The hotly anticipated finale of the Hunger Games film series is finally here, and the top critics in the business have already delivered their reviews. Let’s check in with the critical response to the final film adaptation of Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games series. Many of the critics connected this new film’s successes and failures to the decision to split Collins’ final Hunger Games book into two movies rather than shoot it as just one. The first of the two movies, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1, got a pretty poor reception from critics. For some, this new movie represents a …
eBook retailer Kobo UK has released a list of their top ten most popular books of the year – and sorry, boys, but not a single one of the top ten bestsellers was written by a man. Thanks to mega-hits from writers like E.L. James, Paula Hawkins, and Gillian Flynn, all of the bestselling authors were women. The number one spot on Kobo’s list was no surprise. James’ Grey, the retelling of Fifty Shades of Grey from the perspective of the male lead, was the clear winner. But Mr. Grey was something of an anomaly on this list: female characters dominate …
The organizers of the TS Eliot Prize have announced the 2016 award winner. Sarah Howe, a poet of mixed British and Chinese heritage who now resides in the United States, emerged from a strong shortlist to win the award. Howe was awarded the prize for her debut collection, Loop of Jade. In the book of poems, Howe explores her mixed heritage and uses it as a lens to examine Chinese society. This is the first time in the more than 20-year history of the prize that a poet has won for a debut work. That feat was made even more …
For 70 years, Adolf Hitler’s famous book Mein Kampf has been banned in Germany. That changed this year, when a limited number of expensive new editions were printed. The new edition was up for just a few hours on Amazon’s German website before it completely sold out. Hitler’s book was banned for years because German leaders feared that it would find resonance with Nazi sympathizers, but the book’s historical importance won out this year, when the Munich Institute for Contemporary History published a new edition of the book for the first time in 70 years. The new version, however, doesn’t just present the …
Writers responded to Saudi Arabia’s death sentence Palestinian poet Ashraf Fayadh with a massive worldwide reading on Thursday. Hundreds of writers, including high-profile authors like Irvine Welsh, read Fayadh’s poetry in events all around the world. All told, 122 events were held in 44 different countries. A.L. Kennedy read in London, Irvine Welsh read in Chicago, and hundreds of other authors joined in around the globe. Ashraf Fayadh was born in Saudi Arabia to Palestinian refugee parents, and Saudi Arabian law considers him a refugee himself. He was accused of blasphemy after an argument in a cafe and is alleged to have …
