RealClearBooks - Book News, Book Reviews, Publishing Industry Aggregator

The Declaration of Independence is not something to be taken for granted. Even in rebellion, Americans might have chosen to remain in the... Read More

They say it was bat shit that almost did him in, something he might have breathed in while riding his motorcycle on a gusty spring day, or... Read More

The art was way too heavy. In mid-March, the artists Holly Herndon and Mat Dryhurst were preparing an installation to coincide with the... Read More

In November of last year, I had a conversation for Zona Motel with the brilliant Emmalea Russo about her debut novel, Vivienne. Russo is... Read More

Jon Fosse, whose work I’ve been translating for twenty-five years now, is not only a writer – he is a language activist. He... Read More

After writing more than a dozen stories on America’s 250th, and with July Fourth nearly here, where else would I go but Monticello?... Read More

THERE ARE FEW DISREPUTABLE GENRES I unironically love quite so dearly as the vigilante flick. Putting a random man or woman into a maelstrom... Read More

“To produce a mighty book, you must choose a mighty theme. No great and enduring volume can ever be written on a flea, though many... Read More

DAVID FISHKIND’S DEBUT novel Don’t Step into My Office (2026) is a suspenseful, enigmatic murder mystery that winds across two... Read More

Earlier this year, I decided to pay a visit to the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery, lately in the news for all the wrong... Read More

“Toy Story 5” has struck a nerve. Since its release on June 19, it has become the highest-grossing “Toy Story” movie... Read More

I sat in front of a blank Word Doc on the patio of my corner coffee shop, sweating and chain-smoking Marlboro Reds. Anthony Bourdain had been... Read More

TIC founder Brad Birzer’s title is a bit misleading. While the Declaration of Independence is treated in detail, The Declaration of... Read More

The show-within-a-show has always been a generative plot device. The audience gets to witness the mounting of the performance that we... Read More

Today’s post is a conversation with Scott McClanahan, author of The Sarah Book, Hill William, and others. Scott has been my favorite... Read More

Just a few years ago, wearing a sombrero on Halloween could get you banished from polite society for the social crime of “cultural... Read More

What indignities those poor magisters suffered at the cathedral school of Paris late in the twelfth century. In these medieval centers of... Read More

Tonio Guajardo’s twenty-one-and-a-half-minute YouTube video, “I Took America’s Worst Possible Train,” is a rare... Read More

After writing for publication for nearly 70 years, I ask myself: Have I ever committed the sin of plagiarism? I hope I haven’t, but I... Read More

Last week in Montreal, a 25-year-old man allegedly attempted to assassinate the CEO of PornHub for ruining his life by preventing him from... Read More

I engage in a number of pastimes which I consider misunderstood by the public. Generally speaking, I try to be an ambassador for things I... Read More

No one is likely to ask Daniel Mason, “Is Country People really about you?” His effervescent new novel is about Miles Krzelewski,... Read More

There is a particular kind of American nonfiction that frontloads arrival. It announces itself breathlessly from the jacket copy... Read More

It’s 8:15 p.m. on Friday, June 12th, and we’re at the base of the Lincoln Memorial, a few hundred of us, for the UFC Freedom 250... Read More

Earlier this year, publishing house Hachette pulped the upcoming horror novel Shy Girl by Mia Ballard, following allegations that Ballard... Read More

After an eight-year hiatus from feature films, actor and comedian Mike Myers shocked audiences around the world with a surprise return in... Read More

The rapidly expanding Alliance for Responsible Citizenship is only in its third year – but the ideas it extols draw from the ages, and... Read More

I write about straight people because it’s what I know. Maybe we have bigger fish to fry. Maybe you have bigger fish to fry. And... Read More

As Louis C.K was publicly accused of sexual misconduct, subsequently confirmed that “these stories are true,” partially retreated... Read More

I spend more money on books than anybody I know. I’m not bragging. It’s a serious compulsion. I order two or three books a week... Read More

At a glance, Rachel Aviv’s new book looks like a conventional kind of essay collection: six pieces drawn from more than a decade of... Read More

I recently read in The Chronicle of Higher Education that I am “so bad” at defending “the humanities.” (I was trying... Read More

In the history of film criticism, as well as everywhere else, complaints about how there’s nothing new are nothing new. “The... Read More

My friend Alison and I just spent a few days in the Wachau Valley, a wine region in lower Austria. We biked along the Danube—stopping... Read More

“You’re next!” This chant, at the victory celebration of the Democratic Socialists this week, was a message not for the... Read More

I don’t know why I came to Alaska. I wanted to see the world. I needed to do something with my life besides scroll on my phone past... Read More

I was about halfway through Freya India’s GIRLS®: Generation Z and the Commodification of Everything when I read internet... Read More