Featuring Colson Whitehead, Michael Cunningham, Claire Vaye Watkins, and More Colson Whitehead’s Cool Machine, Michael Cunningham’s Unsayable, and Claire Vaye Watkins’s Yellow Pine all feature among the best reviewed books of the week. Article continues after advertisement Brought to you by Book Marks, Lit Hub’s home for book reviews. * Fiction 1. Cool Machine by Colson Whitehead(Doubleday) 14 Rave •…
A one-sitting read is typically the domain of the short story – a form that largely depends on a reader’s pure, unbroken attention. But there is something special about the intensity of beginning and ending an entire book in a single day. Of all my reading experiences, these have been among the most memorable. As…
What was the purpose of the Founding Fathers in uniting 13 North Atlantic colonies into an independent nation in 1776? What is the purpose of the United States of America today? Over the July Fourth weekend, Pope Leo XIV modeled a two-pronged approach to these questions. His approach issues a challenge: Can we make the…
Have you heard? A24 is taking over Hollywood. Possibly the world. The indie company that initially marketed itself as the edgy underdog has become a pillar/last bastion of extra-Marvel movies. No longer so scrappy, the gang of cinephiles that’s likely behind your latest fave is taking names and making deals. The production and distribution company…
Zadie SmithMargaret Busby’s Part of the Story: Writings from Half a Century is the record of one woman’s lifelong passion for the literature and life of Africa and its diaspora, wherever she finds it. A beautiful collection. The funniest and smartest novel I’ve read in a while is Black Bag by Luke Kennard. Mark HaddonCan…
Welcome to the Book Review Book Club! Every month we select a book to discuss with our readers. Last month we read “Transcription,” by Ben Lerner. (You can also find past book club discussions in the Book Review podcast feed.) “Yesteryear,” by Caro Claire Burke, is one of the buzziest books of 2026, and with…
“I don’t know when I read men any more”, the writer Zadie Smith told a literary festival audience on Sunday. “It does happen sometimes, but it’s completely flipped compared to the reading I did when I was young,” she continued. Smith – the author of novels including White Teeth and On Beauty – was speaking…
Theo Baker is graduating from Stanford this spring with something most seniors don’t have: a book deal, a George Polk Award that he received for his investigative reporting as a student journalist, and a front-row account of one of the most romanticized institutions in the world. His forthcoming How to Rule the World: An Education…
This April marks the 30th iteration of National Poetry Month, which was launched by the Academy of American Poets in April 1996. To celebrate, the Literary Hub staff will be recommending one great poem to read every (work) day of the month. We make no claim (except when we do) that these poems are the…
Literary fiction Fiction Audition Katie Kitamura The opening pages of Katie Kitamura’s fifth novel establish a nervy, fraught physicality. The narrator is meeting a man at a restaurant. She is anxious, hyper-vigilant. Waiting at the table is a young man, Xavier, self-assured and faintly discomfiting. The meeting is edgy and awkward, rendered in a tapestry…
