Books

first person

How Mel Brooks Fell for Anne Bancroft

 “We started talking one day, and we never stopped.” By Mel Brooks
book review

‘What Is the Power of My Body?’

 Emily Ratajkowski may want to join the feminist discourse, but in her essay collection she’s mostly in conversation with herself. By Jordan Taliha McDonald
book excerpt

‘You Don’t Understand What This Is Doing to Me’

 In the age of anti-heroes Tony Soprano reigned supreme. In his new book James Andrew Miller explores the toll the character took on James Gandolfini. By James Andrew Miller
  1. the law
    Man Wrongfully Accused of Author Alice Sebold’s Rape Exonerated After 40 Years“My goal in 1982 was justice — not to perpetuate injustice,” Alice Sebold has written in a statement.
    By Rebecca Alter
  2. gift guide
    11 Pop-Culture-Inspired Gifts for Kids (That Won’t Drive Parents Crazy)Before you ask: Yes, there is Paw Patrol stuff.
    By Vulture Editors
  3. reading is fundamental
    50 New (or Newly Relevant) Books Worth Gifting This YearSomething for every reader (including those who would rather just look at pictures).
    By Vulture Editors
  4. podcasts
    The Hosts of Cookies Think NBA Players Might Enjoy Dimes SquareBen Detrick and Andrew Kuo on basketball, New York nightlife, Eric Adams, and their new book.
    By Kevin Lozano
  5. casting
    Lizzy Caplan Won’t Party Down Owing to Overlap with Fleishman Is in TroubleShe’s missing the revival to star in the FX on Hulu limited series with Jesse Eisenberg.
    By Natalie Lin
  7. hell of a book
    2021 National Book Awards Winners and FinalistsJason Mott’s Hell of a Book won for fiction, and Tiya Miles’s All That She Carried received the award for nonfiction.
    By Natalie Lin
  8. first person
    How Mel Brooks Fell for Anne Bancroft“We started talking one day, and we never stopped.”
    By Mel Brooks
  9. book review
    Love Behind Bars Is Possible. It’s Just Absurdly Hard.In Love Lockdown, journalist Elizabeth Greenwood follows couples who are trying to make it work when at least one partner is in prison.
    By John J. Lennon
  10. book review
    The Sentence Shows the Downside of UrgencyLouise Erdrich’s novel takes on the 2020 protests — and draws conclusions that feel dated already.
    By Jennifer Wilson
  11. book review
    ‘What Is the Power of My Body?’Emily Ratajkowski may want to join the feminist discourse, but in her essay collection she’s mostly in conversation with herself.
    By Jordan Taliha McDonald
  12. book review
    In Rax King’s Book Tacky, Lowbrow Is High PraiseA new essay collection celebrating trash culture is less certain about why some things are considered tacky at all.
    By Hillary Kelly
  13. vulture lists
    15 Book-to-Screen Adaptations to Read Before the End of the YearHouse of Gucci, The Last Duel, and even a few adaptations not directed by Ridley Scott.
    By Emily Maskell
  14. capitalism
    Biden Administration Sues to Halt $2 Billion Simon & Schuster AcquisitionIn an antitrust case to prevent Penguin Random House from buying its competitor.
    By Rebecca Alter
  15. best of 2021
    The Best Books of the Year (So Far)Including bangers from Asali Solomon, Claire Vaye Watkins, and Colson Whitehead.
    By Hillary Kelly
  16. dune you feel like we dune
    We Need to Talk About the Name ‘Duncan Idaho’Duncan Idaho is not a character in Dune. Duncan Idaho is the name of a Chris Pratt character in an action movie that goes straight to Paramount+.
    By Nate Jones
  17. book review
    Kwon Yeo-sun’s ‘Lemon’ Is a Murder Mystery That Refuses to Be SolvedThe novel by Kwon Yeo-sun tracks the aftermath of a teen girl’s murder, with three very unreliable narrators.
    By Arianna Rebolini
  18. vulture lists
    8 Great Audiobooks to Listen to This MonthKatie Couric, Sutton Foster, Stanley Tucci, and more.
    By Marshall Heyman
  19. art du jour
    David Byrne’s New Book Is (Nothing But) DingbatsIllustrated dingbats, that is.
    By Devon Ivie
  20. the view from outside
    Meghan McCain Felt ‘Slapped’ When Joy Behar Said She Didn’t Miss Her on The ViewAnd she “no longer felt safe working at The View” afterward.
    By Justin Curto
  21. book excerpt
    ‘You Don’t Understand What This Is Doing to Me’In the age of anti-heroes Tony Soprano reigned supreme. In his new book James Andrew Miller explores the toll the character took on James Gandolfini.
    By James Andrew Miller
  22. double consciousnesses
    The Fiction of the Color LineFrom Nella Larsen to Mariah Carey, Black women writers have long used passing stories to crack our façades of race, class, and gender.
    By Brittany Luse
  23. book review
    Fear and Loathing in ‘Asian America’In The Loneliest Americans, Jay Caspian Kang tries but fails to restore meaning to an empty term.
    By Madeline Leung Coleman
  24. his favorite shapes
