Archive Dive
We’re celebrating the leap year by looking at the last time we published an issue on February 29, that most elusive of dates—it was way back in 1980, when we published our issues on Friday rather than Monday. A lot has changed in 36 years, as you can see from that week’s hardcover bestsellers: William Styron’s Sophie’s Choice was on the fiction list, and Henry Kissinger’s White House Years was on nonfiction—theirs was a different world. But some things are still the same: Stephen King was a bestseller this week in 1980 with The Dead Zone, and he is this week in 2016, too, with The Bazaar of Bad Dreams. Topping nonfiction in 1980 was The Brethren: Inside the Supreme Court, about a topic that is almost certainly all over your news feed this week.
From the Newsletters
Ten books on loneliness to keep you company, chosen by Olivia Laing, author of The Lonely City (Picador).
PW visited Phaidon and got the lowdown on its expanding children’s department.
Former megachurch pastor and bestselling author Rob Bell makes a move into self-help with his new book, How to Be Here (HarperOne).
Check out the Indie Stars Giveaway: BookLife is giving away copies of all 12 self-published titles that earned a PW star in 2015.
The most-read review on publishersweekly.com last week was Nicole Brown Simpson: The Private Diary of a Life Interrupted by Faye D. Resnick with Mike Walker (Dove Books).
Blogs
Remembering Harper Lee and Umberto Eco, and a list of must-read books: these are just a couple things you may have missed if you haven’t been by PW’s Tumblr lately.
When bad covers happen to classic books.
Podcasts
PW senior writer Andrew Albanese talks about the nomination of Carla Hayden as the 14th Librarian of Congress, and whether a political battle could come with her Senate confirmation.
Newbery-medalist Kwame Alexander and illustrator Daniel Miyares discuss Surf’s Up (NorthSouth), their picture book about the adventures that reading can bring about.
John Perkins discusses the updated edition of his memoir, The New Confessions of an Economic Hit Man (Berret-Koehler), an eye-opening account of how countries around the world are systematically cheated out of trillions of dollars.
Chef Deuki Hong and journalist Matt Rodbard discuss their new cookbook, Koreatown (Clarkson Potter).
