books
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Cats in literatureFrom riddlers to reincarnated geniuses and fine artists, author Lynne Truss selects fictional felines who show why it’s worth risking one’s reputation to write about them
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Rebecca Solnit's Hope in the Dark sells out after Trump victoryFeminist activist’s manifesto for ‘an alternative to the certainty of both optimists and pessimists’, originally published in 2004, sees huge rise in sales
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A hot neon safari into the world of roller derbyA new strip centres around the fast, furious and female-focused sport, plus the sharksploitation legend that is Hook Jaw returns
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Hillbilly Elegy by JD Vance – does this memoir really explain Trump’s victory?One of the standout successes of 2016, Vance’s account of his white working-class origins should be treated with caution by commentators
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Diary of a Wartime Affair – an intimate account of adulteryThe diary of Doreen Bates, edited by her children, gives an unusually exact view of private life in the 1930s and 40s
news
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Fidel Castro worked on Gabriel García Márquez's manuscriptsThe Nobel laureate sent the Cuban dictator all of his books and received his factual and grammatical notes before submitting them to his publisher
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We're going to talk about Fight Club by Chuck PalahniukWhether we read it as a continuation of The Great Gatsby or a premonition of the alt-right, there’s a lot to discuss
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What are you reading this week?Your space to discuss the books you are reading and what you think of them
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best books of 2016
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Ali Smith, Paul Beatty, Don DeLillo and more...We thumb through a year that saw a US author win the Booker, the death of a short-story master – and the first Brexit novel
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Margaret Drabble, Jonathan Franzen and more...From Zadie Smith’s Swing Time to horror in the Highlands and a brief history of tomorrow ...
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Best biographies and autobiographiesCocktails with Sartre and dark memories of Gaddafi … Kathryn Hughes explores extraordinary lives
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Best paperbacks of the yearKazuo Ishiguro’s haunting The Buried Giant, Adam Mars-Jones’s hilarious memoir and Sydney Padua’s eye-opening graphic novel are some of this year’s highlights
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Best books on sportA surfer’s prizewinning memoir, an insight into women’s football and a chronicle of horse racing make Huw Richards’ selection
• Vote: What was your favourite book of the year? -
Best books on foodFrom fresh central Asian flavours to pies from the deep south, cookbooks open up new mouthwatering worlds for Felicity Cloake
• Vote: What was your favourite book of the year?
regulars
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100 Best Nonfiction Books of All Time100 Best Nonfiction Books of All TimeThe 100 best nonfiction books: No 45 – A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf (1929)Virginia Woolf’s essay on women’s struggle for independence and creative opportunity is a landmark of feminist thought
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Book of the dayBook of the dayHillbilly Elegy by JD Vance review – does this memoir really explain Trump’s victory?One of the standout successes of 2016, Vance’s account of his white working-class origins should be treated with caution by commentators
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The first book interviewThe first book interviewLeroy Smith: 'Guns, robberies. That was my life'The first book interview: Out of the Box, written from shocking experience, is the memoir of a reformed criminal with an impassioned message for young black men
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Top 10sTop 10sTop 10 cats in literatureFrom riddlers to reincarnated geniuses and fine artists, author Lynne Truss selects fictional felines who show why it’s worth risking one’s reputation to write about them
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The Hotel Years by Joseph Roth – Europe’s interwar era brought to lifeThe first appearance in English of a wonderful collection of articles by Joseph Roth captures his wanderings in cosmopolitan society before the rise of Nazism
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When in French by Lauren Collins – love and a language gulfAn American writer meets her French husband to be in a charming memoir that explores how language defines who we are
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Love of Country: A Hebridean Journey – the edge of EuropeMadeleine Bunting’s thrilling voyage through the islands considers their poetic appeal and place in national culture
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Vertical by Stephen Graham – class war from aboveCities are now segregated by height, with the world’s wealthiest living high, argues this fascinating book
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Saving Grace by Grace Wilson – brilliant commentary on the housing crisis
Graphic novel of the month Saving Grace by Grace Wilson – brilliant commentary on the housing crisis
