Books

book gossip

How Lit Mags Are Dealing With AI-Slop Submissions

 “You don’t have to be an AI booster to think ‘catching people out’ is a poor use of the literary community’s energy.” By Jasmine Vojdani
best of 2026

The Best Books of the Year So Far

 2026’s highlights include a stunning debut novel, a riveting nonfiction mystery, and a brazenly painful memoir. By Emma Alpern and Jasmine Vojdani
must reads

7 New Books to Read This June

 A new Ann Patchett, a reissue of a Pulitzer-winning book of essays, and a sprawling, intelligent immigrant novel. By Emma Alpern and Jasmine Vojdani
  1. rip
    Marjane Satrapi, Persepolis Writer, Dead at 56Her family and friends say she “died of sadness” after the death of her husband.
    By Jason P. Frank
  2. book review
    Maggie O’Farrell Goes MaximalistThe Hamnet author’s new novel, Land, is her most ambitious work to date.
    By Rachel Vorona Cote
  3. book review
    I Keep Falling for Ann Patchett’s Slightly Maudlin NovelsHer latest, Whistler, is full of unusually decent people. But it still made me tear up.
    By Emma Alpern
  4. booktok get ready
    Smith Jerrod Is Moving to Costa RicaThe Sex and the City star is working on an original fantasy-book series.
    By Alejandra Gularte
  5. jesus freaks
    Interview With the Vampire Wants to Do the Anne Rice Jesus Stuff“If you didn’t grab one or two of the totally psychotic, weird, wild things, you’d be missing out on what makes her as an artist, singular.”
    By Bethy Squires
  7. chapters
    ‘They Don’t Have Sex the Same Way’In 2018, CBS wanted to re-create Love Island’s success. Could Americans handle the villa?
    By Anna Peele
  8. reader’s digest
    Emily Henry Says to ‘Trust the Vision’ for Beach Read AdaptationAfter the fan backlash over Patrick Schwarzenegger as Gus.
    By Alejandra Gularte
  9. book gossip
    Can AI Win Short-Story Prizes Now?A representative from Granta confirmed that its editors did not participate in the selection or editing of the prize-winning stories.
    By Emma Alpern
  10. adam sackler lives
    Adam Driver, We Need Your BookHe was definitely kidding when he responded to questions about Famesick. But imagine if he wasn’t?
    By Fran Hoepfner
  11. steinbeck summer
    All the Hot Girls Will Be Reading John Steinbeck This SummerEast of Eden is the tip of the iceberg.
    By Fran Hoepfner
  12. quality time
    What James Austin Johnson Watches (and Reads) With His SonThe SNL star managed to get his 4-year-old to sit through (most of) Seven Samurai.
    By James Austin Johnson
    As told to Marah Eakin
  13. book review
    Is The Hill a Novel of the Left or an Obituary for It?In Harriet Clark’s debut, a child lives with the fallout of her family’s radical past.
    By Madeline Leung Coleman
  14. podcasts
    Hayden Panettiere Did Not ‘Just Give Up’ her DaughterShe spoke at length about giving up custody while in treatment for addiction, and how she stayed connected to her daughter.
    By Bethy Squires
  15. close read
    The Post-Trauma Plot Book Is HereRecent works by Avigayl Sharp, Kaveh Akbar, Jamie Hood, and Jen Beagin embrace a more irreverent attitude toward their pain.
    By Gideon Leek
  16. look book
    The Look Book Goes to a Midnight Release of On the Calculation of VolumeFans of Solvej Balle’s On the Calculation of Volume gathered at Le Pistol Bar & Cafe for a group reading organized by the Brooklyn Public Library.
    By Jeremy Rellosa
  17. must reads
    8 New Books to Read This MayTwo dark-academia novels, a memoir from a Pen15 co-creator, and a debut we think will make a splash.
    By Emma Alpern and Jasmine Vojdani
  18. book review
    Douglas Stuart Comes Into His OwnThe Shuggie Bain author finally lets his gay characters feel alive.
    By Sam Worley
  19. pew-lit-ser
    Bess Wohl’s Liberation Wins the Pulitzer Prize for DramaDaniel Kraus’s one-sentence war novel Angel Down took the Fiction award.
    By Jason P. Frank
  20. the voice of a generation
    Heartbreak Feels Good in a Lena Dunham Memoir Like ThisThe true pleasures of Famesick can be found in the most painful sections.
    By Fran Hoepfner
  21. book review
    Making Girls Made Lena Dunham SickHer second book is her first work to come from a place of deep hindsight.
    By Madeline Leung Coleman
  22. the voice of a generation
    All the Gossip From Lena Dunham’s FamesickThe Girls, the bad, and the ugly.
    By Emma Alpern
  23. chapters
    ‘He Was Genius About Sex’How the photographer Peter Hujar turned cruising into works of art.
    By Andrew Durbin
  24. secret identity
    It Would Be Crazy If Your Brain Doctor Wrote The HousemaidFreida McFadden, the author of the thriller series, finally revealed her true identity.
    By Fran Hoepfner
  25. well read
