6 d. ago BBC The Traitors' Harriet sees sales of crime novels skyrocket

Crime novel author Harriet Tyce has seen sales of her books soar since appearing on The Traitors, here's how to read one for free

Events

7 d. ago 16 best new books to read this winter, from Jennette McCurdy to David Szalay

Discover debut novelists and immersive page-turners from acclaimed authors

Politics

7 d. ago 5 easy everyday habits that can regulate your nervous system

The secret to feeling calmer and happier is right in front of you, according to a new book, Glimmers. Read an extract here

Politics

7 d. ago The easy everyday habit that can regulate your nervous system

The secret to feeling calmer and happier is right in front of you, according to a new book, Glimmers. Read an extract here

Politics

8 d. ago Karen Read reveals she’s working on a book as she gives first interview since acquittal

The Massachusetts woman was cleared of killing police officer boyfriend with car

Politics

8 d. ago Women are feral for Heated Rivalry. What does that say about men?

The explosive popularity of the gay hockey TV drama reveals women’s desire for sex and romance without violence or hierarchyThe first time gay hockey romance crossed Mary’s radar, she was warned off it. A 64-year-old non-profit executive from Toronto, Mary recalled mentioning the Canadian author Rachel Reid’s Game Changers series to her son, a twentysomething queer writer and fellow hockey-obsessive, a few years ago.“I said: ‘Have you heard of these books?’ and he said: ‘Yeah.’ I said: ‘Should I read these books?’ And he said: ‘No. They’re not for you.’” Continue reading...

Politics

1 week ago Looking to read more books in 2026? Here are 27 titles coming out this year

If you’ve made a resolution to read more books in 2026, here are 27 exciting titles worth reading including The Ending Writes Itself.

Politics

2 w. ago I read 51 books last year, but this was my standout favourite

The novel was nominated in the Goodreads Choice Awards

Politics

2 w. ago 19 best new books to read this winter, from Florence Knapp to David Szalay

Discover debut novelists and immersive page-turners from acclaimed authors

Politics

2 w. ago Many schools don’t think students can read full novels any more. That’s a tragedy | Margaret Sullivan

Increasingly, teens are given only parts of books, and they often read not in print but on school-issued laptopsReading fiction has been such a joy for me that my heart broke a little to learn recently that many schools no longer assign full books to high school students.Rather, teens are given excerpts of books, and they often read them not in print but on school-issued laptops, according to a survey of 2,000 teachers, students and parents by the New York Times.Margaret Sullivan is a Guardian US columnist writing on media, politics and culture Continue reading...

Culture

2 w. ago Five hotel booking red flags in January that could ruin your winter holiday

Booking a holiday in January? There are some potential pitfalls to be wary of while booking a hotel, experts warn. Read on to find out what to look out for.

Politics

2 w. ago I’ve already read some of 2026’s biggest book releases – these are the 4 to look out for

Bookmark these titles for your 2026 reading pile

Politics

2 w. ago I read books every day — these are the 10 books to look out for in January

If you're looking for some good reads to ease you into your New Year's resolution to read more, look no further than this list of the best new releases

Politics

3 w. ago I've read 240 books this year and here are top 5 you need to read in 2026

Senior Social News reporter Danielle Kate Wroe has managed to make her way through a whopping 240 books this year, and she's shared her top five in the hopes of inspiring you in 2026

Politics

3 w. ago The Master of Contradictions by Morten Høi Jensen review – how Thomas Mann wrote The Magic Mountain

A vivid account of the creation of one of literary modernism’s greatest achievementsIn a 1924 letter to André Gide, Thomas Mann said he would soon be sending along a copy of his new novel, The Magic Mountain. “But I assure you that I do not in the least expect you to read it,” he wrote. “It is a highly problematical and ‘German’ work, and of such monstrous dimensions that I know perfectly well it won’t do for the rest of Europe.”Morten Høi Jensen’s approachable and informative study of The Magic Mountain positions Mann as a writer who was contradictory to his core: an artist who dressed and behaved like a businessman; a homosexual in a conventional marriage with six children; an upstanding burgher obsessed with death and corruption. Very much the kind of man who would send someone a book and tell them not to read it. Continue reading...

