Nick Hornby shares 30 things to tell a book snob . R.I.P., singer-songwriter Scott Miller. The New York Times Magazine profiles author John Le Carre . Readers like myself, mostly allergic to spy stories and genre narratives, have long been drawn to le Carre's stuff because of the wit and incisiveness he manages to insert into pained understatement. His early books sketched, as he once put it about [...]
Every day, Daily Downloads offers 10 free and legal mp3 downloads, plus free and legal live sets from around the internet. Today's free and legal mp3 downloads: Acid Mothers Temple : 2013-04-15, Montreal [mp3,ogg,flac] Acid Mothers Temple: "Dark Stars in the Dazzling Sky" [mp3] Akron/Family : 2013-04-16, Chicago [mp3,ogg,flac] Akron/Family: "Light Emerges" [mp3] [...]
In the Book Notes series, authors create and discuss a music playlist that relates in some way to their recently published book. Previous contributors include Bret Easton Ellis , Kate Christensen , Kevin Brockmeier , George Pelecanos , Dana Spiotta , Amy Bloom , Aimee Bender , Myla Goldberg , Heidi Julavits , Hari Kunzru , and many others. Jake Arnott's The House of Rumour as ambitious and curiously constructed a novel as I have read in years, a linked [...]
In the Book Notes series, authors create and discuss a music playlist that relates in some way to their recently published book. Previous contributors include Bret Easton Ellis , Kate Christensen , Kevin Brockmeier , George Pelecanos , Dana Spiotta , Amy Bloom , Aimee Bender , Myla Goldberg , Heidi Julavits , Hari Kunzru , and many others. Leah Umansky finely details the beauty and clarity of both destruction and reconstruction in her powerful debut poetry collection, Domestic Uncertainties : [...]
Literary translators talk to the Irish Times about the tricks of their trade. Stream Dead Leaf Echo's new album Thought and Language , inspired by the writing of Vladimir Nabokov. The Comics Journal interviews cartoonist Genevieve Castree about her graphic novel Susceptible . Twitter Music has launched. [...]
Every day, Daily Downloads offers 10 free and legal mp3 downloads, plus free and legal live sets from around the internet. Today's free and legal mp3 downloads: Adventure : "Laser Blast" [mp3] from Weird Work (out April 30th) Airstrip : "Sleepy" [mp3] from Willing Airstrip : "Pleasure Center" [mp3] from Willing [...]
In the Book Notes series, authors create and discuss a music playlist that relates in some way to their recently published book. Previous contributors include Bret Easton Ellis , Kate Christensen , Kevin Brockmeier , George Pelecanos , Dana Spiotta , Amy Bloom , Aimee Bender , Myla Goldberg , Heidi Julavits , Hari Kunzru , and many others. Vividly told and meticulously researched, Amy Brill's The Movement of Stars is one of the year's finest debut novels. [...]
In the Book Notes series, authors create and discuss a music playlist that relates in some way to their recently published book. Previous contributors include Bret Easton Ellis , Kate Christensen , Kevin Brockmeier , George Pelecanos , Dana Spiotta , Amy Bloom , Aimee Bender , Myla Goldberg , Heidi Julavits , Hari Kunzru , and many others. B.J. Hollars' short story collection Sightings shares refreshingly absurd coming-of-age stories, punctuated with a perfect sense of humor and impeccable storytelling [...]
The William Hazlitt Essay Prize will award 15,000 British pounds to its winner. The Nervous Breakdown interviews Toure about his new book I Would Die 4 U: Why Prince Became an Icon . Frank Bill talks to San Diego CityBeat about his debut novel, Donnybrook . The New York Times profiles X5 [...]
Every day, Daily Downloads offers 10 free and legal mp3 downloads, plus free and legal live sets from around the internet. Today's free and legal mp3 downloads: The Baptist Generals : "Broken Glass" [mp3] from Jackleg Devotional to the Heart (out May 21st) Beams : "Be My Brother" [mp3] from Just Rivers (out May 14th) [...]
In the Book Notes series, authors create and discuss a music playlist that relates in some way to their recently published book. Previous contributors include Bret Easton Ellis , Kate Christensen , Kevin Brockmeier , George Pelecanos , Dana Spiotta , Amy Bloom , Aimee Bender , Myla Goldberg , Heidi Julavits , Hari Kunzru , and many others. Jessica Soffer's Tomorrow There Will Be Apricots is an exceptional novel, filled with well-wrought characters and sharp, beautiful prose. This profound [...]

