Judge a bunch of books by their covers

Do you ever go to the bookstore just to drool over the artful covers? Well, now you can salivate from the comfort of your own study, living room, or (as in my case) work cubicle. Simply called Covers, this site presents you with page after page of compelling book covers. It’s an online gallery of […]

Lynne Truss would never say “Talk to the hand”

Lynne Truss is, if nothing else, highly entertaining. To prove it, I give you this offering: a charming author podcast, featuring Truss, who talks about and reads from Talk to the Hand: The Utter Bloody Rudeness of the World Today, or Six Good Reasons to Stay Home and Bolt the Door. The reading, which is […]

Bookslut boasts a bursting blog

So many blogs, so little time.
I’ve finally gotten around to reading the June issue of Bookslut and, as usual, have discovered a bounty of author-focused content. We here at the still-young Cuppa Joad are gearing up for our own brushes with authorial greatness. But even when we’re hobnobbing with the likes of Annie Proulx and […]

Summer travels make “Field-Tested Books”

Go on vacation and you probably have at least one book in tow. But have you ever been reading such a book and realized that the place you were in at that moment was influencing how you were experiencing its pages? I remember sinking into Heart of Darkness while navigating the chaos and bustle of […]

Book titles go rock-and-roll freaky

You love books. That’s a given: It’s why you’re reading a blog called Cuppa Joad, right? But what about music? Are you a music junkie/aficionado/snob? Do you like to listen as much as you’re rabid to read?
If so, you’ll enjoy Booking Bands, the addictive, amusing, clever contest that invited readers to pair the titles of […]

In Katrina’s wake, New Orleans builds an appetite for cookbooks

There is one post-Katrina loss I kick myself for not thinking of: the fact that thousands of family recipes are gone forever. —Stacey Ornstein, The Paper Palate
In the long months after Hurricane Katrina, book donations have poured into New Orleans. Charity used-book sales have helped to match people who lost books with titles from […]

Zadie Smith’s On Beauty wins the Orange Prize

I’m not sure who was more excited that the U.K.’s Orange Prize for Fiction winners were announced yesterday: Zadie Smith, who won the £30,000 prize for On Beauty, or the bloggers at Eve’s Alexandria, where they blogged about the winners as they watched the webcast live.
You’ll find wonderful reviews of all the Orange Prize nominees […]

Blog roundup: Proust, Snicket, Freakonomics, and more

Let’s start the Cuppa Joad week with some literary odds and ends. I’ve been hanging out in blogland this afternoon and have encountered (a) a few random and readworthy author blogs, (b) a hilarious summary of Lemony Snicket’s faux-show at the recent Hay Festival, and (c) a long and decidedly smart summer-reading list. I’ve corralled […]

Summer’s mystery novels go Scandinavian cool

Just in time for summer reading comes a wave of Scandinavian crime fiction that promises to occupy the collective imagination of beach-lolling mystery aficionados for the season.
Leading the way, says NPR’s Steve Paulson, is Swedish crime writer Henning Mankell, whose “Inspector Wallander” series already has an international English-speaking following (and outsells Harry Potter in […]

Stroll the Hay Festival with Margaret Atwood

Margaret Atwood is a literary goddess to many. The author of such modern marvels as The Handmaid’s Tale and The Blind Assassin is one of our bravest, most prodigious authors. We all know that. But did you also know that she’s an apparent fiend for decadent dairy products? That’s only one of the interesting nuggets […]