Politics

3 w. ago Inspector Lynley returns to BBC One after 20 years and lead star hasn't seen show

The actor who stars in the reboot of Inspector Lynley had never watched the previous version or read any of the books written in the 1980s

Politics

3 w. ago ChatGPT, cooking and Christopher Walken: how parents got their kids to love reading in 2025

Fewer children are reading for fun - but parents are trying everything from AI to dramatic voices to keep them engagedIt’s been a tough year for our brains. Merriam-Webster dictionary editors chose “slop” as 2025’s word of the year. New York Magazine recently dropped its “Stupid Issue”, with a cover story exploring America’s collective “cognitive decline”. There are big problems in the humanities: reading test scores are down for students nationwide, and undergraduates cannot read full books any more.Even storytime – a comfy couch, a cardboard book, a kid’s rapt attention as their parent reads them a story – is an endangered activity. According to an April report from HarperCollins UK, parents have lost the love of reading to their children, with fewer than half of gen Z parents calling the activity “fun for me”. According to the survey of 1,596 parents of children aged zero to 13, almost one in three found reading “more a subject to learn” than an experience to enjoy. Only a third ...

Society

3 w. ago Tim Dowling: my 2025 in numbers: not a year to forget, but one of forgetting

From the books I’ve read (and forgotten) this year to the number of times my jokes bombed on stageAs the end of the year looms up like the handle of a rake I’ve just stepped on, I recall the preceding 12 months as a period characterised by a steep erosion of trust and a sinking feeling that nothing is to be taken at face value. We subsist on a steady diet of lies, distortion and AI slop. Everything is getting stupider, including me.That’s why, when it comes to examining the year, I choose to reckon with nothing but cold, hard numbers. Here, then, is how things stand for me, statistically, at the close of 2025. Continue reading...

Politics

3 w. ago The Lowdown review – Ethan Hawke’s new drama is hilariously poignant

The actor plays a ‘truthstorian’ trying to uncover how a powerful man’s death came about. Brace yourself for a hugely funny, all-American wild goose chase!Lee Raybon (Ethan Hawke) is a “truthstorian”. How to explain that proudly self-applied title? A historian, but also an investigative journalist with an inherent distrust of mainstream narratives? A maker of trouble for trouble’s sake? Or one of those fantasists whose home contains a huge mood board (current mood? Paranoid!) covered with photos of suspects and newspaper clippings and various strands of a conspiracy connected by pieces of string? Raybon actually has one of those. “I’m a very visual thinker,” he says. His scathing former business partner Wendell (Peter Dinklage) sees it differently: “It’s like you read one Oklahoma history book and then made a junior high collage out of it.”This exchange is typical of the alacrity with which The Lowdown cheerfully undercuts itself. Sterlin Harjo’s Tulsa noir is brilliantly elusive in...

Events

3 w. ago In 2025 reparations became central to UK ties with the Caribbean and Africa – so how do we move forward? | Kenneth Mohammed

This year was a pivotal one, in which the issue of restorative justice began to frame the UK’s post-imperial relationship with the global southA little while ago, I was interviewed for a forthcoming book about reparations by a black British comedian and his co-writer. I approached it with modest expectations. It is a serious subject for me as a Caribbean man, and I wondered whether the complexity might be flattened or trivialised in the process.I got to read the book this week. In The Big Payback, Lenny Henry and Marcus Ryder take a complex, controversial and deeply contested subject and do something both rare and necessary: they break it down into its constituent parts and explain – debunking and demystifying along the way – why so many of the stock objections to reparations are intellectually incoherent, historically illiterate or politically evasive. Continue reading...

Events