'Welcome to my last four years.' A search for accountability and a full, detailed explanation for Martha's death . . . www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

A few years ago, @garyhornseth.bsky.social and I wrote an entire researched local-history article about the Minneapolis phone book that Robert Redford pulls off the shelf at the Washington Post in that scene from "All the President's Men"

I wrote a book called "Stories Are Weapons" which is a history of psychological war in the United States. In it, I describe how the US military came to a simple definition of rhetoric used for destructive purposes in war (so-called psyops) vs. for democratic debate. Want to know what it is? (1/3)

Alaska reentry has its ups and downs but amazing reads are an up.

"the jarring juxtapositions whiplash the viewer between bleak slapstick (the car is on the roof!) and horror (the car is on *the roof*)" --Nathaniel Rich on Richard Misrach's photos of Hurricane Katrina's aftermath

Let's see... $5.50 in 1965 was worth $17.21 in 1983. A ticket to the 1983 Prince show for Minnesota Dance Theatre at First Ave cost $25.00. Therefore Prince was 45% better than the Beatles.

Finally: the All That and a Bag of Chips scandal

Delighted to receive my galley of @cetracey.bsky.social’s forthcoming masterpiece on our planet’s imperiled salt lakes—“a debut as gorgeous and vibrant as the lakes she loves,” as I put it in my blurb. Enamored of that pastel cover so evocative of Utah. Preorder below! bookshop.org/p/books/salt...

On this day in 1958, Art Kane photographed 57 musicians at 17 East 126th Street in NYC for Esquire magazine. It was a Great Day in Harlem, 67 years ago today. Sonny Rollins is the only musician from this photo still living. #SonnyRollinsBridge

Speaking of water books... "What his brilliant colleague Richard Powers has done for trees and oceans, Robert Macfarlane here does for embattled waterways."―Pico Iyer, @airmail.news

Out early next year: SALT LAKES by @cetracey.bsky.social. A book that captures the nature world and the human one with rare clarity and feeling.

Out in paperback this week: the celebrated biography of Agnès Varda by @carrierickey.bsky.social. "Enthralling."―The New Yorker "Intellectually satisfying and inspiring."―WSJ "One of the best books ever written about the intersection between a director’s personal life and their work."―IndieWire

Today in: can I sneak read this book at the front desk galley mail: A Guardian and a Thief by @meghamaj.bsky.social coming from @aaknopf.bsky.social in October. Be nice to your future self and preorder a copy today! islandbooks.com/book/9780593...

The @apnews.com says that its ending its weekly book reviews.

This is delightful. Would pay premium for a social media platform that consisted only of people suggesting books for Anne Trubek's mom forever.

Worth reading again: John Lanchester's profile of the BLS (which also appeared in Michael Lewis's recent book, "Who Is Government"). Gift link: wapo.st/4l7AJjR

"In fact, the crowd was so quiet [hearing "Purple Rain" for the first time], producer David Z had to tweak the recording. 'I cheated and put a crowd from the Minnesota Vikings in the audience track.'"

42 years ago today, on Aug. 3, 1983, Prince "and Friends" (soon to be known as The Revolution) performed songs for the first time that would appear a year later on the soundtrack album and in the movie "Purple Rain."

In the fifties the covers of Anchor Books were printed with a flat color process that limited them to three colors and black, each printed separately. Edward Gorey turned this limitation into a virtue and many of his covers, like this one, have a distinct Japanese woodcut flavor.

prestige Sumerian myth

Some great worms of recent cultural history 1. Lowly Worm, in Richard Scarry BUSYTOWN books (1960) 2. Slimey, Oscar the Grouch's pet worm on SESAME STREET (1971) 3. Sandworms, in Frank Herbert DUNE (1965) 4. The ones in Carlo Ginzburg THE CHEESE AND THE WORMS (1976)

This month, the #SciFriBookClub has been reading “Frostbite” by Nicola Twilley, a book about the hidden global network that keeps food cool. Join us this Thursday, July 31, at 8:00 PM ET for our "Ask the Author" virtual event. Come with your queries and wonderings. RSVP Here: buff.ly/BKwPX0Q

What is "fish & amp chips"? It looks like someone screwed up somewhere in the signmaking process and included the HTML code for ampersand: "fish & chips"

HAPPENING TONIGHT: If you’re in the San Francisco Bay Area, come join us at the @cwclub.bsky.social for an important conversation on SHADE, with journo @samkbloch.bsky.social! Bloch’s new book, “Shade: The Promise of a Forgotten Natural Resource,” expands on an article published in Places in 2019.

