books
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The Man Booker prize 2016 shortlist – a judge’s viewMan Booker judge Jon Day surveys the shortlist – plus an analysis of this year’s lineup -
Mount! by Jilly Cooper – daft, boozy joyA whirlwind of parties, hairdos and horses hails the return of one of fiction’s most lusted-after characters
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Can computer analysis tell us anything new about literature?Feeding thousands of books into a computer to find new meaning in literature sounds intriguing, but does cultural analytics actually tell us anything about the books we read? -
Hilary Mantel warns writers they must stand by what they sayIn essay covering censorship and her childhood muteness, often controversial author says if writers want to avoid consequences from their words, they should not write at all
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Agatha Christie stamps deliver hidden cluesA century after Christie penned her first mystery, the Royal Mail has announced a fresh range of stamps – with clues embedded
news
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Pepe the Frog artist supports Clinton 'even though she's talking smack'The creator of the stoned frog and his three unambitious roommates says Pepe is ‘all about diversity’ despite the cartoon having been used in a Trump meme
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The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care by Dr Benjamin SpockThe groundbreaking American childcare manual urged parents to trust themselves, but was also accused of being the source of postwar ‘permissiveness’
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What are you reading this week?Your space to discuss the books you are reading and what you think of them
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not the booker prize
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The Less Than Perfect Legend of Donna Creosote by Dan Micklethwaite – a touch of manic pixie dream girlAs its title would suggest, this is flawed book, not helped by stock characters, an irritating, clever-clever style and an underdeveloped plot
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Chains of Sand by Jemma Wayne – trouble in IsraelA perceptive depiction of the fragility of life in an embattled land gets drowned out by strident politics, in the first of this year’s Not the Booker shortlist
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The 2016 shortlist revealed – help us choose a winnerOur longlist of 147 contenders has now been narrowed to six novels, all of them from indie publishers
regulars
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100 Best Nonfiction Books of All Time100 Best Nonfiction Books of All TimeThe 100 best nonfiction books: No 33 – The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care by Dr Benjamin Spock (1946)The groundbreaking American childcare manual urged parents to trust themselves, but was also accused of being the source of postwar ‘permissiveness’
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The first book interviewThe first book interviewRowan Hisayo Buchanan: ‘Pain shape-shifts down the generations’When her mother suddenly lost her memory, Buchanan began to write Harmless Like You, her cross-cultural debut novel about how children inherit identity
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Top 10sTop 10sTop 10 books about 'bad' mothersFrom Alice Munro to Rachel Cusk, Anne Tyler to Margaret Atwood, great writers reveal a more complicated story than we’re inclined to tell ourselves
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PodcastPodcastTricks of the mind with David Means and Marc Lewis – books podcastWe talk about memory loss and addiction with Man Booker longlisted author David Means and neuroscientist Marc Lewis.
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Politics: Between the Extremes by Nick CleggThe former deputy prime minister’s account of the coalition years is spirited and candid
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Avalanche by Julia Leigh – when IVF doesn’t workLeigh, a writer and director, had six rounds of IVF and didn’t conceive. She writes about the heavy toll it took, and whether grief is admissible for an imagined child
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A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived – popular science at its bestAdam Rutherford’s elegant account of the Human Genome Project brings a note of realism to our dreams of a medical revolution
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Queen Bees – interwar society hostesses who didn’t have the mostestSiân Evans’s enjoyable account of the lives of leading British female socialites overstates their influence
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Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow by Yuval Noah HarariThe epic, widely celebrated Sapiens gets the sequel it demanded: a breathless, compulsive inquiry into humanity’s apocalyptic, tech-driven future
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The Pigeon Tunnel – the author who came in from the coldThe once-mysterious writer is revealed as a man riven by self-doubt in this vivid, often hilarious ‘patchwork’ memoir
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Jerusalem by Alan Moore – a magnificent, sprawling cosmic epicBrilliance and bafflement collide in this almost visionary tale of recovered memories, art and madness
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The Gradual by Christopher Priest – a haunting journey in time travelA composer’s tour of a Dream Archipelago explores themes of time, memory and the petty frustrations of travel