    Behold: The National Book Foundation’s ‘5 Under 35’Featuring books about internet derangement, life in Hawaii, and a human-blob love story.
    By Emma Alpern
  26. book review
    Diary of a Former Wastrel YouthCult author Nancy Lemann’s first novel in more than 20 years feels very familiar.
    By Cat Zhang
  27. profile
    Ben Lerner’s Big FeelingsThe acclaimed writer of cerebral autofiction returns with his strangest and most moving novel yet.
    By Kevin Lozano
  28. must reads
    8 New Books to Read This AprilA Ben Lerner novel about when tech fails us, a Lena Dunham memoir, and an investigative saga from the author of Say Nothing.
    By Emma Alpern and Jasmine Vojdani
  29. religious studies
    The Harry Potter PilgrimsJ.K. Rowling’s transphobia turned off many readers. Some still treat the series she created as a sacred text.
    By Séamas O'Reilly
  30. book review
    I’m Obsessed With This Novel About a Gay RomanceWayne Koestenbaum’s My Lover, the Rabbi is a hilarious depiction of an intense infatuation.
    By Daniel Felsenthal
  31. what’s the sitch?
    Christy Carlson Romano Announces Her Child-Stardom MemoirCall me, beep me, if you want to read me.
    By Bethy Squires
  32. ai girl
    We Have Our First Big-Five AI ScandalMia Ballard’s horror novel Shy Girl has been canceled, Hachette Book Group announced yesterday.
    By Emma Alpern
  33. a long talk
    Tom Junod’s Family SecretsHow an acclaimed magazine writer wrote his new memoir about his father, who had numerous affairs and may have sexually abused the author’s sister.
    By Jack Denton
  34. book review
    There Are No Great Pandemic NovelsAndrew Martin’s funny but overly earnest Down Time is the latest entry in this genre.
    By Emma Alpern
  35. must reads
    8 New Books to Read in MarchA Liza Minnelli memoir, Wayne Koestenbaum’s new novel, and a Palestinian odyssey.
    By Emma Alpern and Jasmine Vojdani
  36. ip law
    Sarah J. Maas Could Still Make an ACOTAR TV Show“It’s something I want to be in charge of.”
    By Bethy Squires
  37. romantasy
    We’re Getting Two New ACOTAR Books Very SoonThey’re part of a quadrilogy Sarah J. Maas has been cooking up in a Montana energy vortex.
    By Bethy Squires
  38. to season five with love
    What to Expect Next Season on Bridgerton, Based on the BooksSeason four laid a lot of groundwork for the Bridgerton sisters’ next chapters.
    By Maggie Fremont
  39. close read
    How Should a White Woman Writer Be?In Madeline Cash and Honor Levy’s novels, progressive ideals are the ultimate bogeyman.
    By Malavika Kannan
  40. chapters
    Kelly Bundy and MeI never saw the skinny girl everyone else did on TV. I only ever saw something else.
    By Christina Applegate
  41. va bene
    Three Incestuous Sisters Is Not La Chimera 2, But It Will Have Josh O’ConnorThe two are adapting Audrey Niffenegger’s Three Incestuous Sisters, also starring Saoirse Ronan, Jessie Buckley, and Dakota Johnson.
    By Fran Hoepfner
  42. the industry
    The Hunt for the Next Heated Rivalry Is Not That Simple“Fear and anxiety are permeating these companies, and there’s paralysis everywhere.”
    By Josef Adalian
  43. chapters
    The Judy Blume Book That Scandalized a Nation“I was wild. My fantasies were wild.”
    By Mark Oppenheimer
  44. books
    The Next Heated Rivalry Book Got Delayed Another YearAuthor Rachel Reid says her Parkinson’s symptoms make it “difficult physically to write.”
    By Alejandra Gularte
  45. real life
    Christina Applegate Isn’t Denying That Life Can ‘Suck’The actress, living with MS, is releasing a new memoir called You With the Sad Eyes.
    By Jason P. Frank
  46. book review
    Tayari Jones’s Respectability PoliticsThe author’s novel about the friendship between two Black girls growing up in the 1950s has a remarkably traditional bent.
    By Tembe Denton-Hurst
  47. fujoshi studies
    Girls Who Love Boys Who Love BoysWhen did everyone start fujoing out?
    By E. Alex Jung
  48. chapters
    ‘Oh My God, They’re Ruining the Show’How Twin Peaks struggled to redefine itself after solving its central mystery.
    By Scott Meslow
  49. q&a
    A Grand Theory of Celebrity and Who-domWhat does fame mean today? The hosts of the popular Who? Weekly podcast have written a book that explores the question.
    By Nicholas Quah
  50. emergency conversation
    You Don’t Have to Read Wuthering Heights To See Wuthering HeightsThe literacy crisis is real, but watching one horny movie adaptation without experiencing the source material is not a crime.
    By Jackson McHenry, Kathryn VanArendonk, and Alison Willmore
  51. vulture investigates
    Is Heathcliff White?We called up some academics and asked.
    By Jasmine Vojdani
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