The line that divides YA fiction from nondescript “adult” fiction has always been more of a publishing industry invention than a reflection of real readers. According to one 2012 study, 55 percent of YA books are bought by adults. With that, check out these 9 books, nominally for readers under 18, that earned recognition from fancy pants grown ups. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green Image Courtesy of Geeky News Though John Green has spoke often of his decision to write exclusively for young adult audiences, the targeted nature of his novels has not …
North Korea has issued a court statement calling for the execution of two South Korean reporters over statements made in a book review. The book in question, 2015’s North Korea Confidential: Private Markets, Fashion Trends, Prison Camps, Dissenters and Defectors by British journalists Daniel Tudor and James Pearson, describes the communist nation as increasingly capitalist—a claim that the Korean Central News Agency, North Korea’s media arm, decried as “viciously defamed and distorted.” The Korean translation of the title is Capitalist People’s Republic of Korea. However, the regime directed the bulk of its wrath at its enemies to the south, vowing that the presidents …
If you can’t score a ticket to “Hamilton” on Broadway, then this is the next best thing! The Library of Congress, holder of documents related to America’s controversial first treasury secretary, recently made 880 Hamilton documents available online. “The web site is meant to open these up to a much broader public,” said Julie Miller, the library’s curator of early American manuscripts. Image courtesy of The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History The documents cover almost every crucial moment of Hamilton’s life, from his restless adolescence in the Caribbean to his time and politics and eventual death in …
Every day the world is flooded with books of all kinds. Though most of these books will have little impact, a few will. Of those few, some may inspire less-than-desirable outcomes from bombings and sexual assaults to extinction-level events. Be careful what you write. Malleus Maleficarum by Heinrich Kramer and Jacob Sprenger Image Via Rebel Circus Published way back in 1483, Malleus Maleficarum (English translation: “The Hammer of Witchcraft”), a manual for budding witch hunters, fanned the flames of religious hysteria at the height of Europe’s Protestant reformation. The book would ultimately go through 36 editions over the next two hundred years, no …
The actual Cold War may be long dead, but acclaimed spy writer John Le Carré continues to keep the conflict alive in his fiction. After 25 years, George Smiley, le Carré’s famous taciturn British spy, will once again appear in print in le Carré’s upcoming 24th novel A Legacy of Spies. Image courtesy of Penguin Random House Smiley, a prominent player in well-known le Carré works like Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, will somehow figure in to this tale set to the backdrop of both the Cold War and a contemporary London …
