Max Liu

Baumbach on the other hand. Where did it all go wrong?! Jay Kelly is self-indulgent mess. He's been hit and miss for a while but the hits (Margo, Squid, Frances) are becoming outnumbered by the misses (Marriage Story et al). Shame. He used to be painfully funny

All i want for Xmas (and for forever) is to stop time

The 15 best books to buy as Christmas presents Still struggling to find the perfect present for the reader in your life? Try one of these books perfect for gifting

I had a nice assignment for today's @theipaper.com - writing about the best ever books to give at Xmas. Classic novels, the best book about sport, poetry, graphic memoir and the one that got me reading, all here...
inews.co.uk/culture/15-b...

The 15 best books to buy as Christmas presents Still struggling to find the perfect present for the reader in your life? Try one of these books perfect for gifting

I had a nice assignment for today's @theipaper.com - writing about the best ever books to give at Xmas. Classic novels, the best book about sport, poetry, graphic memoir and the one that got me reading, all here...
inews.co.uk/culture/15-b...

Some of my editorial work comes via Reedsy. Over the past year it's become completely overrun by people (I can't call them authors) who are asking for editorial help on manuscripts that have been generated by #AI. Often, what they want is for someone to make the text sound more human.

Richard Linklater's witty, moving, wartime set Blue Moon will divide people but I thoroughly enjoyed it. If you like Ethan Hawke, musicals, sassiness cut with sadness, New Yorker lore, you will too

Man I like this poem. From Stay Dead by Natalie Shapero

A Life in Letters by John Updike — a personality revealed vividly This collection of the late writer’s correspondence is pure gold, shining with insights about literature and life

I reviewed John Updike's A Life in Letters - a glorious ride through American literary life in the second-half of the 20th-century and beyond - for this weekend's @ftweekend.com. www.ft.com/content/3c3d...

A Life in Letters by John Updike — a personality revealed vividly This collection of the late writer’s correspondence is pure gold, shining with insights about literature and life

I reviewed John Updike's A Life in Letters - a glorious ride through American literary life in the second-half of the 20th-century and beyond - for this weekend's @ftweekend.com. www.ft.com/content/3c3d...

The Durutti Column: The Return of the Durutti Column review – fragile classic that echoes far beyond its time The delicate experimentation of the band’s debut may not have chimed with the post-punk 1980s, but its durability makes this deluxe reissue thoroughly deserved

"(The) peculiar circumstances of its creation – people experimenting for their own benefit, rather than actively making an album for public consumption – helped forge its distinctly beguiling atmosphere." Enjoyed this review and many of the comments below it www.theguardian.com/music/2025/n...

🎉🎉 We are thrilled to discover that PERFECTION by Vincenzo Latronico, tr. Sophie Hughes, is @foylesforbooks.bsky.social's Fiction Book of the Year! 🎉

Discover more: www.foyles.co.uk/highlights/f...

one of the coolest things about ChatGPT is how you can actually just never use it. you can fill your whole entire life with simply not once using it. it's incredible.

Michael Gove Made Orwell Prize Judge Despite Record of Attacking Journalists and Dodging Scrutiny Critics say "Orwell would have enjoyed the irony" of the former Conservative minister's appointment

Gove should not be judging a literary prize, let alone one for writing about homelessness. I'll avoid crass analogies and just say it's up there with when Frances Osborne was allowed to judge the Booker while her husband was closing hundreds of public libraries. bylinetimes.com/2025/11/25/m...

Are all articles lists now? Id write a list of all the list pieces I've written this year but I've still got two more to write

Michael Gove Made Orwell Prize Judge Despite Record of Attacking Journalists and Dodging Scrutiny Critics say "Orwell would have enjoyed the irony" of the former Conservative minister's appointment

I’m a past winner of the Orwell Prize & won partly because I exposed Vote Leave’s unlawful activities.

Michael Gove was its co-convener & refused to answer a single q. He’s now a judge of the prize & our world is truly one that Orwell would recognise

bylinetimes.com/2025/11/25/m...

A Life in Letters by John Updike — a personality revealed vividly This collection of the late writer’s correspondence is pure gold, shining with insights about literature and life

A Life in Letters by John Updike — a personality revealed vividly on.ft.com/4p6UPxO

The best books of the year 2025 From economics, politics and history to science, art, food and, of course, fiction — our annual round-up brings you top titles picked by FT writers and critics

It’s here! Our annual, bumper FT round-up of the best reads of the year - from economics and food to history and fiction and so much more - as selected by our critics and editors.

Lots to inspire the mind, lift the spirits and make you smile.

on.ft.com/4nYjkeU The best books of the year 2025

The Man Who Helped Make the American Literary Canon At the beginning of the twentieth century, the country’s literature was widely considered provincial. Then Malcolm Cowley set about championing writers like Kerouac and Faulkner as uniquely American.

"Cowley decided, somewhat unwisely, that the most direct path to influence was freelance book reviewing." Haha. I need to read this biography - reviewed by Kevin Lozano
www.newyorker.com/books/under-...

Haha. Have fun down there Chris

Solvej Balle: ‘I thought that if I started to write this, I would spoil it’ Solvej Balle’s near-40-year project, On the Calculation of Volume, seems both outside time and yet immediately relevant

In honour of the eighteenth of November, here's my recent @irishtimes.com interview with Solvej Balle about seven books on the subject of being stuck in today's date.

www.irishtimes.com/culture/book...

Asylum seekers’ jewellery could be seized to pay for processing costs, says Home Office minister Idea borrowed from Denmark is latest attempt to reduce number of people seeking asylum in UK

Where’s Dickens when you need him?
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere Review: A Curveball Music Biopic Director Scott Cooper takes a left turn and frames a smaller portrait of a rock’n’roll star, featuring Jeremy Allen White as the Boss searching for inspiration while writing the spare and dark 1982 al...

Finally saw the Springsteen anti-biopic. Disappointed it wasn't, as Id expected, about the fraught soul-searching and creative breakthrough that went into making Radio Nowhere on Magic... Nah I Iiked it. Both Jeremys were great. I agree with this intelligent piece. pitchfork.com/thepitch/spr...

The nine most controversial Booker winners ever From prize-sharing Margaret Atwood and Bernardine Evaristo, to Paul Beatty winning for The Sellout, these are the victors who caused most of a stir

Final spin for my Booker controversies. One last thought - for somebody who is against prizes (competition is the antithesis of art) I spend a lot of time talking about them inews.co.uk/culture/book...

Proof if ever needed that high importance emails are the domain of psychopaths

The nine most controversial Booker winners ever From prize-sharing Margaret Atwood and Bernardine Evaristo, to Paul Beatty winning for The Sellout, these are the victors who caused most of a stir

Final spin for my Booker controversies. One last thought - for somebody who is against prizes (competition is the antithesis of art) I spend a lot of time talking about them inews.co.uk/culture/book...

YouTube video by Robyn Robyn - Dopamine (Official Music Video)

Couldn't remember why I was in a good mood when I woke up. Then I remembered... A song that hits first time but one I know I will hear more and more in over the next weeks, months, years... www.youtube.com/watch?v=viti...

*English language

How Late It Was... is magnificent but not Kelman's best (if pushed I say A Disaffection or Mo Said...). Same true of Ishigoru, McEwan Naipaul, Atwood and... Szalay. Of course the Booker is just about choosing best English novel that year so won't necessarily be the winner's greatest book.

Writing this off the top of my head yesterday was fun. It made me give up thinking I was missing the point of Sense of an Ending. It also made me think about how many writers, including Barnes, won the Booker for novels that were not their best...

I disagree, obvs. Thanks for reading