Michael Orthofer

They really know how to end the week on an upbeat note @FT (ft.com/content/289789… etc.)

Bread and circuses, end of Rome, etc.

Could this *scandal* get any sillier ? bbc.com/news/articles/…

"Book publishing has few safeguards in place to prevent the unwitting publication of a novel heavily generated by artificial intelligence" writes @xanalter @nytimesbooks nytimes.com/2026/03/19/boo… Though it's the coming flood of witting publication I am more worried about.

(Also, of course, always love reviewing books that I can add to the CR's (surprisingly extensive) index of "Titles beginning with numbers" complete-review.com/maindex/alphat….)

In the mail: very pleased to see ARC of Joanna Kavenna's 𝑆𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑛, now also coming out in the US (7/2026, from @FaberBooks) faber.co.uk/product/978057… (Came out in the UK at the beginning of the year, and reviews certainly make it sound intriguing.)

@PatrickPreziosi Reve was really good, there's a whole world of Dutch literature that's being slept on.

New review: Fahmida Riaz's Sasanian Empire-novel, 'Fortress of the Forgotten Ones' complete-review.com/reviews/urdu/r… (Out next week from @open_letter.)

Intrigued by the fact that, among self-published titles, juvenile nonfiction (401,716 books) tops juvenile fiction (265,615 books), & by so much. publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/in… (Though, yes, re. self-published titles, "juvenile" is a good all-purpose way to describe many of them.....)

The total number of books published in the U.S. in 2025 jumped 32.5% over 2024, according to statistics compiled by Bowker, led by a boom in self-published titles. The number of traditionally published books released last year rose 6.6%, to 642,242. buff.ly/wQl4aA8

After much reflection, I have decided to resign from my position as Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, effective today. I cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran. Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation, and it is clear that we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby. It has been an honor serving under @POTUS and @DNIGabbard and leading the professionals at NCTC. May God bless America.

They even link to the @FT review that spells it out nice and clearly ft.com/content/493c62… (as I also did in my review, updated in 2011 to reflect the new translation ... complete-review.com/reviews/iran/p… )

"First-time English publication" ? There hasn't been enough coverage of Shahrnush Parsipur's 'Women without Men', but how does @thebookseller get this this wrong ? thebookseller.com/books/books-in… (It's the second time it's been translated, and even that is from 2011.)

ah yes, i have often observed how the entirety of Western literature from Homer onwards was about "good people doing good things" until matters took their unfortunate recent turn

Also: ARC of Paige Lewis' semi-epic 'Canon' penguinrandomhouse.com/books/784625/c… (@VikingBooks 5/2026). I see/read/review far too little contemporary US fiction, but am certainly intrigued by the sound of this; we'll see.

In the mail: a good start to the week with a nice duo. Very exciting to see the new @PenguinClassics ed./translation of Lady Nijō's 'A Tale Unasked' penguinrandomhouse.com/books/780915/a… (This came out in the UK last year; coming out in the US next week.)

(Coming out this week (both US & UK); surprised there hasn't been more mention/attention yet (not least because Kawakami *moves up* to one of the majors in the US with this one (PRH imprint Knopf)).) (@htsi/ @FT did publish this by Kawakami last month ft.com/content/1360e1….)

New review: Kawakami Mieko's 'Sisters in Yellow' complete-review.com/reviews/japann…

This one has been re-issued by a lot of different publishers over the years (with a lot of different cover-designs), and the copyright notice here notes it's: "Published by arrangement with @Dalkey_Archive But for some reason they didn't go with the cover Dalkey Archive used ....

In the mail: slow week at least concludes with a solid re-issue from @nyrbclassics, Leslie A. Fiedler's 'Love and Death in the American Novel' nyrb.com/products/love-…