Latest news with #ALittleLife
Daily Mirror
24-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
James Norton 'splits from model girlfriend and joins celebrity dating app Raya'
Happy Valley star James Norton has reportedly signed up to exclusive celebrity dating app Raya after splitting from his girlfriend Charlotte Rose Smith James Norton is back on the market after splitting from his model girlfriend Charlotte Rose Smith. The Happy Valley star has reportedly appeared on celebrity dating app Raya with his shaved head he is currently sporting for his role in Sunny Dancer featured in his profile picture. James, 39, is currently filming in Scotland for the movie alongside Bella Ramsey. The actor - who is a strong favourite to play James Bond when Daniel Craig's replacement is picked - was pictured with Charlotte, 26, several times after they started dating late last year. At the time, an insider told The Sun: "They have been enjoying dates and seem very happy together. "It has been a year since his relationship with Imogen ended and he appears to get on so well with Charlotte. They make a lovely couple." While James seems to be ready to date again, Charlotte - who is also an artist - has been sharing a few cryptic posts on TikTok. Sharing a video of herself working in her studio in London she wrote: "When everything is falling apart I will always have art. Broken heart? Still got my art." Another video shows her walking around in a fitted dress alongside the caption: "How I imagine every ex thinks of me." The Mirror has reached out to James' representatives for comment. James recently divulged that he is planning a trip to Kenya with his parents, Hugh and Lavinia, and sister Jessica, while talking on the Travel Secrets podcast. He said: "It's with my family, which is really lovely. There's a point you get to in your early twenties... I was lucky enough to look at my mum and dad when we were all adults, and say, 'We get on!' "My dad and I have a grudge match playing chess and we play bridge. My sister has two little boys who are six and four and we have a really nice little family unit. So for the first time, I'm taking them on holiday. We're going to the Masai Mara for some Safari. I can't wait to see my little nephews do Safari." Prior to dating Charlotte, James was engaged to actress Imogen Poots, 35, but they split late in 2023. The former couple dated for seven years before the demands of their hectic lifestyles and careers drove the relationship apart. Talking to The Sunday Times he said: "Some of the choices recently weren't mine, yet I don't feel begrudging. If the work starts to compromise one's relationships, it can become unhealthy. Suddenly you realise you haven't left any space for other people and so I was p***ed off with that." James had been starring in A Little Life - a West End adaptation of Hanya Yanagihara's novel which focuses on trauma and abuse - and said he had "given his life" to the role.
Forbes
21-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
The Power Of BookTok: Why TikTok's Book Community Is Driving A New Era In Publishing
What began as a cozy nook on the corner of the internet, has quickly transformed into a global phenomenon. As of 2025, #BookTok has accumulated 370 billion views, with over 52 million creations jumping on board–skyrocketing bestsellers, reviving backlist titles and informing reading habits worldwide1. At its core, BookTok thrives on community-driven content: emotional reviews, hot takes, character impersonations and viral recommendations land these reads on the feeds of not just the literary set, but diverse audiences around the world. To help publishers tap into this momentum, we've compiled strategies, insights, and case studies on the Publisher Insights Hub to make the most of the BookTok boom. Building Communities Around Authors and Books The line between author and reader has changed. What once required a book tour or a late-night interview now happens on a phone screen. TikTok has given rise to a new kind of literary connection—immediate, unfiltered, and deeply personal. Authors don't just market their books; they build communities. And readers, in turn, don't just consume stories—they comment on them, review them, and share them with their fellow readers. Unlike traditional platforms built for polished, static content, TikTok thrives on performance and participation. A single clip can revive a forgotten backlist title or launch a debut into an instant best seller. A clear example of this phenomenon is the renewed global recognition of 'A Little Life' by Hanya Yanagihara, where users shared their emotional reactions, discussions and anticipations surrounding the book, and the characters within it. The scale and authenticity of user-generated videos is a key driver of success on TikTok. Readers create reviews, trends and fan content that drive organic reach and real world sales. This is where the true power of BookTok communities lies–in their ability to create buzz through recommendations and real-time conversations. TikTok as a Platform for Buzz Around Book Releases Let's talk about the #BookTok effect. When your devoted fan community already exists, all you need to do to generate buzz is simply to feed it. Through sneak peeks, cover reals, behind-the-scenes content and interviews, authors can charge their online communities with the right cocktail of anticipation and intel to ensure that upcoming book releases go off with a bang. Reviving Classic Stories and Expanding Existing IP The beauty of BookTok is that it doesn't exist to serve just the up-and-coming. It brings new life to older, under-the-radar books by re-engaging past readers and attracting new fans. It's not just contemporary fiction that reaps the benefits here. BookTok has played a huge role in introducing new readers to classic literature, giving