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Night Flight by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry – The Little Prince for grownupsNicholas Lezard’s paperback of the week: Saint-Exupéry’s second novel recreates the spectacle and immense solitude of flying over the Andes, taking the reader to another world
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Say Something Back by Denise Riley – heartfelt and deeply necessaryDenise Riley’s latest collection, much of which is about her late son, has qualities that place it apart from other poetry
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A Boy Made of Blocks by Keith Stuart – moving odysseys in MinecraftA father’s relationship with his autistic son is transformed by their shared adventures in a virtual Lego-like world
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Turning Blue by Benjamin Myers – depraved and decadent rural noirThe Yorkshire Dales, perfectly observed, provide a glorious backdrop to a brutal tale
people
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How family tragedy turned him into a medical pioneerAfter his wife’s stroke and his daughter’s death from measles, Roald Dahl applied his genius to medicine – making extraordinary breakthroughs. His doctor and friend recalls what he learned while treating the author in the last year of his life
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David Foster Wallace, my teacherEight years on from Wallace’s death, children’s author Mac Barnett shares his memories of a demanding and inspiring creative writing tutor
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People were always coming up to us at parties and asking us to bedThe books interview: The doyenne of the bonkbuster talks about her latest doorstopper, her marriage and the days before political correctness
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How I wrote A Girl Is a Half-formed ThingThe author on how Lars von Trier, James Joyce and Sarah Kane’s uncompromising brutality all inspired her to explore a new immersive style
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Guardian children's books festival 2016Join Mog author Judith Kerr, Charlie and Lola creator Lauren Child and other star authors and illustrators at the Unicorn theatre, London on 23 October for a day celebrating the choicest children’s books
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Guardian children's fiction prize 2016, the longlistWe announce the eight wonderful authors and books that have been longlisted for our prize, this year judged by David Almond, SF Said and Kate Saunders
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Enter the Guardian young critics competition 2016Review one of the Guardian children’s fiction prize 2016 longlisted books as an individual or a school book group and be in with a chance of winning books, national book tokens and an invite to meet authors at our award ceremony – enter here!
A selection of our favourite literary content from around the world
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The Little Library CaféThe Little Library CaféFood in books: spaghetti al pomodoro from Looking for AlibrandiKate Young’s mind turns to Australian coming-of-age classic Looking for Alibrandi, and to the generations of Italian women who cook together in the book
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Interview with a Bookstore by Literary HubInterview with a Bookstore by Literary HubInterview with a Bookstore: Oxford Exchange in FloridaFound in Tampa, Oxford Exchange is simultaneously a bookstore, restaurant and workspace. Its booksellers share how they organise the books thematically, rather than by genre, and what they’d add if they had infinite space
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pictures, video & audio
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Tricks of the mind with David Means and Marc LewisWe talk about memory loss and addiction with Man Booker longlisted author David Means and neuroscientist Marc Lewis.
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Illustrating Terry Pratchett's Small GodsIn Pratchett’s satire of religious institutions, the god Om is reborn in the body of a tortoise and must enlist the help of his prophet, Brutha. Artist and Discworld fan Omar Rayyan explains how he illuminated a new edition of Small Gods
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The creation of Zog by Axel SchefflerOrange might seem the obvious colour for Julia Donaldson’s clumsy little dragon, but he’s also been blue and green. See how Axel Scheffler breathed life into him
you may have missed
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Isis is as much an offshoot of our global civilisation as GoogleIn the wake of terror attacks, and as Europe unravels, it feels as if we live in divided times. But civilisation is more united than ever. The challenges of the future – climate change, AI, biotechnology – will only bring us closer
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Why a forgotten 1930s critique of capitalism is back in fashionSeventy years ago the thinkers and writers of the Frankfurt School warned of capitalism’s drift towards a cultural apocalypse. Has it already happened, but we’ve been too uncritical to notice?
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A creative writing lesson from the ‘God of Story’Robert McKee, has taught creative writing for 30 years. His seminars have attracted more than 60 Oscar winners, but are treated with suspicion by many novelists – including Tim Lott. Can he be won over?
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The internet's collective punchbagThere’s something splendid, and meaningful, about the fact that people can go on Twitter and be so wrong about one of America’s best writers
Food in books Spaghetti al pomodoro from Looking for Alibrandi