Our blog features essays, book reviews, coverage of FTB titles, and noteworthy news of American Jewish experience by our publisher.
Is the publishing industry broken?
Posted on June 1, 2023
Is the Publishing Industry Broken? By Rachel Deahl | Sep 02, 2022 photo credit: Illustration by Jeff Drew Max Perkins didn’t do as much administrative work as editorial assistants do today,” said Daniel Vazquez, an editor at Astra House. Although he may not know exactly what the famous 20th-century editor’s day-to-day was like—did Perkins work […]
21 Brilliant Novels That Were Adapted Into Great Films
Posted on April 5, 2023
Buzzfeed – Posted on Feb 1, 2018, by Kat Angus 1. The Princess Bride by William Goldman 2. Room by Emma Donoghue 3. Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier 4. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Steven Chbosky 5. Life of Pi by Yann Martel 6. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy 7. The Maze Runner series […]
How Barnes & Noble Came Back From Near Death
Posted on March 2, 2023
By Ezra Klein I remember when Barnes & Noble first opened in my hometown. Before that, we had a cramped Crown Books and some lovely but limited libraries. Barnes & Noble was a revelation. There was something wondrous about a room with that many books, each of them a doorway to unknown worlds, ideas and […]
The Long Shadow of ‘American Dirt’
Posted on February 2, 2023
Pamela Paul The New York Times Jan. 26, 2023 Three years ago this month, the novel “American Dirt” by Jeanine Cummins landed in bookstores on a tsunami of enthusiasm. “Extraordinary,” Stephen King wrote in a prepublication blurb. “Riveting, timely, a dazzling accomplishment,” raved Julia Alvarez. “This book is not simply the great American novel; it’s […]
How to Make the Most of E-Books, and Find Free Ones
Posted on January 2, 2023
Even if you still love printed books, the digital option lets you put an entire library in your bag, just in time for holiday travel and vacation. By J. D. Biersdorfer The early models of e-book readers, created about 25 years ago, weighed more than a pound and needed to be connected to a computer. […]
Tears and Glory Writing Workshops
Posted on December 2, 2022
Boris Fishman * has created a series of writing workshops called Tears & Glory, which will begin in January 2023. Fiction and nonfiction; Zoom and in person; one-offs and series; workshops, lectures, and craft courses; all stages welcome. WRITING CLASSES & WORKSHOPS Choose your adventure: SEMESTER-LONG WORKSHOPS IN FICTION AND NONFICTION SINGLE CLASSES IN-PERSON WRITING […]
How to Get Published: A Book’s Journey From ‘Very Messy’ Draft to Best Seller
Posted on November 3, 2022
The mainstream publishing industry is intimidating. How does a writer break in? Follow Jessamine Chan’s “The School for Good Mothers” through the roller coaster of its creation. By Kate Dwyer Aug. 25, 2022 Jessamine Chan spent five years drafting her book. It was her first — a novel about a mother who loses custody of her […]
Could a ‘Jewish Literary Mafia’ Really Control American Publishing?
Posted on October 8, 2022
Blog post from Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?sk=approve&highlight=10209651201353266&log_filter=review&queue_type=friends¬if_id=1660585363048414¬if_t=tagged_with_story&ref=notif#10209651201353266 Is it possible that a 20th-century Jewish N.Y. clique decided for decades what would be published in America? Josh Lambert, author of a book on the subject, offers some insight More than 50 years after his death, Jack Kerouac, the man who wrote the iconic novel “On the Road,” is […]
American Literature Loses Out to Consolidation
Posted on September 7, 2022
OXFORD, Miss. — Penguin Random House, the largest English-language trade book publisher in the world, has made an offer to acquire Simon & Schuster, another large publisher and one of its rivals. For American consumers, this is bad news. Allison Hill, the chief executive of the American Booksellers Association, a trade association that promotes independent […]
There’s More Than One Way to Ban a Book
Posted on August 1, 2022
There’s More Than One Way to Ban a Book July 24, 2022, By Pamela Paul Opinion Columnist, The New York Times In the 1950s, Vladimir Nabokov’s “Lolita” was banned in France, Britain and Argentina, but not in the United States, where its publisher, Walter Minton, released the book after multiple American publishing houses rejected it. Minton is part of a […]