A graduate’s struggle to find a room in London makes for a wise, hilarious graphic memoir -
All Out War; The Brexit Club; The Bad Boys of Brexit – rollicking referendum recollectionsThree excellent accounts of the EU referendum campaigning expose the petty conniving of all involved
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Panorama by Dušan Šarotar – a Sebaldian journeyNicholas Lezard’s paperback of the week: A Slovenian writer seeks perspective and peace in this shifting, melancholy narrative
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Christmas Days – cruelty, comfort and joyDifficult childhood memories transmute into forgiveness in a mix of seasonal stories, recipes, animal fables and fairytales
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Margaret the First by Danielle Dutton – portrait of an author ahead of her timeThis luminous biographical novel about unconventional 17th-century writer Margaret Cavendish is a small miracle of imaginative sympathy
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Himself by Jess Kidd – a dark and rollicking debutBuried secrets are uncovered and the dead rise in Kidd’s fantastical literary thriller set on the west coast of Ireland
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The Tobacconist by Robert Seethaler – bittersweet follow-up to A Whole LifeRobert Seethaler has another hit on his hands with this coming-of-age tale set in pre-war Vienna
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Rotten Row by Petina Gappah – buzzing with Zimbabwe lifeFrom the hairdresser’s salon to the kombi bus, these compelling short stories vividly capture ordinary lives and the tensions that call for the law
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The best children’s booksFrom tales of migration and crime to wolves, bugs and the difficulty of sharing – Julia Eccleshare’s picks of the year
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The best new picture books and novelsMonochrome magic with Mary Poppins, a swooning YA romance and Winnie-the-Pooh returns
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Picture books for childrenA classic song leaps from the page while a baby bunny throws a monster tantrum… the pick of the titles for younger readers
people
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The lasting fascination with Lizzie BordenMore than a century after a crime that gripped America, it is still a magnet for authors and film-makers
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I was a lawyer, but I forced myself to write before I went to workThe author on her mini-life crisis, her ‘white whale’ novel and dreams of yoga on a veranda in the mountains
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I thought short stories had left me completelyThe author on her unexpected new collection, the turmoil in British politics and her ‘tin ear’ for the class system
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I was wrong about EM ForsterPut off by A Passage to India in his teens, the author has rediscovered a wry, sly and subversive writer
A selection of our favourite literary content from around the world
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The Little Library CaféThe Little Library CaféFood in books: omelette aux fines herbes from The Devil’s FeastA fan of the famous French chef Alexis Soyer, Kate Young recreates a recipe made by Soyer in MJ Carter’s mystery novel The Devil’s Feast
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Interview with a Bookstore by Literary HubInterview with a Bookstore by Literary HubInterview with a Bookstore: Farley's Bookshop in PennsylvaniaProviding nooks and crannies for booklovers to read in for half a century, Farley’s Bookshop is home to knowledgable booksellers – and a cat called Butter
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pictures, video & audio
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Alan Moore talks to Stewart LeeThe comics legend tells the standup comic why his latest project is a small-town novel set in the Midlands, running to 1,280 pages and titled Jerusalem
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Alice in Wonderland's engravings – a forgotten storyLewis Carroll’s classic is renowned for John Tenniel’s illustrations. But few know about the engravers who made it all happen. Take a look at their work
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Nordic noir with Kati Hiekkapelto and Antti TuomainenWe investigate crime fiction from the frozen north with two of Finland’s rising literary stars
you may have missed
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Why does Churchill look grumpy on the £5 note?Find out why Churchill scowled and which insect terrifies the Dalai Lama as the brains behind the panel share some jolly arcana
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A practical utopian from a divided USThe author of Little Women grew up among idealistic transcendentalists – and the book itself was a practical sacrifice to sustain those dreams
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At times I am Philip K Dick, minus the amphetamines, bashing out 6,000 words a dayThe novelist and children’s writer on running, hypochondria and his territorial Maltese terrier
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You have to act against the gravity of grief – to decide you won’t fallThe Israeli author on his comedic novel, family tragedy and reading in a war zone
Martin Amis Author working on novel about Christopher Hitchens, Saul Bellow and Philip Larkin