Books

tv review

My Brilliant Friend Is an Intimate Adaptation of a Beloved Novel

 Based on Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan books, HBO’s My Brilliant Friend is a late-breaking candidate for show of the year. By Matt Zoller Seitz
backstories

The Challenges of Adapting Ferrante

 The team behind HBO’s My Brilliant Friend on bringing the author’s Naples to life. By Phoebe Reilly
books

The 69th National Book Awards Reminded Us It’s a Big World Out There

 With awards to Isabel Allende and Sigrid Nunez and a revived translated-book prize. By Lila Shapiro
  1. ferrante fever
    Seven Great Books on Female Friendship Elena Ferrante Didn’t WriteBonds made and broken in great novels by Zadie Smith, Claire Messud, Toni Morrison, and others.
    By Hillary Kelly
  2. tv review
    My Brilliant Friend Is an Intimate Adaptation of a Beloved NovelBased on Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan books, HBO’s My Brilliant Friend is a late-breaking candidate for show of the year.
    By Matt Zoller Seitz
  3. backstories
    The Challenges of Adapting FerranteThe team behind HBO’s My Brilliant Friend on bringing the author’s Naples to life.
    By Phoebe Reilly
  4. books
    The 69th National Book Awards Reminded Us It’s a Big World Out ThereWith awards to Isabel Allende and Sigrid Nunez and a revived translated-book prize.
    By Lila Shapiro
  5. lit parade
    Critics Didn’t Sweat Michelle’s Prose Style — They Just Wanted No-Drama ObamaThey found her big-money memoir, Becoming, a refreshing return to executive restraint.
    By Hillary Kelly
  7. books
    Isabel Allende Gives Rousing Speech at National Book AwardsThe first-ever Spanish-language author to receive the Lifetime Achievement Award brought the crowd to their feet.
    By Anne Victoria Clark
  8. books
    Here’s the List of This Year’s National Book Award WinnersIt includes a few surprises and the return of the Translated Literature category.
    By Anne Victoria Clark
  9. one grand books
    Ellie Kemper’s 10 Favorite BooksNora Ephron, Zadie Smith, and more.
    By Ellie Kemper
  10. must reads
    6 New Paperbacks You Should Read This NovemberA creepy but beautiful debut, an insider look at the excessive ’80s, and more.
    By Maris Kreizman
  11. the cut on tuesdays
    If You Can’t Get Enough of Elena Ferrante, Read ThisThis week’s podcast episode comes with some book recommendations.
    By the Cut
  14. die hard
    Die Hard’s Director Breaks Down Bruce Willis’s Iconic Roof JumpJohn McTiernan on John McClane’s climactic jump — and Hans Gruber’s final, fatal plunge.
    By Simon Abrams
  15. memoirs
    How Memoirist Marina Benjamin Learned to Stopped Worrying and Love InsomniaDefying a long cultural history of pushy remedies and “rest cures,” as detailed in her new book, Insomnia.
    As told to Lilly Dancyger
  16. the autumn of scams
    J. K. Rowling’s Assistant Reportedly Scammed the Hell Out of HerShe spent thousands on candles and luxury cats.
    By Gabriella Paiella
  17. the droughtlander is over
    Outlander Season 4: Everything to Know About the New CharactersThe faces — whether friend, foe, or furry — that you can expect to see as the Frasers take on Colonial America.
    By Maggie Fremont
  18. memoirs
    7 Juicy Tidbits From Jill Soloway’s New Memoir, She Wants ItShe’s candid about Transparent’s demise.
    By Devon Ivie
  19. broadway
    Alec Baldwin Gets a Gig Reading Celebrity Books on BroadwayRachel Dratch, Antoni Porowski, Lewis Black, and more will also perform.
    By Megh Wright
  20. author talk
    Idra Novey on Fascists, Pot, #MeToo and Her Chillingly Timely New NovelThose Who Knew involves a charismatic senator in an island nation with familiar skeletons in his closet.
    By Hillary Kelly
  21. backstories
    Finding the Ferrante FourHow the stars of HBO’s My Brilliant Friend were chosen from 9,000 children to portray two of the most elusive characters in modern literature.
    By Phoebe Reilly
  22. one grand books
    Hans-Ulrich Obrist’s 10 Favorite BooksCarl Jung, Édouard Glissant, and more.
    By Hans Ulrich Obrist
  23. resurgence
    Why Lucia Berlin Matters More to Us Today Than She Did During Her LifetimeA memoir and a new story collection cement the late writer’s status as the anti-Kerouac — and a godmother of auto-fiction.
    By Maddie Crum
  26. book excerpt
    There Will Never Be a Man As Perfect As The Office’s Jim HalpertAn excerpt from Lane Moore’s new book How to Be Alone.
    By Lane Moore
  27. must reads
    7 New Books You Should Read This NovemberJonathan Lethem, Lucia Berlin, and more.
    By Boris Kachka
  28. printed matter
    42 of the Year’s Most Giftable Coffee-Table BooksWhether they’re into Martha Stewart, Yayoi Kusama, or living in the desert.
    By The Editors
  29. further reading
