This week! Books! David Owen of The New Yorker and I should absolutely go bowling together because he has written an exhaustive screed against front-loaded, somersaulting sentences, which has a surprising history with roots in journalism and misguided “elegant variation.” David my man, tell it like it is: The awkwardness is obvious if you imagine […]
Jennifer Hubbard
Jeff Bezos steps down as CEO of Amazon (This week in books)
This week! Books! Upstart online bookseller Jeff Bezos is stepping down as CEO of Amazon, ceding the spot to Andy Jessy, who led Amazon Web Services. Bezos will serve as Executive Chairman, and he’s still expected to stay involved in Amazon’s future. More and more of Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories are in the […]
Coronavirus hits the publishing industry (This week in books)
This week! Books! First off, I hope everyone is safe and healthy amid these very stressful times. I don’t have any knowledge to bring to bear on what to expect, but it seems like we’re soon going to have lots of time indoors. Take care of yourself and your loved ones, but I also just […]
RWA implodes (This week in books)
This week! Books! New decade! RIP to legendary Knopf leader Sonny Mehta, whose influence on the world of literature would be hard to overstate. I particularly liked this quote, spotted by Publishers Lunch: I don’t think you can work in this business without faith or optimism. Reading a manuscript, sensing something special about it, and […]
The importance of choosing a genre (This week in books)
This week! In Books! I’ve long been on the record that authors need to choose a genre. What does literary agent Jessica Faust have to say on the matter? You need to choose a genre. “No book transcends all genres and succeeds by being all things.” Also from Jessica Faust, an inside look at how […]
Can reading make you happier? (This week in books)
This week. Books. Can reading make you happier? The New Yorker has an awesome article about bibliotherapy and the extent to which books can improve happiness. This isn’t an opinion, it’s science. Studies have shown that reading activates the same regions of the brain as if the reader were experiencing those activities, people who read […]
