books
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Books of the day Never Enough by Barney Hoskyns; The Ice Age by Luke Williams; A Really Good Day by Ayelet Waldman
Andrew AnthonyThree vivid memoirs reveal the horrific pull – and possible benefits – of illicit substances -
John Crace reduces the latest clean and healthy cookbook from the blogging author to a slimmer 700 words
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Book of the day The Novel of the Century: The Extraordinary Adventure of Les Misérables
Miranda SeymourDavid Bellos’s history of a bestseller written in exile puts Victor Hugo’s great novel centre stage once more -
The author of new book The Upstarts on how the new breed of tech startups changed the rules of the game
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One of Ireland’s most enduring female authors of the 20th century is given a shrewd epitaph, by her daughter
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Embarrassing bodies What did the Victorians have to hide?
Kathryn HughesWhat our 19th century forebears thought and felt is well-documented, but we know much less about how they really looked, warts and all
news
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Harryplax severus takes name from secretive Hogwarts teacher Severus Snape
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An essayist looks into the curious past of pathological collectors – and considers her own lifelong urge to hoard ever more volumes
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The novelist’s acclaimed biographer – and an eminent literary figure herself – joined us to answer questions about her elusive subject
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books in 2017
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Jane Austen’s bicentenary, Arundhati Roy’s first novel in 20 years, and unpublished F Scott Fitzgerald ... the literary year ahead
regulars
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100 Best Nonfiction Books of All Time100 Best Nonfiction Books of All TimeThe 100 best nonfiction books: No 52 – De Profundis by Oscar Wilde (1905)There is a thrilling majesty to Oscar Wilde’s tormented tour de force written as he prepared for release from Reading jail
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Book of the dayBook of the dayNever Enough by Barney Hoskyns; The Ice Age by Luke Williams; A Really Good Day by Ayelet Waldman – reviewThree vivid memoirs reveal the horrific pull – and possible benefits – of illicit substances
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The first book interviewThe first book interviewAlexandra Kleeman: ‘Where I grew up, there is a daily sense of your smallness'You Too Can Have a Body Like Mine depicts a young woman’s dissociation from suburban life. Its author explains her focus on a very modern kind of loneliness
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Top 10sTop 10sTop 10 books about voyeursReading fiction is a variety of voyeurism already, but these stories brilliantly examine the most sinister varieties of looking
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Autobiography and memoir What Language Do I Dream In? by Elena Lappin – questions of identity
John GallagherThis thoughtful investigation of a family’s tangled polyglot past explores reinvention and the politics of language -
The story of the Syrian people is usually one of refugees and victims, but this study details artistic resistance at a time of crisis
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A posthumous collection from the eloquent but controversial bon viveur
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History The Holocaust by Laurence Rees – the voices of victims and killers
Nikolaus WachsmannWhat makes this nuanced ‘new history’ stand out is its use of unpublished interviews with eyewitnesses -
How remote are the blackshirts of the 1930s from today? Biographies of John Beckett and ‘Lord Haw-Haw’ explore the history of fascism in the UK
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This expert and elegant history of art dealers provides background to today’s art world, funded by ‘idiots with pretensions’
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A sleepless mother and daughter wander their house by night while a girl accepts a ride from a stranger in a collection of nuance and delicacy
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This 20th-century epic, Auster’s first novel in seven years, sees one hero lead four lives
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The writing is a delight in this sharply funny debut about coming of age in the US
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An exquisite closeup of a toxic marriage interrogates the ephemeral nature of everyday existence
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There’s a kick-ass (yet optimistic) new hero in The Unstoppable Wasp, plus the tasteful compendium honouring the Pulse nightclub tragedy
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A prizewinning poet makes the leap to fiction with a quietly excellent collection set among the wealth, the grime and the depleting emptiness of Los Angeles
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A classic story about pugilists and poverty in 1950s California hits hard nearly five decades on
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A trip to the Arctic, coping with love, memory loss and OCD and the best PE excuse note ever written
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Children and teenagers The Pomegranate Tree by Vanessa Altin – a child's-eye view of war-torn Syria
Piers TordayThis fictional diary of a young Kurdish teenager is harrowing, but for every barbarity there is a moment of courage or kindness -
Flood of tributes to to author and illustrator of ‘exuberant, heartfelt and very funny’ books led by led by children’s laureate Chris Riddell
people
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Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk blurs the line between what is real and what is fake, and allows the viewer no escape from implication
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You Too Can Have a Body Like Mine depicts a young woman’s dissociation from suburban life. Its author explains her focus on a very modern kind of loneliness
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The Worst Witch’s creator looks back on a career that began startlingly early and continues to this day, even during chemotherapy
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Paperback writer Lesley Blanch never apologised for who she was
Georgia de ChamberetThe editor of On the Wilder Shores of Love, which collects the author’s autobiographical fragments, pays tribute to a wildly unconventional and romantic woman
A selection of our favourite literary content from around the world
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The Little Library CaféThe Little Library CaféFood in books: icecream from Miss Pettigrew Lives for a DayTo celebrate female friendship, Kate Young reimagines a sweet treat enjoyed by Miss Pettigrew and a pal during a night out in Winifred Watson’s famous novel
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Interview with a Bookstore by Literary HubInterview with a Bookstore by Literary HubInterview with a Bookstore: Blue Willow Bookshop in HoustonCelebrating 20 years since owner Valerie took over, Blue Willow Bookshop is equally split between adults and children’s books, and staffed with knowledgable booksellers who can do anything - including fixing vacuum cleaners
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pictures, video & audio
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As 21st-century telescopes transform the hunt for extraterrestrials from SF to hard science, physicist Jim Al-Khalili examines the prospects for finding life in space
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Tom Gauld looks at reading to lift the spirits, inspired by writers on their favourite funny books
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A national treasure reads from the latest volume of his diaries and discusses finding inspiration in the everyday
you may have missed
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Burns night The battle over Scottish identity continues
Annalena McAfeeScots is now recognised as an official language, but its use remains a contested issue. Poet Hugh MacDiarmid, an early champion of reviving Scots vernacular, lit this fuse for the battle over language and identity -
Reading fiction is a variety of voyeurism already, but these stories brilliantly examine the most sinister varieties of looking
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A fortysomething who is still ‘pinching herself’ at starting a publishers’ bidding war. A woman who fell under the spell of witches. And a film critic with widescreen ambitions
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Does Theresa May really know what citizenship means?
Tom McCarthyThe prime minister may not know her Aeschylus, writes the novelist Tom McCarthy, but she has a duty to understand the basic concepts she invokes
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100 Best Nonfiction Books of All Time De Profundis by Oscar Wilde