Interesting Ideas

Writers and Guardian readers discuss the titles they have read over the last month. Join the conversation in the comments

Even though it came out only last year, I was so impressed with Álvaro Enrigue’s You Dreamed of Empiresthat I am on my second reread. As all around me institutions fall and norms fail, I feel the moment requires audacious re-imaginings of history or possibilities of thought, and on both a political and imaginative level, Enrigue delivers with his wild telling of the meeting between Hernán Cortés and Moctezuma.

Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway was published on May 14, 1925 by Hogarth Press, the publishing house Woolf ran with her husband, Leonard Woolf. The original cover was created by Woolf’s sister Vanessa Bell, who would design a total 0f 38 books for the press. Famously, Bell’s designs were “universally condemned amongst booksellers,” but Woolf didn’t care. […]

A series of scattered recollections form the basis for this intimate, abstract memoir that riffs on human interdependence

Holly Dawson was suffering from seizures and having trouble retaining information and remembering faces. Brain scans revealed a damaged hippocampus and a tumour, probably benign. To improve her memory, doctors asked her to look at strings of numbers, and then reel them off backwards – an exercise she likens to “Cognitive Crufts”. She ruminates on the relationship between language, memory and time: “three gifts, co-dependent, that create and sustain each other”. Her first book, All of Us Atoms, is a memoir in snapshots, sketching a rough portrait of her life through a series of scattered recollections and reflections.

Dawson’s story begins in an unnamed industrial town, where the closure of the local steelworks had produced a surplus of “angry bored men, making mothers out of their wives”; her family decamped to a Cornish fishing village, where she spent the best part of her childhood. As a youngster she was “serious and odd” – morbid, obsessed with the past, a little solipsistic. Hers was among the last generations of pupils to access private schooling via the Assisted Places Scheme, shortly before it was discontinued by the Thatcher government. She later moved to rural East Sussex, where she is currently “reader-in-residence” at Charleston.

An eye-opening account of the old Soviet tactic of embedding secret agents where you’d least expect them

One of the best series of the golden age of TV drama, The Americans (2013-2018), centred on a pair of Russian sleeper agents operating in suburban Washington DC during the height of the cold war. By day they seemed to be a boring married American couple; by night they set honey traps, sabotaged facilities, recruited traitors and assassinated enemies.

That story was based in part on the real-life pair of “illegals” – as spies living under deep cover in civil society are called – Elena Vavilova and Andrey Bezrukov, who pretended to be Canadians living in Cambridge, Massachussetts, until their arrest and deportation in 2010. In reality, they weren’t so successful: owing to the turning of another Soviet agent, they were closely monitored by the FBI for years and never managed anything nefarious enough to make it worth charging them with espionage.

Audible announced yesterday that they’re going to start rolling out AI narration and translation, according to The Guardian and their own press release. It’s another use of AI that not many people seem to be asking for, but the sort of thing every tech company seems eager to force on consumers. As usual, this announcement […]

The wooden statues commemorate the author’s time in the area while recuperating after the first world war and a moment that inspired a tale of star-crossed love in Middle-earth

Wooden carved statues of JRR Tolkien and his wife, Edith, will be unveiled in an East Yorkshire village next month, celebrating the area’s influence on the writer.

Tolkien spent nearly 18 months in Hull and East Yorkshire while recovering from trench fever during the first world war, and the area’s landscape is believed to have inspired his works, including The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit.

Welcome, fellow book lover! In today’s digital age, you don’t have to read alone. Online book communities offer a wonderful way to share your love of reading with others and enrich your literary life. Whether you’re looking to discuss the latest bestseller, swap recommendations, or start or participate in a virtual book club, there’s a vibrant community for you. These platforms make it easy for readers to connect across the globe, share reviews and thoughts, and discover new books they'd never have found on their own​. Best of all, the most popular communities are actively moderated, welcoming, and friendly: much like a cozy in-person book club, just available anytime and anywhere. Below, we’ll expl... [More]

