October is a very particular month in the publishing year, with the eyes and minds of every single publishing professional 99.9 percent geared toward the Frankfurt Book Fair (i.e. the biggest publishing trade fair in the world). Great new releases keep pouring in all the same, though. Here’s five to keep you reading as October…
It’s back-to-school, which means publishers are flooding the market with their stronger titles with an eye to Christmas and the holidays. I spared you my take on the new Sally Rooney (a book that doesn’t need any further representation), but here’s a list of a few other heavy hitters as well as some slightly more…
I find August to be a weird time, especially in Italy where I am writing from. Things grinding to a halt, time stretching out, heat enveloping it all, all the while a droning anxiety creeping in… Perhaps for this reason, quite a few books on this list have to do with alienation – the feeling…
It’s nice sometimes to not have a rigid plan and let yourself be guided by your intuition. This month I didn’t have solid candidates I was planning to review – except one, which then I ended up dropping – but I am happy with this list, which in many ways belies (all too well-established) reading…
There are literally a million reasons to visit Barcelona. (Perhaps too many, as the city recently announced a crackdown on short-time AirBnb rentals as a way to curb tourists’ intake and soaring housing costs for residents). From its bars and restaurants to its beach, clubs and festivals – there are so many attractions, that it’s…
There is nothing quite like reading a book lying in the grass while basking in the June sun. And while until recently the weather has been below par in London, the same can’t be said about books, with great debuts and literature in translation hitting the stands as we speak. Here’s this month’s picks. Happy…
Stews combining beans, pork sausage, and various kinds of pig off cuts – rind, feet, snout – are a staple of most Southern European cuisine. I could talk about pisarëi e faso, the small gnocchi cooked in a rich borlotti bean broth that’s a variation on the classic, pan-Italian theme of fagioli con le cotiche…
The over-reliance on debuts as a marketing tool might be one of the more short-sighted aspects of contemporary book publishing – trying to serve a neophyte audience is no way to sustain an industry long-term. That said, credit must be given where it is due and so this instalment of the Something Curated book review features…