeThe calm, detached way in which JG Ballard depicts a savage community leaves the reader to articulate the frightening implications for themselves
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100 Best Nonfiction Books of All Time100 Best Nonfiction Books of All TimeThe 100 best nonfiction books: No 6 – A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking (1988)The theoretical physicist’s mega-selling account of the origins of the universe is a masterpiece of scientific inquiry that has influenced the minds of a generation
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PodcastPodcastImagining the future with Claire Vaye Watkins and Leif Wenar – books podcastWe look ahead to a dystopian California and a world where the wealth brought by oil no longer fuels autocrats and extremists
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Broken Vows: Tony Blair, The Tragedy of Power by Tom Bower – why is he so loathed by so many?The former PM under a palm tree or parading in his underpants … priceless vignettes, but is there a smoking gun in 680 pages of character assassination?
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Gordon Bennett and the First Yacht Race Across the Atlantic by Sam Jefferson – a thrilling contest on the wavesGordon Bennett’s extravagances were so famous that his name became an exclamation of incredulity. An account of one great adventure illuminates a playboy who was ‘savage at heart’
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Cowboy Song: The Authorised Biography of Philip Lynott – Thin Lizzy’s workaholic, troubled frontmanGraeme Thomson’s excellent book details the singer’s difficult childhood, the glory years of The Boys are Back in Town and how he took heroin with Sid Vicious
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Battling the Gods: Atheism in the Ancient WorldDoubt about religious faith are as old as religion itself – Tim Whitmarsh’s brilliant book carefully explores literary and philosophical sources to make the case for a questioning of the gods in Greek and Roman times
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Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew DesmondThis first-hand account of the harsh realities of the American rental housing market is bleak and salutary
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Pretentiousness: Why It Matters by Dan Fox – what’s wrong with being a great pretender?This shrewd book argues that pretentiousness is central to our progress and our individuality
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Superabundance by Heinz Helle – debut novel of alienationFragmentary prose is welded by a hypnotic voice
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Ten Days by Gillian Slovo – a powerful response to the English riotsSlovo’s experience of theatre brilliantly informs this timely thriller about devious politicians, tensions in the Met and anger on the streets
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The Interpreter by Diego Marani – a novel view of languagePart shaggy dog story, part dark comedy and above all an investigation into the way humans communicate
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Aeneid Book VI by Seamus Heaney – a pitch-perfect translationSeamus Heaney’s rendering of Virgil brings the ancient world to life with plain language and striking juxtapositions
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At the Edge of the Orchard by Tracy ChevalierTracy Chevalier returns to America’s pioneers and a family with a secret struggling to make a living from the land
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Thus Bad Begins by Javier Marías – too much dazzleJavier Marías’s elegant 14th novel yokes Spain’s dark past to a tale of domestic spying – but the result lacks substance
people
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Karl Ove Knausgaard, in conversation with John MullanAt a Guardian Live Book Club event, the Norwegian literary phenomenon Karl Ove Knausgaard explains how and why he has put the most intimate details of his life into his autobiographical novels
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Three authors give tips on children's writingChildren’s author Philip Ardagh, Cressida Cowell and Laura Dockrill on how to write for an audience with short attention spans, ‘spongier’ brains and parents who demand morals over laughs
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I wanted to be Engels' mistressThe debut novelist describes the imaginative journey that writing Mrs Engels took him on, to reach two women who barely register in history
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Author's letters reveal 'polygamous, amoral' characterCache of letters to a former lover, kept private until now, reveal the writer’s unorthodox passions
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From abseiling to free running: my book research adventures – in picturesAbi grew up in the wilds of Scotland, where the sense of wonder she experienced in remote and almost forgotten places made her want to write wild, outdoor adventures years later… this gallery gives a tantalising glimpse into the intense research trips behind her new book The Shadow Keeper
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Lois Lane is far more than 'just' Superman's girlfriendLois Lane is brave, smart, fearless, ambitious journalist who always goes after the story – and it’s time to put her famous love interest to one side argues teen author Gwenda Bond
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Irish children's book of the year award shortlist revealedOliver Jeffers has two books in the running for this year’s CBI book of the year awards - find out who else is a contender for the most prestigious award for Irish children’s books
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YA book prize 2016 shortlistDiscover the 10 titles in the running for the YA book prize shortlist. The £2000 prize will be announced on 2 June
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Female villainsMG Leonard picks the very nastiest of fictional women from Cruella de Vil and Bellatrix Lestrange to the White Witch and Mrs Coulter
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Family book reviewsFrom lost quacks to discovering symphonies via worms, witches and fairies – here’s a roundup of what our family readers were reviewing last month
A selection of our favourite literary content from around the world
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The Little Library CaféThe Little Library CaféFood in books: syllabub from Brambly Hedge Summer StoryAs she waits patiently for spring weather, Kate Young revisits her bookshelves and stumbles upon this sweet tale of mice making cheese and celebrating weddings
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Translation Tuesdays by AsymptoteTranslation Tuesdays by AsymptoteTranslation Tuesday: excerpt from A Contribution to the History of Joy by Radka DenemarkováToday is International Women’s Day, and this newly translated work from an award-winning Czech writer is a passionate call to protect women everywhere from violence – in the shape of a teenager’s account of her gang rape
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pictures, video & audio
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Baileys women's prize for fiction 2016 longlistCoinciding with International Women’s Day, the 2016 longlist for the Baileys prize – the UK’s only annual book award for fiction written by a woman – has been announced
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The Orwell prize for books 2016 longlistWhat is the threat from Islamic militancy and how do we start to care for the carers? The 13 books contending for the UK’s top political prize tackle key issue of today
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Medical literature with Chris Brookmyre, Gavin Francis and Samer NashefWe travel around the human body with GP Gavin Francis, venture into the operating theatre with surgeon Samer Nashef and join investigative reporter Jack Parlabane on the trail of ‘blade bitch’
you may have missed
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Books about breastsThe performance poet and mother Hollie McNish considers the best literature that ‘these ingenious areas on a woman’s body’ have inspired
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Some Rain Must Fall by Karl Ove Knausgaard‘Gunvor didn’t mind my erectile dysfunction and it was all very nice apart from the times when I was unfaithful to her’
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How to start – and win – an argument onlineShun cynicism, give champagne socialists a break, and above all, be nice. The internet ninja shares her hard-won rules
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My mother, before I knew herInspired by Carol Ann Duffy’s poem Before You Were Mine, writers reflect on photographs of their mothers before they were born
‘I want to stare death in the eye’ How Christopher Hitchens, Susan Sontag, John Updike and other great writers confronted their mortality