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How Dr. Seuss became the second highest-paid dead celebrity

Earning $33 million in 2020, the children's book author is second only to Michael Jackson among deceased celebrities. Where does the money come from?

Human nature and ‘Beloved Beasts’

Michelle Nijhuis’s spirited and engaging book tracks the not always predictable course of species protection from the flora and fauna classification system developed in the 18th century by the Swede Carl Linnaeus to the present day.

Environmental warfare in ‘How Beautiful We Were’

Written in a no-frills yet piercing prose style, Imbolo Mbue’s novel is an account — tragic, wrenching, and at times exasperatingly documentary-like — of one village’s struggle against the rapacity of an American oil company.

Anne Lamott ponders life’s third act in ‘Dusk, Night, Dawn’

The book (Lamott’s 19th) is digestible and uplifting, conceived and packaged for the chaotic times we are facing. Although touching on a few broadly exterior topics (climate change), it mainly focuses on the human interior.

BOOKS
Ijeoma Oluo on laughing and crying while reading
In her newest book, “Mediocre: The Dangerous Legacy of White Male America,” Oluo recounts and examines how the idea that white men deserve power is perpetuated and its effects on everyone. The Seattle native is also the author of the best-selling “So You Want to Talk About Race.”

BOOKS
A book about mushrooms, new poetry pondering what we humans need, and a publishing experiment that blends book-buying and philanthropy
All the news of a literary note from around New England.

Latest Headlines in Books

BOOKS

Black feminism meets physics in Chanda Prescod-Weinstein’s ‘The Disordered Cosmos’

Writing the book was a way for the University of New Hampshire professor to make sense of all her interests.

Virtual author readings Mar. 7-13

All events take place online; visit the venue website for more information.

Local bestsellers for the week ending February 28

Based on reporting from the independent booksellers of the New England Independent Booksellers Association and IndieBound.

COMMENTARY

A library encounter with Seuss’s ‘If I Ran the Zoo’

I remember what I read and saw in the now discontinued book, and what I did — and wished I'd done then.

WORKING ON IT

Are you doing too much? Let the Dutch introduce you to the art of ‘niksen’

Nothing is good. These books about "niksen" – the art of doing nothing – help you get there.

Movies

She answered J.D. Salinger’s fan mail, and now her memoir is a movie

Cambridge author Joanna Rakoff talks about seeing "My Salinger Year" adapted for the big screen.

Ty Burr

The Seuss controversy isn’t ‘cancel culture.’ It’s about recognizing changing attitudes

No, they’re not canceling Dr. Seuss. But a lot of people want you to think so. It’s worth thinking about why that is.

COMFORT ZONE

Boston poet laureate Porsha Olayiwola is at HOME on the open mic

The theme interested the Chicago transplant long before the pandemic.