long-time classics a resurgence in popularity. TikTok has supplied a platform for readers to dive deeper into themes, dissect plotlines and characters, and discuss adaptions – all of which work towards keeping stories alive in ways that traditional marketing never could. Creating Content Around Adaptations, Releases, and Series BookTok is a global phenomenon, and the love for books—and their adaptations—transcends borders and languages. A great example of this is Maxton Hall - The World Between Us, a German-language Prime Video series that found viral success on TikTok. The show sparked a wave of excitement among German readers who shared their love for the books online. That momentum quickly spread, inspiring English-speaking readers to seek out translated versions so they could dive into the story ahead of season 2. TikTok ensures that books don't fade into obscurity after publication–they go on to thrive, evolve and capture new audiences. What It Means for Publishers and Brands Leveraging TikTok to stay relevant in the digital-first landscape is essential to ensure books stay visible in a rapidly moving market. From organic hype to strategic partnerships, publishers that capitalise on TikTok for book marketing can drive measurable outcomes in three key areas: sales growth, brand awareness and fan engagement. Discover the Power of BookTok at the LA Times Festival of Books! Join TikTok on April 26, 2025, at the LA Times Festival of Books, YA Stage for an exclusive panel on how BookTok is shaping today's most exciting book-to-screen adaptations! Industry leaders and talent will explore how TikTok is driving literary trends, fueling fandoms, and bringing beloved stories to life on screen. Featuring an incredible lineup of speakers, including: The Future of Book Marketing on TikTok As BookTok continues to grow, its significance as a cultural driver for the publishing industry is undeniable and essential for scalable success. TikTok has evolved into a content hub that allows publishers and authors to build lasting connections with readers, foster brand loyalty and drive tangible business growth.
New York Times
08-04-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
The Critic Who Turned the Hate Read Into High Art
What a strange book 'Authority,' by Andrea Long Chu, is — brilliant, blind. The book critic for New York magazine and winner of the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for criticism, Chu has achieved a rare ascendancy in the literary world over the past several years, in equal parts for her clever, lethal takedowns of various authors and for her long essays on gender and sexuality, written from her perspective as a trans woman. Beyond her obvious intelligence, I think there are two reasons for her success. The first is that, in the presence of an academic — Chu calls herself a scholar in 'recovery' — the New York publishing class, otherwise not generally short on pride, begins to feel a little like a country mouse. Much of her style, which seems so novel in the pages of New York, is in fact close to a straight pastiche of the (transcendent) work of the Marxist critic Fredric Jameson and his descendants: flying dialectically from idea to idea without pause for explanation, and — confoundingly for a reader used to gentler handling — carrying the force of absolute conviction along with the simultaneous certainty that no conviction is valid. The second reason is that people love a hate read. 'Viciousness is the attack dog who has not eaten in three days,' Chu writes in 'Authority,' her new collection of essays and criticism. 'Cruelty is the person calmly holding the leash. These days I aim for cruelty.' This may be disconcerting, but it is not ambiguous. And when you're on the same side as Chu it is exhilarating. 'Authority' gathers together three kinds of writing: reviews, personal essays and reflections on the art of criticism, most of them previously published in New York, n+1 and elsewhere. Of the three, the reviews are by far the best, the site of Chu's magic. They contain moments of insight so accurate, and often funny, too — one of her outstanding strengths as a critic — that for me now they seem permanently etched onto those writers. On Bret Easton Ellis whining about millennial wokeness in 'White,' his polemical book of cultural commentary: 'Having never grown up himself, he clings to the hope someone else will grow up in his place.' On Hanya Yanagihara: ''A Little Life' is an unapologetic lifestyle novel.' On Andrew Lloyd Webber: 'His characters declaimed their emotions directly into the audience, as if by T-shirt cannon.' On Ottessa Moshfegh: 'For all its technical mastery, there remains something deeply juvenile about Moshfegh's fiction.' And on Zadie Smith: 'The irony of Smith's career is that she has never actually excelled at constructing the kind of sympathetic, all-too-human characters she advocates for.' There's a tremendous price to pay for Chu's method. She never loves anything — never advocates for anything — and here her deeper debt to Jameson (among other scholars) becomes apparent: Over and over, she treats books as objects to be dismantled to their historical and political parts, schematized, neutralized. Such an approach is an important current within literary criticism, and a tonic against our book culture's reflexive humanism, which can become its own kind of kitsch. But it badly damages our faith in her taste. It isn't even clear she has anything to offer us on those terms; the highest praise in this book is, ludicrously, for the pat, well-made postapocalyptic HBO soap opera 'The Last of Us' ('a superb realization of a modest goal'). The limitations of her broad anti-humanist position — ideas consistently reigning over affect — become clear in Chu's writings about her experiences as a trans woman, which are sensitive and