books
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What are you reading this week?Your space to discuss the books you are reading and what you think of them – plus our favourite literary links -
Galiano Island Books, on a tiny Canadian islandThe owners of this family-run bookshop on Galiano Island (population 1,258) talk about getting bitten by the ‘bookstore bug’ and surreal customer exchanges
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Jessica Valenti shares a story women know all too wellOne of the country’s best-known feminists reflects on the lasting effects of street harassment in a memoir that serves as a call for change -
DC Comics mashes up Batman and The AvengersUsed to writing darker outings for the caped crusader, writer Ian Edginton talks about the fun he’s been having ‘playing with other people’s toys’
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Of a Poynted Diamond … by John HaringtonA gift from Elizabeth I’s ‘saucy godson’ to his wife brings lusty and sparky life to the epigram form
news
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Commonwealth short story prize goes to writer's first taleCow and Company by Indian academic Parashar Kulkarni beats 4,000 other contestants to £5,000 prize
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Elena Ferrante, Slavoj Žižek and other European writers on BrexitAhead of the European referendum, we asked leading authors and thinkers from EU countries to write letters to Britain. Do they want us to stay, or are they ready to say goodbye?
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Writers need new ways of talking about Africa's past and presentFrom memoirs to Star Wars – African writers need new ways to tell our stories
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regulars
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Top 10sTop 10sTop 10 books to make you a better personDon’t be put off! Works by WG Sebald, Roberto Bolaño and Wallace Shawn and others can help us to see ourselves more clearly and understand life better
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Reading groupReading groupHelp choose a translated book for June's Reading groupTranslated fiction is doing better than ever in the UK, so now seems like a fine time to zero in on a good example. But which?
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100 Best Nonfiction Books of All Time100 Best Nonfiction Books of All TimeThe 100 best nonfiction books: No 19 – The Making of the English Working Class by EP Thompson (1963)
The 100 best nonfiction books: No 19 – The Making of the English Working Class by EP Thompson (1963)
This influential, painstakingly compiled masterpiece reads as an anatomy of preindustrial Britain – and a description of the lost experience of the common man -
PodcastPodcastSimon Ingram and Fiona Reynolds on our natural landscapes – books podcastSimon Ingram tackles the forbidding rock face of the mountaineering memoir, while Fiona Reynolds mounts a passionate plea for the defence of our natural landscape
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The Gene by Siddhartha Mukherjee – intriguing and entertainingDespite flaws, this lively and accessible history of the gene and its implications for the future is bursting with complex ideas
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Soul of an Octopus by Sy Montgomery – a fond study of the elusive ‘alien’Sy Montgomery’s account of octopuses will do much to rehabilitate the much maligned and mythologised creature
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Tide: The Science and Lore of the Greatest Force on EarthHugh Aldersey-Williams’s scholarly survey of the history of tides, from the Bristol Channel to the Bay of Fundy, is enlightening
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The Fall of the House of Wilde – Oscar's family misfortunesEmer O’Sullivan traces the journey of the literary giant’s Dublin family from riches to rags
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And The Sun Shines Now – a bold vision of Hillsborough, football and BritainAdrian Tempany’s vivid survivor’s account and examination of the effect of the disaster on football and society is authoritative and gripping
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My Old Man by Ted Kessler – why we should talk to our dads before it’s too lateLeonard Cohen, Rod Stewart, Chris Martin and Shaun Ryder feature in this collection of tales of fathers … stories of love, neglect, violence and hero worship
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A work of scratchy geniusInspired by The Satyricon, French master Blutch’s tale of a mysterious Roman maiden has finally been translated
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A sharp coming-of-age comedyLizzie Vogel has made it into adolescence, but she’s still got mother to look after in this sharply observed tale
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An extraordinary hymn to small-town IrelandOne family man’s Day of the Dead in County Mayo after the boom and bust
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The best recent crime novelsDifferent Class by Joanne Harris; Girls on Fire by Robin Wasserman; A Rising Man by Abir Mukherjee; Easy Motion Tourist by Leye Adenle; Sockpuppet by Matthew Blakstad
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A touching, thought-provoking debutA young vulnerable boy is taken into care after his mother is no longer able to cope
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Funny, brutal and touchingStibbe’s young heroine Lizzie Vogel comes of age, contending with ‘comfort rounds’ and commodes in an elderly care home
people
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I’ve had a life. I see how slippery things can beAt 80, Annie Proulx is as acute (and prickly) as ever. As her latest book, Barkskins, is published, Lucy Rock visits her woodland home to talk trees, Trump – and why she’s bored with navel-gazing novels
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She brought back storytellingAs Harry Potter and the Cursed Child hits the West End, five writers reveal how Rowling changed their field
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Getting to know my father, the womanAfter decades of estrangement from her ultra-competitive father, an email arrived: she was a woman. Could they rebuild their relationship?
