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More blogs = more books

Book fans use the Internet to go crazy!
On August 30, my debut young-adult novel, Fury, was published by Simon Pulse, the edgy YA imprint of Simon & Schuster. I'm a journalist by trade, and I knew next-to-nothing about book publishing until about a year ago.

By: ELIZABETH MILES | September 21, 2011

Young Adulteration

Kid lit, cultural literacy, and the rise of books that are fun to read
In the late 1980s, when I was nine or 10, my mom bought me my own copy of A First Dictionary of Cultural Literacy: What Our Children Need To Know .

By: EUGENIA WILLIAMSON | September 21, 2011

Will Kindles kill libraries?

In this corner: libraries struggling to bring in patrons. In the other: Kindles looking to expand their market. Will it be a bloodbath, or can they hug it out?
This week, OverDrive itself will host its own conference to help libraries deal with a massive onslaught of patrons clamoring to check out books on their Kindles. Can embattled public institutions handle such a drastic change?

By: EUGENIA WILLIAMSON | July 27, 2011

David Foster Wallace's The Pale King

Final words
All I can do is tell you how I read the book.

By: NINA MACLAUGHLIN | April 13, 2011

Back to the land

Digging up cathartic childhood memories
There is an idyllic pull to the homesteading lifestyle, especially when such a back-to-the-land experiment is undertaken on the coast of Maine, where rocky shores abut dense woods and merely breathing the air imparts rural spirit and pluck.

By: DEIRDRE FULTON | April 06, 2011

Sarah Braunstein's uncomfortable, beautiful hyperreality

(Bitter)sweet emotion
There's an unsettling honesty that spills from Portland author Sarah Braunstein's first novel, The Sweet Relief of Missing Children .

By: DEIRDRE FULTON | February 23, 2011

Review: Caroline Leavitt's family Pictures

Photo finish
Love, family, and the moments that change lives forever — these are the potent ingredients that Caroline Leavitt stirs up again and again in her fiction.

By: JULIA HANNA | January 27, 2011

Hip-hop history

Dan Charnas's story is bigger than the music
Dan Charnas is aware that some disgruntled rap purists may eschew his epic tome on planet hip-hop's animated cast of titanic dick swingers.

By: CHRIS FARAONE | January 11, 2011

Review: ''American Gothic'' painter Grant Wood gets to leave the closet

American gay
Who was Grant Wood? Millions of Americans know him as the artist who painted American Gothic — and that's about it. But since his death, from pancreatic cancer, in 1942, he's become the poster boy for the right and the whipping boy of the left.

By: JEFFREY GANTZ | January 07, 2011

Gift Guide 2010: Books that'll make your coffee table look smart

Rock of Pages
There are books, and then there are deluxe books. They're like normal books, but more badass.

By: MICHAEL GOETZMAN, MICAH HAUSER, AND STEVE MILLER | December 08, 2010

Gift Guide 2010: Graphic novels and comic anthologies

There's something about getting a book as a gift that makes you not want to read it.

By: S.I. ROSENBAUM | December 08, 2010

Review: David Young knows where he's going

Poet's progress
David Young's Selected and New Poems is a good book by a good poet. You'll have to take my word for that, because I am not going to quote from his poems.

By: WILLIAM CORBETT | October 27, 2010

Further adventures in literary obsession and authenticity with Brock Clarke

Idolatry in Watertown
Reviewing Brock Clarke's last novel, An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England (Algonquin), three years ago — before the author moved to Portland, started teaching at Bowdoin College, and released his new book, Exley , which he'll read at Longfellow Books next week — I admired its mischievous streak.

By: CHRISTOPHER GRAY | October 12, 2010

Fall Books Preview: Reading list

Smartening up the seasonal transition
Even if you’re not back in the classroom, autumn inspires a desire to learn, to restore the intellectualism that was fried by too many beers and barbecues and sunburns. Fortunately, Portland is full this fall with opportunities to spark your smarts.

By: DEIRDRE FULTON | September 15, 2010

Review: Per Petterson plumbs The River of Time

Norse code
Why would Per Petterson — the bestselling Scandinavian writer whose books don't feature an invincible crimefighting heroine — curse the river of time when he is so adept at navigating it?

By: PETER KEOUGH | September 07, 2010

Interview: Gary Shteyngart

Dystopia now
Onionskin jeans are transparent, cost a fortune, and send your fuckability rating off the charts.

By: EUGENIA WILLIAMSON | September 07, 2010

Review: Rob Sheffield's inner Sheena

Womanly man
It was probably a common impulse, wanting to save Rob Sheffield.

By: AMY FINCH | August 31, 2010

Critics' choice?

Jonathan Franzen and the Great American Novel
This month, Jonathan Franzen became the first living American novelist in 10 years to make the cover of Time . His Freedom — out this Tuesday, and his first novel since 2001's National Book Award–winning best seller, The Corrections — has been anointed the latest Great American Novel.

By: EUGENIA WILLIAMSON | August 29, 2010

Is it Calvin and Hobbes or an issue of Joe Hill's Locke and Key comic? Even better: It's both.

Fearful symmetry
In Joe Hill's Keys to the Kingdom , a bloodthirsty wolf pack's feeding frenzy filtered through the youthful lens of Bill Watterson's Calvin and Hobbes comic strip can only be described as disturbing. But it's these details that make the comic, which was dedicated to Watterson, such a satisfying read.

By: ANDREW STEINBEISER | August 18, 2010

Review: The World That Never Was

Lies your teacher told you about anarchism
Some marketing wizard gave Oxford-based historian Alex Butterworth's exhaustive history of the international anarchist movement a fun title it doesn't deserve.

By: CLIF GARBODEN | August 17, 2010