Online book clubs let you engage with others about books instead of just reading them alone. They bring together curious readers on forums, apps, or virtual meetups to discuss a shared book in depth. In a good online book club, you connect with fellow bibliophiles around the world, explore themes and characters you might have missed, and find motivation to finish your reading. Unlike a celebrity "pick of the month" or a casual social media thread, a serious book club is a discussion-based experience with a clear structure. Many readers join these clubs because they want a dedicated space and thoughtful conversation, things that celebrity-led clubs or one-off chats don't provide. In other words, an online book club is about participation, no... [More]

According to the powers that be (er, apparently according to Dan Wickett of the Emerging Writers Network), May is Short Story Month. To celebrate, for the third year in a row, the Literary Hub staff will be recommending a single short story, free* to read online, every (work) day of the month. Why not read along […]

Virginia Woolf was a messy writer. Her surviving drafts are often stained by cigarette ash or a dog’s pawprints. The large wooden tables she preferred in her writing rooms were covered with manuscripts, bottles of ink, overflowing ashtrays and the notebooks she made for herself, ruling a margin on each page with a thick blue […]

The food writer digs into her own and other’s cupboards to uncover the surprising emotional punch of kitchenalia

Two months after her husband left in 2020, Bee Wilson was startled by the clatter of a baking tin falling on to the kitchen floor. In one way this doesn’t seem particularly remarkable: Wilson is an esteemed food writer who presumably has a surplus of kitchen utensils crammed into her bulging cupboards. This tin, though, was different. For one thing it was heart-shaped. For another, Wilson had used it to bake her wedding cake 23 years earlier, taking care to leave out the cherries because her husband-to-be loathed them. (This now strikes her as ominous: “Maybe a man who was so fussy about cherries was not the man for me.”) Lurking at the back of Wilson’s mind had been the thought that she would soon be using the heart-shaped tin to bake a cake for their silver wedding anniversary. But now here it was, lying dejectedly at her feet and, she couldn’t help noticing, spotted with rust.

In this delightful book, part memoir, part anthropological investigation, food writer Wilson explores the way that kitchen objects have the power to move, soothe and even reproach us. There’s the plate you feel compelled to eat off because it makes everything taste nicer, or that bowl you keep but can’t bear to use because it reminds you too much of the person who gave it to you. In the maelstrom of her new living conditions, Wilson worries that she is overdoing the anthropomorphism: there is a big cast-iron knife that she can’t bear to pick up because it is the one her ex-husband always used and “to touch its smooth handle would have felt like holding his hand”.

A deeply-researched account of the public fascination with Diana Spencer takes in royalists, republicans, lookalikes and sex workers

A thriving industry of books, TV shows and films has kept Diana, Princess of Wales’s image alive since her death in 1997. Most focus on her flawed inner world, and claim to uncover her “true” self. Edward White’s lively, deeply researched Dianaworld gives us something very different.

White, whose previous work includes an acclaimed biography of Alfred Hitchcock, approaches Diana’s story through the people who saw themselves in her – the doppelgangers, opportunists and superfans who found parallels between the princess’s life of extraordinary privilege and their own. His subjects are the frequently ridiculed devotees who fuel celebrity culture: women rushing for the Diana hairdo; impersonators opening supermarkets; psychics jolted awake the night of the fatal crash. It is, White says, “less a biography of Diana, more the story of a cultural obsession”.

Dianaworld by Edward White (Penguin Books Ltd, £25). To support the Guardian, order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply.

These are the guest editors and covers of the 2025 Best American Series! | Lit Hub “Surely it’s the sign of a remarkable work of art that it cannot be pinned down to any one definition, that you can find something new in it at each encounter.” On 100 years of Mrs. Dalloway. | Lit […]

A ghost story – unusual subject matter for the late author of political thrillers – features alongside little-known Ian Fleming story

A short ghost story by Graham Greene described by analysts as “an eerie gem” was published for the first time on Wednesday, a rare glimpse into the largely uncelebrated darker side of one of the giants of 20th-century literature.

Reading at Night appears in the 75th issue of Strand Magazine, a Michigan-based literary quarterly that has built a reputation for finding and publishing “lost” writings of well-known authors.

Duel Duet by Graham Greene (Vintage Publishing, £18.99). To support the Guardian, order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply.

This story was amended on 14 May 2025. A previous version stated the Strand Magazine is based in New York.

