Written by Sophie
Happy (?) April Fool’s Day! Our Jouke’s favorite day of the year, so good luck to everyone who has to work in the The Hague store today…
– One of the biggest literary news stories to break over the past month was The Atlantic‘s article about Meta’s pirating millions of books to train their AI (I haven’t been able to find a version that is not behind a paywall, unfortunately). There are books included that haven’t even been published. Expect many and massive lawsuits.
– Interviews! The Guardian features Solvej Balle about her Groundhog Day-like book series On the Calculation of Volume, Longlisted for the 2025 International Booker Prize, and I must say I’m more than a little intrigued. Electric Literature also features an illustrated interview with Ibtisam Azem about his The Book of Disappearance, in which he explores a fictional world in which Palestinians vanish.
– Awards! The shortlist for the 2025 Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction was announced recently, and it is wonderfully wide-ranging. The 2025 National Book Critics Circle Awards were also announced, in various categories. This award may be a mouthful but has proven to be quite the weather vane for the rest of the year’s awards. Also, keep an eye out on the International Booker Prize website, as the shortlist will be announced next Monday (all authors on the longlist are first-time nominees, by the way!).
– If you enjoy podcasts, have a listen to Decoder Ring’s episode “How Books About Things That Changed the World… Changed the World”.
– In the sea of news about the increase in banned books in the US, there are also instances of pushback, most recently an Iowa judge who found a law passed in November 2024 unconstitutional (I’m paraphrasing).
– Lists! Five Stores About Translation and the Power of Languages, Five Stories Exploring the Pitfalls of Time Travel (and although they only list one story in Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah’s Friday Black I can heartily recommend the whole book), 5 Children’s Books About Autistic Characters (look for more on the topic of autism on this blog this month), and 7 Books About Women and Food (because it’s Women’s History Month every month, right?)(also, that list is missing A Certain Hunger, which our Damla would certainly disagree with).
– I don’t generally feature reviews, but this one by The Guardian on Who Is Government?, the new book by Michael Lewis, is timely and underscores the importance of how most civil servants shape your life.
– This year marks the 250th year since Jane Austen’s birth (displays forthcoming in all stores later in the year!) and The Guardian asked six authors (including Katherine Runnell, Colm Tóibín, and Rebecca Kuang) to write on their favorite Austen book. LitHub also explores the enduring allure of Mr. Darcy 😍. (Note: that amazing cover on the right is sadly out of print currently.)
– March Madness is A Thing in the US, and LitHub jumped on the bandwagon with their selection, bracket-style, of the Best Villains in Literature, from 64 down to 1 über-evil baddie.
– And finally, in case you missed it, our Simone was asked to recommend some books for the literary section of the AD on 8 March. Click on the picture below to embiggen! Please note that the article is in Dutch.
