As US president Donald Trump concludes his first week on the job, Americans are sorting out fact from fiction. One rumor: The president will eliminate the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), a government agency that funds performing and fine arts, as well as literature.
In the book 1984, the job of protagonist Winston Smith is to replace historical truths with new, state-approved “facts.” This week in the US, in what appears to be an eerie reflection of today’s political climate of “post-truth” and “alternative facts,” the dystopian novel has shot to the number-one place among bestselling books on US Amazon.
Luna is a preteen witch hunted by humans; Jean-Michel Basquiat was a neo-expressionist artist from Brooklyn. The unlikely pair are the subjects of two books honored by the biggest prizes in US children’s literature.
Ayn Rand’s books are over the top and cinematic to a fault. Her characters are all stylish or bloated cardboard cut-outs of people, and the heroes are profoundly selfish. Yet a century after she was born, the Russian-born novelist endures as a deeply influential artist and intellectual in the US—particularly among the American right. Though philosophers have never taken her seriously, Rand’s controversial “objectivist” ideas have been invoked by generations of conservatives, from Reaganites to the Tea Party, and now Donald Trump.
In 1963, hundreds of thousands of Americans packed their bags and bought bus tickets with one goal: To get to Washington, DC and exercise their First Amendment right to march peacefully.
In August 2014, Roxane Gay released a series of essays called Bad Feminist. It debuted as a New York Times paperback nonfiction bestseller and spent another seven weeks in total on the list. When Gay had negotiated her advance, Harper Perennial paid her only $15,000. That’s about a third of what a first-year banking analyst with an MBA makes as a signing bonus.
Sara Holbrook had no idea that the fate of Texas students, teachers, and school administrators rested on her keystrokes.
If you missed “the book Barack Obama and his pals don’t want you to read,” you’re out of luck. What the (Bleep) Just Happened?, a 2012 book by conservative analyst Monica Crowley, is now unavailable.
Hello Kitty, the queen of wide-eyed cartoon cuteness, has a new playmate: A beer-chugging, heavy-metal-loving, corporate drone named Aggretsuko.
Tyrus Wong’s artistic vision formed the foundation of Disney’s 1942 animated classic, Bambi. But for decades, anti-Asian bias in the US meant his pioneering work in art and film went unrecognized.
Readers know all about summer reading: Juicy, plot-driven page-turners that are a breeze to read through sun-induced headaches, or can be picked up and put down between dips in the pool. But in winter, you need a different kind of book: one with a good existential crisis, or a very, very deep footnote.
New policies in India no longer require citizens to produce birth certificates to apply for passports. That’s good for adopted kids, orphans, and holy men.
“Christmas is coming, but I’m not happy,” says Charlie Brown, blinking. “I don’t feel the way I’m supposed to feel. I like getting presents and sending Christmas cards and decorating trees and all that, but I’m still not happy.”
Where was Donald Trump’s father born? Did he graduate from Fordham University? And if not, can it still be considered his alma mater? Is there such a thing as “Trump ideology”? And what photo best represents him?
Scrutiny comes down hard on the families of US politicians, and most of all on the presidency and its hopefuls. Twenty-five years ago, George H. W. Bush knew that lesson well.
Come December, the storefronts of Paris fill up with a familiar-looking log. Thick and brown, with a sugary sheen, the bûche de Noël, or Yule log cake, is a holiday spectacle in France. Patisseries roll out their chocolate sponge cakes with a thick layer of cream in classic and inventive forms, an act of cultural pride.
US customers, sleep easy: Your 800-word Yelp rage is now protected by law.
American creative industries are trying to find a friend in Donald Trump.
If you’re on stage with a government minister and have a good sex joke, perhaps it’s best to keep it in your pants.
There are bestsellers, and there’s Harry Potter.
Pep rallies and prom queens, nerd kings and emo girls. Band. Through movies and music, the American high school experience has been exported far and wide.
As we say goodbye to US president Barack Obama, avid reader and champion of literature, we’re left wondering what books Donald Trump might bring to the White House. We know he thinks Hamilton the musical is overrated and sketch TV show SNL is boring, but not much has been published about what’s on the president-elect’s nightstand.
The world’s richest man is studying up on tennis and electrical grids this year.
A rare copy of Isaac Newton’s seminal work in physics and astronomy is on the move.