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Where do I write? On the train, in the pub, Heathrow Terminal 5...The novelist describes his protean working practices – which might take place at 6am or 5pm, in his sister-in-law’s flat or on the top deck of a bus
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Black girls can be princesses too, that's why I wrote my booksThe Princess Arabella books are now famous in Holland and beyond, but publishers worried Arabella’s ‘uncombed’ hair might be considered offensive in the US. Dutch author Mylo Freeman on how the battle for diversity in children’s books is far from over
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What are the best books to help children feel connected to Europe?From Ludwig Bemelmans’s Madeline to Katherine Rundell’s Rooftoppers, children’s literature is full of delicious insights into European cities – great for travellers and political pondering too
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Marcus Sedgwick's Saint Death - cover reveal and exclusive extract!Be the first to read an extract of Marcus Sedgwick’s thrilling new YA book. Set on the border of Mexico and the US, Saint Death explores death, love, money, power, guns, gambling and lies
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How to draw… a food obsessed urban dogKevin Waldron shows you how to draw a dog - just not necessarily an obedient one...
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The Racehorse Who Wouldn't Gallop by Clare BaldingCan Charlie turn her chaotic family into a top training team? Can her horse overcome his nerves? Find out in the debut children’s book from Clare Balding – read the first chapter and hear Clare read it here
A selection of our favourite literary content from around the world
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The Little Library CaféThe Little Library CaféFood in books: the raspberry and coconut cakes in Sarah Perry's The Essex SerpentKate Young discovers Sarah Perry’s new novel, full of realistic portraits of London, fantastic characters and a great love of food
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Interview with a Bookstore by Literary HubInterview with a Bookstore by Literary HubInterview with a Bookstore: Galiano Island Books, on a tiny Canadian islandThe owners of this family-run bookshop on Galiano Island (population 1,258) talk about getting bitten by the ‘bookstore bug’ and surreal customer exchanges
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pictures, video & audio
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Simon Ingram and Fiona Reynolds on our natural landscapesSimon Ingram tackles the forbidding rock face of the mountaineering memoir, while Fiona Reynolds mounts a passionate plea for the defence of our natural landscape
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Looking down on Britain – maps of the UK across timeFrom Peter Pan’s movements in Kensington back to images of imperial vanity and plans of Saxon kingdoms, maps provide fascinating routes through British history. Many are on show at the London Map Fair, or you can consult some here
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Nazi architecture, then and nowSeventy years after the fall of Nazi Germany, a surprising number of its buildings and public spaces remain. A new book examines these unsettling survivals. Here are some of them
you may have missed
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Being out of London is the new being in LondonThe Scottish writer on the polluted capital, her lifelong love of the stage and finding serendipity in Wivenhoe
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The Psalm Killer remains at its black, beating heart a piece of classic noirPetit’s fictional account of the Troubles was not only a perfectly judged noir novel – it was also a political investigation into a dark period of recent history, says Alan Moore
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What is so special about things that never happened?As his best-known book turns 40, the author reflects on what he has learned about writing and science
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What really happened during Napoleon's exileIn his latest novel, Keneally tells the extraordinary story of the emperor’s last years on the remote island of St Helena. Here he reveals how artefacts from the emperor’s home, now on display, inspired him to write the book
Frederick Seidel It's necessary to criticise the left