What a line, from this 2002 classic: "Most of the victims, like Joseph Lazcko, came into contact with the two things that might have saved them, air conditioning and attention from state agencies, only after their bodies were delivered to the morgue." thebaffler.com/salvos/heat-...

Congrats to one-of-a-kind Ed Park on his new book

Cover Spotlight!✨ Check out the stunning cover of the memoir A Silent Treatment by Jeannie Vanasco (9.9.25), designed by Beth Steidle! ✨ “Unspeakably compelling.” —Ed Park ✨ More info and preorder: bit.ly/SilentTreatm...

Only in America does elementary school entail the same things as prison: putting on a clear backpack, passing through metal detectors, then spending the day locked in with armed police and attack drones all around. Just so that adults can get assault rifles with no background check or waiting period

The Fonseca tour! Event links to come soon.

Pruning an elm tree Malden, Massachusetts c. 1896

FLASHES OF BRILLIANCE by Anika Burgess. The best book featuring a pigeon photographer you'll read this year. “An entertaining romp through the whirlwind years of early photography.”—WSJ "Elegantly written [and] a lot of fun."―WaPo "Scintillating."―Kirkus ⭐ "Thrilling."―PW

"A fast-paced history of criminal profiling from the Victorian era to the present.... Readers of true crime will be fascinated." -PW The new book by @rachelcorbett.bsky.social, coming from @wwnorton.com in October...

Virginia Woolf in Turkish, designed by the great Utku Lomlu.

Joshua Freeman, who wrote "Working Class New York," has a new book coming out about garden apartments (!) press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/bo...

RIP maestro From the Vatican Rag to Hanukkah in Santa Monica, from Poisoning Pigeons in the Park to Pollution, Who’s Next? and National Brotherhood week, nobody wrote funnier brilliant songs better or better brilliant songs funnier www.nytimes.com/2025/07/27/a...

Good to see them updating the Richard Scarry books

"Pretty Good Offramps of Our Time" cc @colinhamilton.bsky.social

A beautiful ad for a beautiful machine. Unless my rusty Italian fails me... Family letters, cover letters, business correspondence, greeting cards, sales letters, confidential letters, love letters, memos, letters of resignation, thank-you letters. cc @robertpbaird.com

Send in the clouds And bring down the rain

“ ‘Even mentioning my mother’s birthmark is a betrayal,’ he tells us, and we believe that he believes this. But the pages he spends on this subject … are astonishing in their artistry and, for me, could hardly be read except through tears.”

You know what's gonna happen, is "Coldplay" will become a verb, like "they got coldplayed," and the word will outlive the legacy of the band so it'll become this weird origin story you find in trivia lists, like the Earl of Sandwich or Thomas Crapper.

Shout-out to three artists whose wonderful work has graced the covers of books I've published: Stanley Donwood, Leanne Shapton, Leah Myers

A French or Swiss shoe reliquary, ca. 1350–1400.

"Yes, erumpent!" @robgmacfarlane.bsky.social and @tempestwilliams.bsky.social talk about writing, the natural world, and IS A RIVER ALIVE? orionmagazine.org/article/drea...

Anika Burgess is one of the best writers on photography we've got. She'll be talking about its rise--and all the explosions that resulted--to launch her superb book, FLASHES OF BRILLIANCE, at Rizzoli in Manhattan on Thursday evening. Join us: www.rizzolibookstore.com/flashes-bril...

I went looking for a photo of the Grand Canyon Lodge from my last visit, but apparently I didn't take one. Of course it wouldn't have occurred to me I'd never have another chance. This is the picture I snapped from the veranda at sunset. 💔

"A wonderfully rich, exciting and informative work... A fitting monument to one of the most intricate and ingenious minds of the American century." -John Banville, Wall Street Journal

"Elegantly written [and] a lot of fun... Through painstaking research and her obvious love of the medium, Burgess succeeds in reminding us how special this 'small miracle of chemistry, optics, and light' really is." -Michael Patrick Brady, Washington Post

she's a publisher through and through