Writing in the Financial Times, John Lanchester—the author of the novel Capital—asks why it is that so few novelists and poets tackle banking and finance: You can assemble an entire… 10 / Read more »

How wonderful to be reminded of John Leonard’s rules for criticism in the debut issue of “The Slate Book Review.” There Troy Patterson reviews Leonard’s posthumous collection of essays, Reading for… Read more »

Just when you thought it was safe to go back into YouTube, Washington Post book critic Ron Charles is back …

Geoff Dyer, a nominee for the first ever “Hatchet Job of the Year” prize for his negative review of Julian Barnes The Sense of an Ending (Adam Mars-Jones won the… Read more »

“His ‘killingly fair-minded and viciously funny” review of the Pulitzer prize-winning author Michael Cunningham’s latest book, By Nightfall, has won novelist and critic Adam Mars-Jones the inaugural Hatchet Job of… Read more »

Is Moon People by Dale M. Courtney the worst book ever written? That’s what Gabe Habash says in a hilarious post at the Publishers Weekly blog, PWxyz. Of course, not that… 3 / Read more »

The quarrel broke out in summer 2010, has just been reignited, and, unresolved, will no doubt rear its head again. Jennifer Weiner, alongside other women novelists including Jodi Picoult, has… 4 / Read more »

Arizona Governor Jan Brewer got in a heated argument with President Barack Obama over her book yesterday when she greeted him upon his arrival at the Phoenix airport. According to a… 2 / Read more »

In the most hilariously excellent insult I’ve seen lately, David Shields has just named Justin Halpern of Shit My Dad Says a more engaging writer than Jonathan Franzen. In an… 8 / Read more »

‘Cult favourite’ has always been a loaded term in publishing: it conjures up a devoted fan-base, but is often code for ‘crap sales’. There was an interesting analysis of what it means… 1 / Read more »