    Julio Torres Wrote a Children’s Book About a Plunger That Wants to Be a Vase“Because, well, why not?” he said.
    By Justin Curto
  25. the industry
    Sally Rooney Won’t Let Israel-Based Publisher Translate Her Latest BookShe said she welcomes a translation of Beautiful World, Where Are You that aligns with her boycott of Israel.
    By Justin Curto
  26. reading is fundamental
    Hey Grimes! Other Celebrities Read Too, Ya KnowNo one will ever beat Bradley Cooper reading Lolita to his 21-year-old girlfriend.
    By Bethy Squires
  27. book review
    A So-So Franzen Novel Is Still Better Than Most Books. That Said …In Crossroads, too many boring characters are boring in the same way.
    By Molly Young
  28. a long talk
    Jonathan Franzen Thinks People Can ChangeEven if, as his book Crossroads suggests, it’s nearly impossible to make it stick.
    By Merve Emre
  29. awards
    Hanif Abdurraqib Is One of This Year’s MacArthur ‘Genius’ Grant RecipientsAlong with Ibram X. Kendi, Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, Don Mee Choi, and more.
    By Zoe Haylock
  30. the music man
    A Trump Aide Would Play ‘Memory’ When He Needed to Calm DownYes, the Cats song.
    By Justin Curto
  31. vulture lists
    7 Great Audiobooks to Listen to This MonthGabrielle Union, Liane Moriarty, and more.
    By Marshall Heyman
  32. book excerpt
    Phoebe Robinson’s Guide to Being a BossAn excerpt from the comedian’s new book.
    By Phoebe Robinson
  33. awards
    Katie Kitamura, Lauren Groff on National Book Award for Fiction LonglistPlus three debut novels.
    By Justin Curto
  34. book review
    The Magician Resists the Shallow Gestures of the Hollywood BiopicColm Tóibín’s new novel about Thomas Mann reaches for depths in its subject that mainstream film wouldn’t bother with.
    By Rumaan Alam
  35. profile
    Hearing Things With Ruth OzekiHer latest novel teems with voices — most of them belonging to what she might call “nonhuman persons.”
    By Helen Shaw
  36. books
    Patricia Lockwood Makes the 2021 Booker Prize ShortlistNo One Is Talking About This is up against works by Damon Galgut, Maggie Shipstead, and more.
    By Zoe Haylock
  37. read like the wind
    Matrix and 9 Other Reads I Can’t Get Out of My HeadEnjoy tales of angsty Irish lovers, computer repair, and radical nuns.
    By Molly Young
  38. best of 2021
    The Best Romance Novels of 2021 (So Far)Featuring enemies-to-lovers, office romances, and — of course — lots of Happily Ever Afters.
    By Carly Lane
  39. one grand books
    Michaela Coel’s 10 Favorite BooksBreakfast of Champions, Society Within, The Book of Eels, and more.
    By Michaela Coel
  40. book review
    You’ve Heard This One BeforeMaggie Nelson believes we react too quickly and think ungenerously. In her new book, she’s guilty of both.
    By Andrea Long Chu
  41. book review
    Sally Rooney in the StruggleBeautiful World, Where Are You is both her clearest attempt to wrestle with big ideas and her least readable novel.
    By Jane Hu
  42. well read
    Close Reading the Reads of The ChairFrom Chaucer to The Family of Man, every book in the Netflix series tells its own story.
    By Roxanne Fequiere
  43. fall preview 2021
    The Party Girl’s RevengeMarlowe Granados’s debut novel, Happy Hour, is a picaresque for the glamorous and broke.
    By Sangeeta Singh-Kurtz
  44. fall preview 2021
    Knausgaard Debarks for a New Frontier: Genre FictionNorway’s most famous self-exile talks to Torrey Peters about his horror-inspired novel The Morning Star.
    By Torrey Peters
  45. fall preview 2021
    40 Books We Can’t Wait to Read This FallIncluding Sally Rooney, Colson Whitehead, Tiphanie Yanique, and, yes, Jonathan Franzen.
  46. book excerpt
    ‘Never Call Me Your Drummer Again’The full story of the time Charlie Watts punched Mick Jagger, excerpted from Sympathy for the Drummer.
    By Mike Edison
  47. vulture lists
    7 Great Audiobooks to Listen to This MonthStephen King, Sarah Ferguson, Andrea Bartz, and more.
    By Marshall Heyman
  48. fact vs fiction
    What Do Fiction Writers Owe Their IRL Inspiration?Cat Person and Stillwater constantly betray their main characters. It’s what makes them interesting.
    By Alice Bolin
  49. books
    The Spine CollectorFor five years, a mysterious figure has been stealing books before their release. Is it espionage? Revenge? A trap? Or a complete waste of time?
    By Reeves Wiedeman
  50. literature
    Dolly Parton Is Writing Her First Novel Run, Rose, Run With James PattersonAnd it comes with a companion album, y’all.
    By Zoe Haylock
  51. bad monkey
    Bill Lawrence’s Ted Lasso Follow-up Is a Show About Vince Vaughn in FloridaBad Monkey is based on Carl Hiaasen’s 2013 novel, and you better believe there’s an actual monkey in it.
    By Rebecca Alter
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