Pages & Proofs

My next literary purchase will be Bedsit Disco Queen by Tracey Thorn – the singer of Everything But The Girl. The Telegraph carries a review. ‘Once upon a time, and quite out of the blue, when I was least expecting it, I had a huge worldwide hit single,” writes Tracey Thorn in Bedsit Disco Queen, […]

Our latest Avid Reader newsletter addresses the notion of love in literature. Frankly, I’m not the type of reader to ever pick up Love Story by Erich Segal but lots of folks do. I was surprised to notice that I’d actually read five of the 25 books listed by my colleague Beth – you can’t […]

Take a look at this. A wooden cookie box partially decorated by Maurice Sendak for his friend, collaborator and fellow children’s book author Arthur Yorinks. The animal characters on the box (two pigs and a wolf) are from James Marshall’s 1999 book Swine Lake, which was illustrated by Sendak. According to the bookseller, James Cummins […]

The book at bedtime is just part of the daily routine for many families, but choosing the right titles to read aloud to an inquisitive six-year-old can be difficult. They can’t be boring, they can’t be too slow and they can’t be too simplistic. This list was put together by yours truly and I’m a […]

This oddly named science fiction book has quite a legacy. Ralph 124C 41+ was written by Hugo Gernsback and published in 12 parts in Modern Electrics Magazine, starting in April 1911. It was published as a book in 1925 (see above) with black and white illustrations drawn by the famous science fiction illustrator Frank R. […]

I love this Phoenix Press cover from 1950. Adrian Reynolds was the pseudonym of Amelia Reynolds Long (1904-1978), a crime and science fiction writer.  This blogger writes at length about Reynolds Long, and it’s a great read about the ‘Queen of Wacky Detective Novels.’ Like a true alternative classic mystery writer Amelia Reynolds Long has a […]

Our latest video showcases August Sander’s photography. Sander (1876-1964) was a pioneering portrait and documentary photographer. His first book, Face of our Time, was published in 1929 and his style influenced many famous photographers who came after him. Enjoy the video.

The American author Langston Hughes was born on this day, February 1, in 1902. Hughes was a pioneering writer in black culture. He wrote poetry, plays, novels, non-fiction, children’s books and short stories. With titles like Fine Clothes to the Jew and The Ways of White Folks, he rubbed people up the wrong way but […]