A definitive new biography takes in adventures on the Mississippi, racist stereotypes and get-rich-quick schemes

In his lifetime, Mark Twain was the greatest literary celebrity the world had ever known. In the US, he hobnobbed with presidents; on his many travels, he would dine privately with the German kaiser, the Austrian emperor, or the Prince of Wales. Visiting England to collect an honorary degree from Oxford University, he was cheered off his ship by the stevedores of the London docks, before making his way to Windsor Castle for tea with the king and queen.

He was the bracing, irreverently humorous voice of America. Like Charles Dickens, whom he heard read from his own work in New York, he became a performer as well as an author. In London he was feted when he read passages from his travelogue of the Wild West, Roughing It. Everyone loved the “twang of his drawl”. He went on to take his work in progress, Huckleberry Finn, round more than 100 American towns and cities, earning handsomely.

Amazon brand will offer more than 100 artificial intelligence-generated voices in English and other languages

Audible has announced plans to use AI technology to narrate audiobooks, with AI translation to follow.

The Amazon-owned audiobook provider has said it will be making its AI production technology available to certain publishers via “select partnerships”.

Woolf said language ‘runs dry’ when it comes to convey the reality of illness. Here is an impressive effort to do just that

In her landmark 1985 work, The Body in Pain, American essayist Elaine Scarry makes a case for the “unsharability” of pain and its resistance to language. “Physical pain,” she writes, “does not simply resist language but actively destroys it.” Sixty years earlier in On Being Ill, Virginia Woolf made her famous claim about how language “runs dry” when it comes to articulating illness. Both theories grapple with inexpressibility. Experiencing serious, persistent pain invokes many feelings: irritation, curiosity (what’s causing it?), fear (of something sinister) and ultimately the desire to eradicate it. The search for a diagnosis can be as debilitating as the condition itself. In Pathemata: Or, the Story of My Mouth, Maggie Nelson tries to solve the mystery of a longstanding health issue. “Each morning, it is as if my mouth has survived a war – it has protested, it has hidden, it has suffered.”

Nelson breadcrumbs backwards through teenage orthodontist visits, recurrent battles with tonsillitis and “tongue thrust” in an attempt to find the source of the problem. She diligently keeps records of appointments, medications and scans, lugging files between GPs and several dentists whose waiting rooms show slick testimonial videos. Written during the pandemic, this short work is also testament to the apocalyptic uncertainty that infused that time. Her partner is in a separate support bubble and Nelson makes several attempts to get their son vaccinated, her frustration palpable. When the child complains about her anger, she confesses: “I have never felt as angry as I’ve felt over the past two years.”

Daré accepted the £10,000 prize for her latest novel, And So I Roar, the follow-up to her bestselling debut The Girl with the Louding Voice

Nigerian writer Abi Daré has won the inaugural Climate fiction prize for her novel And So I Roar, the follow-up to her bestselling debut The Girl with the Louding Voice.

Daré was announced as the winner of the £10,000 prize at a ceremony in London on Wednesday evening.

Looking for a new reading recommendation? Here are some brilliant new paperbacks, from an engrossing study of Chinese women to a fun, loveable novel

• This article was amended on 7 April 2025. In an earlier version, the author Kevin Barry’s surname was misspelled as “Berry”.

Book club favorites vary from year to year, and we're here to keep you updated on the most current trends!

In this year's subscriber survey, we once again asked book club members to name their top three book club books of all time. From their answers, we've compiled our latest list of book clubs' top ten overall favorite books.

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Looking to share your love of books with others without leaving home or spending a dime? You’re in the right place! In this 2025 guide, we’ll explore the best free online book clubs for adults. These aren’t just passive “read this book” lists – they’re vibrant communities with real back-and-forth discussion (forums, virtual meetups, group chats) where readers connect. From dedicated book club websites to thriving social media groups, you’ll find a welcoming place to chat about stories with fellow book lovers.

Whether you crave deep literary analysis or just a friendly chat about the latest bestseller, there’s an online book club for you – completely free. Let’s dive in!