    Novelist Jeff Jackson on the 4 Best Rock Chronicles You’ve Never Heard ofBooks (on the Stones, Nico, Robert Johnson, and an L.A. cult) that inspired his wild new novel, Destroy All Monsters.
    By Jeff Jackson
  30. further reading
    The Many Books That Inspired Jonathan Lethem’s The Feral DetectiveChandler, of course, but also Philip Pullman, Dawn Powell, Richard Brautigan, and Virginia Woolf’s biography of a dog.
    By Jonathan Lethem
  31. vulture lists
    Amy Tan’s 10 Favorite BooksMary Karr, Salman Rushdie, and more.
    By Amy Tan
  32. book adaptations
    The John Green Looking for Alaska Adaptation Has Finally Cast Its StarsKristine Froseth will play Alaska, and Charlie Plummer will play Miles.
    By Jackson McHenry
  33. exclusive
    The Story of the Hardcore Concert That Birthed the Beastie BoysHear Mike D and Ad-Rock read from their new audiobook.
    By Dee Lockett
  34. the industry
    FX Passed on Broad City Because It Was Deemed Too ‘Girly’“We were devastated,” Abbi Jacobson writes in her new memoir.
    By Devon Ivie
  35. bookstagram
    Here’s an Annoying Instagram Trend: Throwing Yourself on a Pile of Open BooksBooks have been portrait props for centuries, but this is getting ridiculous.
    By Hillary Kelly
  38. vulture lists
    7 Essential Fall Books by and About Women Who RockFrom Tina Turner to Tori Amos, Yoko Ono to Roseanne Cash, and the makers of a neon-pink book called Women Who Rock.
    By Amanda Wicks
  39. one grand books
    Meg Wolitzer’s 10 Favorite BooksVirginia Woolf, Sylvia Plath, and more.
    By Meg Wolitzer
  40. lit parade
    Barbara Kingsolver Takes Aim at the Trump Era, and Critics Shoot BackUnsheltered isn’t getting much love for plumbing white middle-class insecurity in our time.
    By Hillary Kelly
  41. sketch comedy
    5 Head-Crushing Highlights From the New Kids in the Hall BiographyPaul Myers’s new book is full of comedy-nerd gold.
    By Brian Boone
  42. q&a & excerpt
    Ali Fitzgerald on Her New Comic About Refugees and Germany’s Rising NativismThe creator of Hungover Bear turns serious with Drawn to Berlin — plus an excerpt.
    By Evan Allgood
  43. the who
    You Know Who Had a Terrible Time at Woodstock? Some Guy Named Roger Daltrey“It was billed as an Aquarian exposition — three days of peace and music. But it was chaos.”
    By Devon Ivie
  44. the who
    Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend’s Biggest Fight Nearly Turned Deadly“He fell down hard, cracking his head to the stage. I thought I’d killed him.”
    By Devon Ivie
  45. the who
    Roger Daltrey Is Calling Bullshit on Pete Townshend’s Guitar-Smashing Passion“Pete will tell you it was art … bollocks. He’s journalizing.”
    By Devon Ivie
  46. book excerpt
    The Genderqueer Tale of “Take a Walk on the Wild Side”’s Jackie Curtis“I’m not a boy, not a girl — I’m just me, Jackie.”
    By Kembrew McLeod
  47. profile
    Sarah Perry Hopes the Monster From Her New Novel Is Watching Harvey WeinsteinThe British author talks about her gothic third novel, Melmoth, on a visit to some downtown Manhattan churches.
    By Lila Shapiro
  50. one grand books
    Liz Phair’s 10 Favorite BooksJ.D. Salinger, Toni Morrison, and more.
    By Liz Phair
  51. adaptations
    Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret to Be Adapted by Edge of Seventeen DirectorAnd just like that, you’re 13 again.
    By Jackson McHenry
  52. book excerpt
    How Chris Gethard Learned to Stop Trying to Fit In and Just Do His Own ThingAn excerpt from Gethard’s new book Lose Well.
    By Chris Gethard
  53. book excerpt
    The Making (and Unmaking) of Paul’s BoutiqueThe Beastie Boys made a masterpiece. And then they were foiled by Donny Osmond.
    By Michael Diamond and Adam Horovitz
  54. man booker prize
    Anna Burns’s Milkman Wins the Man Booker Prize for FictionThe novel is set during the Troubles in Northern Ireland.
    By Jackson McHenry
  55. must reads
    7 New Paperbacks You Should Read This OctoberBighearted romance, dystopian drama, and more.
    By Maris Kreizman
  56. book excerpt
    Lin-Manuel Miranda Wrote a Poem Just for You“I wanted to wish you good morning.”
    By Lin-Manuel Miranda
  57. women and power
    To Binky Urban, ‘Power’ Is a Male Word“Being dominant is not anything I care about. What I care about is being effective, being respected,” says the most powerful woman in book publishing.
    By Lisa Chase
  58. must reads
    10 Great Horror Books for WimpsTitles you won’t have to have to hide in the freezer.
    By Mallory O'Meara
  59. good one podcast
    That Time Julia Roberts Taught Phoebe Robinson How to SwimIn this week’s Good One podcast, Phoebe Robinson reads from her new book Everything’s Trash, But It’s Okay and explains her writing process.
    By Jesse David Fox
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