A Giant Passes
Joan Didion might be the greatest literary multi-hypenate of the last 50 years of American letters. So, it is no surprise that the remembrances and appreciations for the novelist-essayist-journalist-critic-screenwriter-icon were widespread and reverant. From breaking out with Play It As It Lays to her late career emergence as a bestselling chronicler of grief, Didion’s career is hard to get your head around. We will not see her like again.
The Most Important Literary Prize in the World
It might come as a surprise, or at least to Americans, to find that the Booker Prize is the most important literary prize in the world. Interestingly, the Nielsen survey that determined this was sponsored by a “unnamed literary prize.”
The Big List of “Best Books of 2021” Lists
For fourteen years, David Gutowski’s master list of the “best books of the year” lists has been one of my favorite end-of-year internet surfing destinations. As you find time to browse and look at what the year was like in books, you could do worse than to start there.
Book Riot’s Best Books of 2021
And just to pull one list out totally at random, if you missed Book Riot’s own picks for the best books of the year, well don’t say you never got the link.