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Welcome to Today in Books, our daily round-up of literary headlines at the intersection of politics, culture, media, and more.
Edna O’Brien Dies at 93
If you asked me to make a list of women writers who were ahead of their time, Edna O’Brien, who died this weekend at the age of 93, would be near the top. O’Brien’s 1960 debut The Country Girls broke new ground with its frank exploration of the tension between society’s expectations of women and women’s real desires. It’s a theme that would run through O’Brien’s work for decades and which caused controversy with both her conservative Irish countrymen and progressive feminist readers alike. Under-recognized among contemporary readers, O’Brien can be read as a precursor to Elena Ferrante. My own entry point was her 2011 short story collection Saints and Sinners, which I sincerely recommend. May the road rise to meet ye, Ms. O’Brien.
BookTok Boosts Sales Overseas
The rising tide of BookTok isn’t just keeping the U.S. publishing industry afloat, it’s also lifting sales in the U.K. Online retailer Books2Door, which specializes in used and remaindered copies, reports that sales are up a whopping 38% in the first half of 2024 over the same period last year. The increase is driven largely by the TikTok shop Books2Door opened in March 2023, which has since generated more than £400,000 in revenue.
Which reminds me: it’s been a while since we heard anything about PRH’s exclusive partnership with TikTok for linking to books. How’s that going?
TIL That Writing Was Once an Olympic Sport
Here’s a fun one for your next book club meeting or one of those intimidatingly literary dinner partiers we all grew up thinking we’d be going to: from 1912 to 1948, writing was an Olympic sport. Submitted works had to be new (not previously published) and directly inspired by sports. Lit Hub offers a few real examples in the piece linked above, and for funsies, I asked Claude to generate to act as an acclaimed poet in 1912 competing in the Olympics for poetry. Here’s what I got:
The Javelin’s Flight
Bronze arm coiled, eyes fixed on distant field, The thrower stands, a living bow unstrung. One breath, one step, then muscles surge and yield— The spear takes flight, by mortal hand far-flung.
It arcs across the sky, a shooting star, Defying earth to touch the clouds above. In that brief moment, boundaries stretch far; Man’s limits fall to strength and skill and love.
It pierces turf—a feat Olympic crowned, Yet more: the human spirit’s soaring bound.
Harris’s Huge Sales, The Hugos’ Bad Cheaters, and More
You’re reading a round-up of bookish news, so I’m willing to bet you’d like to listen to in-depth conversations about it on the regular. Every week on The Book Riot Podcast, Jeff O’Neal and I talk about what’s going on in the industry, what we’re reading, and where we see things heading. Today, dive into Kamala Harris’s soaring book sales, how the Hugo Awards caught a cheater, and more.
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