In the weekly Atomic Books Comics Preview , Benn Ray highlights notable new comics and graphic novels. Benn Ray is the owner of Atomic Books , an independent bookstore in Baltimore. The Mobtown Shank is his blog, and his comic Said What? is syndicated weekly in the Baltimore Sun's B-Paper. Atomic Books has been named one of Bizarre Magazine's 51 geekiest places on the planet , as well as one of Flavorwire's 10 greatest comic and graphic novel stores in America . [...]

In the Largehearted Word series, the staff of Brooklyn's WORD bookstore highlights several new books released this week. WORD is an independent neighborhood bookstore in Greenpoint, the northernmost neighborhood of Brooklyn, that recently celebrated its sixth anniversary. Our primary goal is to be whatever our community needs us to be, which currently means carrying a lot of paperback fiction (especially classics), cookbooks, board books, and absurdly cute cards and stationery. In addition, we're fiends for a good event, from the classic author reading and Q&A to potlucks and [...]
Wired examines the use of indie music on Game of Thrones . Still, combining a world of warring kingdoms and dragons with music from acts that would seem at home at Coachella is risky business. Consider the Hold Steady’s version of "The Bear and the Maiden Fair," which followed a very shocking and abrupt turn at the end of last night's episode. Depending on who you ask, its placement was either part of "one of the best cut-to-credits in recent memory" or "WTF," but overall reaction to the song has been relatively positive. [...]
Every day, Daily Downloads offers 10 free and legal mp3 downloads, plus free and legal live sets from around the internet. Today's free and legal mp3 downloads: Blindfolder : "A Little Thing to Do" [mp3] from Artifact Effect The Coyote Affair : free and legal Love and Other Drugs EP [mp3] [...]
In the Book Notes series, authors create and discuss a music playlist that relates in some way to their recently published book. Previous contributors include Bret Easton Ellis , Kate Christensen , Kevin Brockmeier , George Pelecanos , Dana Spiotta , Amy Bloom , Aimee Bender , Myla Goldberg , Heidi Julavits , Hari Kunzru , and many others. Boaz Yakin's graphic novel Jerusalem is a heart-rending account of the Israel of the 1940s, told from the perspective of two [...]

Try It Before You Buy It features free and legal mp3 downloads and full album streams from the week's music releases : 1939 Ensemble: Howl and Bite 1939 Ensemble: "Sabotage" [mp3] Allison Weiss: Say What You Mean full album stream [...]
Granta's list of the 20 most promising British novelists under 40 . Congratulations to Largehearted Boy Book Notes contributors Tahmima Anam , Steven Hall , and Adam Thirwell . Patti Smith offers advice to young artists . Spin lists the top 100 alternative albums of the 1960s. The Telegraph recommends modern Turkish literature . [...]
Every day, Daily Downloads offers 10 free and legal mp3 downloads, plus free and legal live sets from around the internet. Today's free and legal mp3 downloads: Aoife O'Donovan : free and legal Red & White & Blue & Gold EP [mp3] Dirty Fences : "White Lies" [mp3] from Too High to Kross [...]

The big music releases this week include Iron and Wine's Ghost on Ghost , The Flaming Lips' The Terror , and Yeah Yeah Yeahs' Mosquito . Way To Blue - The Songs Of Nick Drake collects covers of the iconic singer-songwriter's music from Robyn Hitchcock, Vashti Bunyan, and others. David Bowie's Aladdin Sane album has been remastered to celebrate its 40th anniversary. What new releases are [...]