Your holiday reading list: chosen by Zadie Smith, David Nicholls and more
Leading authors including Bernardine Evaristo, Armistead Maupin and Alice Roberts recommend books to read this summer
March 2024
This month's best paperbacks
This month’s best paperbacks: Margaret Atwood, Curtis Sittenfeld and more
Looking for a new reading recommendation? Here are some exciting new paperbacks, from an innovative Booker shortlisted novel to a study of friendship
June 2023
Summer books: Zadie Smith, Ian Rankin, Richard Osman and others pick their favourites
Leading authors recommend the best recent books, from a forbidden love affair at the Western Front to a murder mystery set in Egypt
April 2023
‘We want to read about people falling in love’: Curtis Sittenfeld and Marian Keyes on the romcom revival
The American and Irish novelists discuss the joys of writing romantic comedy, standing up to the critics and why we’re in a ‘golden age’ for the menopause
March 2023
Book of the day
Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld review – lights, camera, attraction
The US author’s zingy new novel tackles celebrity, lockdown and frustrated love lives with ambition and panache
February 2023
‘You can read it in the time it takes to have a one night stand’: authors on their favourite romcom books
Stanley Tucci, Jenny Colgan, David Nicholls and others reflect on their favourite romantic comedies, including Heartburn, A Room With a View and The Spanish Love Deception
May 2021
Books interview
Curtis Sittenfeld: ‘People misunderstood the sex scenes in Rodham’
The bestselling author on reimagining Hillary Clinton’s life, what novelists have learned from Covid and the mood in her home town, Minneapolis, since the murder of George Floyd
September 2020
On my radar
On my radar: Curtis Sittenfeld's cultural highlights
The author on Black Girl Baking, a cold-war-themed podcast and identifying with incredibly awkward reality TV stars
May 2020
Observer book of the week
Rodham by Curtis Sittenfeld review – Hill minus Bill
Hillary Clinton’s life is brilliantly reimagined in Sittenfeld’s enjoyable sixth novel
April 2020
Lockdown culture
Novelists pick books to inspire, uplift, and offer escape
Lockdown culture
Tiger King and a bloody mary: Hilary Mantel, Simon Armitage and other writers on lockdown life
March 2020
Top 10s
Top 10 books about boarding school
From Evelyn Waugh to Molesworth, novels set in these places of privilege are microcosmic studies of oppression and rebellion
February 2020
Hillary without Bill: Curtis Sittenfeld rewrites Clinton's personal history
Novelist says that in the run-up to the 2016 election, she began to imagine a life where Clinton ‘made different choices, personally and professionally’
May 2018
You Think It, I’ll Say It By Curtis Sittenfeld review – the good, bad and ugly of female lives
You Think It, I’ll Say It: Stories by Curtis Sittenfeld – perfect miniature portraits
April 2018
Observer New Review Q&A
Curtis Sittenfeld: ‘I have declined to write fiction about Melania Trump double digits of times’
Best known for her fictionalised memoir of Laura Bush, the US author talks about inspiration, her debut short story collection, and Stormy Daniels
May 2017
New Curtis Sittenfeld novel will imagine Hillary Clinton's life without Bill
As-yet untitled novel will tell the story of Hillary Rodham and her life after she turns down marriage proposal from Bill Clinton ‘once and for all’
July 2016
Best holiday reads 2016
From gripping fiction to history, brilliant poetry to biography, our guest contributors offer their recommendations for the beach and elsewhere
May 2016
The crush
Why I love… Curtis Sittenfeld
Sittenfeld writes girls and women as they truly are, with shades of light and dark, with and without grace, apologetic as well as fearless
April 2016
Critical eye
Book reviews roundup: Eligible; Everyone Brave Is Forgiven; Angry White People
What the critics thought of Eligible by Curtis Sittenfeld, Everyone Brave Is Forgiven by Chris Cleave and Angry White People by Hsiao-Hung Pai