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The Best American Series is a literary institution. But just in case you’re stumbling upon it for the first time: Each book in the annual series showcases of best short fiction and nonfiction in a given year, from short stories to essays, science and nature writing, to food writing. Each volume’s series editor selects notable […]

As Mrs Dalloway turns 100, here’s a guide to the greatest hits of one of the most celebrated British novelists of all time

As her much-loved novel Mrs Dalloway turns 100, now is a great time to celebrate Virginia Woolf. The 20th-century modernist author and pioneer of stream-of-consciousness narration is one of the most celebrated British novelists of all time. For those looking to become more familiar with her work, author and critic Francesca Wade has put together a guide to her greatest hits.

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Much has been said about the vampyr, that evergreen fixation. The blood-sucking hellspawn is a pliable metaphor, useful for holding the fear of an age. He can symbolize a certain sexual terror, as we most recently witnessed in Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu. Or, as Taika Watiti showed us for several delightful seasons on Hulu’s What We Do […]

In the world of literary enthusiasm, celebrity book clubs have become powerhouses of influence. Reese Witherspoon's picks routinely top bestseller lists, Oprah Winfrey's selections can catapult unknown authors to stardom, and Jenna Bush Hager's "Read with Jenna" has become a fixture on the Today Show. These star-powered reading initiatives have unquestionably boosted book sales and reading visibility.

Yet for serious readers, these glittering book clubs often fall short of what we're truly seeking: genuine literary community and thoughtful discussion.

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It’s impossible to sum up the novel Mrs. Dalloway without feeling like you’ve left out something essential. Recently, I attempted to describe the book to someone who’d never read Virginia Woolf. “Basically, it’s a day in the life of a woman in high-society London who’s planning a party,” I said. “It’s 1923, so World War […]

An evocative debut charts the journey of a group of travellers as they seek refuge in the wake of an unstoppable pandemic

Gethan Dick’s dystopia begins at Elephant and Castle in London. The narrator, a young woman who considers herself unexceptional, recalls a break in a water main at the big roundabout, a rupture that revealed “white quartz pebbles being washed clean, rattling as they went like in any stream bed”. The surfaces we have built on the face of the Earth to sustain us are just that, only surfaces, easily cracked open to show what’s roiling beneath.

And this is how it is at the end of the world in Water in the Desert Fire in the Night. The setup for this slender, evocative debut will be eerily familiar to all its readers, albeit with the disaster quotient kicked up a notch. A pandemic arises and begins its cull, only this one is unstoppable: it results in whole streets full of the dead. Those who survive – and we don’t know why they do – must stick together, and so this is a tale of unlikely alliances between a group of travellers determined to reach a refuge in the south of France, a place called Digne-les-Bains.

In 1896, penning his first gay-rights pamphlet, German-Jewish physician Magnus Hirschfeld staked a provocative claim: sexual orientation is a continuum. Between extremes of heterosexuality and homosexuality ranged innumerable shades in between. A decade later, as a renowned Berlin psychotherapist, Hirschfeld theorized that each person is a mix of masculinity and femininity and opened the door […]

Can you tell the American story via ginseng? Thompson’s funny, moving and exquisitely drawn work has a go

Genre is a slippery beast at the best of times, but Craig Thompson’s new book is particularly hard to categorise. It’s a memoir, graphic novel, and piece of social commentary, all based around ginseng. Living in the dirt poor (literally) midwest in the 1980s, his family farmed the plant, with its weird humanoid roots, and Thompson and his brother spent their youths caked in mud and chemicals plucking them from the ground for a dollar an hour. Ginseng is an essential ingredient in many Chinese medicines, as well as a range of health gimmicks, and for various reasons, Wisconsin has been an unlikely centre of global production for several centuries.

Originally published in 12 issues from 2019 to 2024, Ginseng Roots is epic in length and breadth, but simultaneously pleasingly narrow in scope. It plays out in multiple strands that examine both the minutiae of a man’s life and the cultural history of a difficult-to-grow crop (once harvested, it cannot be grown in the same field again).

We started reading Mrs. Dalloway on a day not unlike the one that prompts Clarissa to think, “What a lark! What a plunge!” The air, lightly scented with spring flowers, refreshed the classroom where 25 students opened the final book they would read together in high school. Teaching Mrs. Dalloway to second-semester seniors, weeks away […]