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 -
Your questions answered on Trump, climate change and VRThe pop-science writer behind Everything Bad is Good for You and Wonderland came in to answer your questions, on everything from innovation in science and technology, to his thoughts on the Trump administration
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Trying to flog a stolen 500-year-old Dante manuscriptTome raiders have stolen more than 160 rare books by abseiling into a warehouse, but they may struggle to cash in on their £2m crime -
In the Studio by Nancy CunardSuperficially traditional, this 1923 sonnet on an artist and his model conceals some of the daring that made the author a groundbreaking modernist
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Eat Me: A Natural and Unnatural History of CannibalismForget Silence of the Lambs: Bill Schutt’s book reveals the evolutionary reasons we may end up eating each other
news
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Edinburgh international book festival may be forced to moveSpokesman says that while the annual festival may have to relocate from usual spot in Charlotte Square, ‘we are sure we can come up with a solution’
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Terry Pratchett docudrama is a fittingly imaginative tribute to Discworld's geniusBack in Black’s inventive life story eschews the usual talking heads to focus on the author’s devoted fans – of whom I am one
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The political importance of having fun: why protests should be enjoyableFun is vulgar, immediate, democratic – and it defies the earnest powers that set out quite deliberately to make people miserable
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books in 2017
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Books to watch in 2017Jane Austen’s bicentenary, Arundhati Roy’s first novel in 20 years, and unpublished F Scott Fitzgerald ...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 54 – Brief Lives by John Aubrey (edited by Andrew Clark, 1898)Truly ahead of his time, the 17th-century historian and gossip John Aubrey is rightly credited as the man who invented biography
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Book of the dayBook of the dayFragile Lives by Stephen Westaby; Emergency Admissions by Kit Wharton – reviewPowerful memoirs by a heart surgeon and an ambulance driver tackle the ‘live or let die’ dilemma of modern healthcare
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The first book interviewThe first book interviewAlice Broadway: 'I guess it's inevitable that I became a bit death-obsessed'Ink’s heroine loses faith in a culture where people’s histories are etched on their skin – reflecting its author’s own disaffection from evangelical Christianity
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Top 10sTop 10sTop 10 books about the apocalypseWeaponised flu, hoax bombs that start exploding, totalitarian America and brain-thirsty zombies – here’s a flood of fictional world endings – and one that’s real
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Wonderland: How Play Made the Modern World – a seductive history of funSteven Johnson’s enjoyable new book argues that advances in society are driven by the need to keep ourselves entertained
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Lines in the Sand: Collected Journalism by AA GillThese posthumous essays reveal AA Gill’s ability to transcend the particular with wit and compassion
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Oliver Goldsmith in Grub Street by Norma ClarkeA lively account of 18th-century London’s literary underworld centres on the author of The Vicar of Wakefield
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Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life by Ruth Franklin – beyond spookyA sympathetic biography argues for a feminist reappraisal of a tortured genius of American gothic
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I’m Supposed to Protect You from All This by Nadja SpiegelmanThis charged memoir by the daughter of celebrated parents centres on her relationship with her mother, one defined by love and anger
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Once We Were Sisters by Sheila Kohler – a devastating reckoningA powerful memoir from an acclaimed novelist reveals a past of privilege, violence and possibly murder
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Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman – a rich retellingThe fantasy polymath reimagines Asgard, complete with giant cats, collapsible ships and gossipy squirrels
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Hame by Annalena McAfee – a metatextual Scottish taleCantankerous bards, remote islands and a US billionaire star in a novel steeped in Scots heritage
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Black Wave by Michelle Tea – a rollicking apocalypse fantasyA cult US author investigates addiction and apocalypse in a hallucinatory tale that’s as sobering as a blast of cold air
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The Transition by Luke Kennard – how to grow upThis ingenious novel about underachieving millennials is a dystopia in a velvet glove
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Smoke Over Malibu by Tim Walker – hardboiled hilarityA Hollywood-set caper nods to Ellroy and Chandler while firing jokes at everything from hipsters to reality TV
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Difficult Women by Roxane Gay – bold feminist storiesThe premises are intriguing and the language powerful, but the bestial men and masochistic women weaken these tales
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Wed Wabbit by Lissa Evans – a riotously funny adventureRecalling the magic of Dahl and Carroll, this tale of a tyrannical toy rabbit is the first must-read children’s book of the year
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The best new picture books and novelsA trip to the Arctic, coping with love, memory loss and OCD and the best PE excuse note ever written
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The Pomegranate Tree by Vanessa Altin – a child's-eye view of war-torn SyriaThis fictional diary of a young Kurdish teenager is harrowing, but for every barbarity there is a moment of courage or kindness
people
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Bettany Hughes: ‘I cannot write about the past unless I go where history happened’The historian and presenter on travels, mud-stained notebooks and the most expensive bottle of wine she ever bought
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We feminists don’t go in for heroines much, but Barbara Castle is mineBarbara Castle’s memoir exposed the obstacles facing women in public life, and showed how to overcome them
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For my family, a book was a kind of assaultThe French literary sensation and debut author of The End of Eddy on growing up without books
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I’ve always thought of myself as a dark writer, but this is utterly differentThe American novelist on writing horror, how Occupy gave capitalism back its name and the thunderbolt that has hit US politics
A selection of our favourite literary content from around the world
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The Little Library CaféThe Little Library CaféFood in books: breakfast rolls from The School at the ChaletKate Young seeks some escapist fiction and bakes a breakfast enjoyed by the children in the Austrian boarding school in Brent-Dyer’s 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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Michael Chabon on The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and ClayThe Pulitzer prize-winning novelist looks back on a modern classic at a Guardian book club event
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Sebastian Barry on his Costa-winning novel Days Without EndIn the week Sebastian Barry picked up his second Costa book of the year award, he joins us in the studio to read from and discuss Days Without End
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Illustrating Jane Austen's Mansfield ParkHere are the 23 competition finalists in the running to illustrate The Folio Society’s new edition of the classic story of Fanny Price
you may have missed
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A life in 4,000 booksWhen Nick Holdstock was asked to catalogue the books left behind in Doris Lessing’s home, he found annotations, drawings, dedications – and a few surprises
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I like being British. Even when I’m ashamed, I’m fascinatedThe books interview: The award-winning author on his new book of Norse mythology, Brexit and being an Englishman in New York
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How Waterstones came back from the deadThe chain of booksellers has announced its first profit in years – thanks in part to a bold decision to run each branch like a local bookshop
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The US writers who imagined a fascist futureFrom Sinclair Lewis and Philip Roth to Donald Trump’s favourite film, Citizen Kane, US culture has long told stories about homegrown authoritarianism. What can we learn from them?
Post your questions now Neil Gaiman webchat