erudite, open-minded and marvelously fair, but timid, as if shadowed by the fear that a writer just like her, gifted and contemptuous, might be waiting to pounce on any straightforward or unironized fragment of thought or feeling. The few moments of emotion she permits herself — when she writes of 'the scared, straight boy whose life I will never not have lived,' for example, or describes weeping in bed after her bottom surgery — are precisely when the essays intensify into the kind of moving felt reality she finds so untrustworthy in others. Yet who can blame her — for her acidity, her caution, her anger? Her grounding premise, that much of our culture is snared in the traps of late capitalism, seems beyond dispute. Moreover, her identity as a trans woman is under assault by some of the most powerful people on Earth. Perhaps this is another explanation for her rise to fame: She is irate, in a time that deserves our ire. Given the force of that anger, the moments when Chu briefly suspends it seem telling. In polite, uncharacteristically forgettable reviews of novels by Lexi Freiman ('keeps a wry eye on the weird billiard-ball mechanics of teenage alliance') and Tao Lin (whose 'fastidious plotlessness' exhibits the 'ambivalent virtue' of 'boring' verisimilitude), 'Authority' abandons its professed mission. Is it a coincidence that both writers are members of the lit world's cool crowd, as, these days, is Chu — something her book's dense acknowledgments section, with its several dozen names shiny to anyone familiar with that particular high school cafeteria, makes evident? Inconsistency is fatal to integrity — to authority — when you claim to be operating from principle. Then again, maybe Chu just wants to be cool! A hate read runs on hate: Beneath whatever veneer of intellectual objectivity, any book as incandescently furious as this one is ultimately a long cry of pain. But having dedicated her career to the notion that compassion for an author should have no role in the criticism of a book, she would doubtless despise the sympathy for the author implicit in such a conclusion.
USA Today
01-03-2025
- Entertainment
- USA Today
Why Browseabout Books is a paradise for people who love books and beaches
Why Browseabout Books is a paradise for people who love books and beaches Independent bookstores are the heartbeats of their communities. They provide culture and community, generate local jobs and sales tax revenue, promote literacy and education, champion and center diverse and new authors, connect readers to books in a personal and authentic way, and actively support the right to read and access to books in their communities. Each week we profile an independent bookstore, sharing what makes each one special and getting their expert and unique book recommendations. This week we have Susan Kehoe, owner of Browseabout Books in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. What's your store's story? Browseabout has been a Rehoboth Beach must-visit since 1975. We are a beach and booklovers paradise with 13,000 square feet of books for all ages, toys, stationery, housewares and a cafe. What makes your independent bookstore unique? Browseabout is known for our fun and friendly shopping experience, and we have something for tourists and locals alike. Our staff is knowledgeable and helpful. We make significant yearly donations to local charities, concentrating on putting books in children's hands and shelter pets, but also contributing to our local arts groups, our libraries, and members of our community who have food and shelter insecurities. We are also the official bookseller for the History Book Festival, the only history and historical fiction book festival in the country. What's your favorite section in your store? My favorite sections of the store are our ever-changing displays. Our buyers do an amazing job, and we always have something new, exciting and trendy to showcase. What book do you love to recommend to customers and why? "Always The Night Circus" by Erin Morgenstern. It's the perfect book for me with its gorgeous writing, magic, a circus that only opens at night, and complicated, doomed romance. She totally transports you to the Cirque de Reves! Two years ago, I would've said "A Little Life" by Hanya Yanagihara, but then Booktok discovered it. Now, it would be "Anubis Gates" by Tim Powers. It's the perfect combination of time travel, history and ... killer clowns. Why is shopping at local, independent bookstores important? Shopping at local, independent bookstores is important because we are literally the heart of your towns and downtowns. We are passionate about what we do – we do not rely on algorithms to decide what and how much we buy. We care about our staff, our customers and our towns. We donate and participate because we love what we do and where we live. What are some of your store's events, programs, or partnerships coming up that you would like to share? Find all of our events on our website. Here's what's coming up:
The Independent
16-02-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
Cate Blanchett gives verdict on whether celebrity-led plays are ruining the West End
Cate Blanchett has shared her opinion on whether she thinks celebrity-led plays are ruining West End theatre. The Oscar-winning actor, 55, is set to star in Thomas Ostermeier's new production of Anton Chekhov's The Seagull at the Barbican. The six-week run marks her return to the stage for the first time in six years. Blanchett at the National Theatre in 2019, shortly before the pandemic. The Seagull is produced by Wessex Grove, who previously brought Andrew Scott 's one-man rendition of Vanya and an adaptation of Hanya Yanagihara's A Little Life, starring James Norton, to the stage. Speaking to The Guardian, Blanchett claimed that 'cynical' stunt-casting – in which production companies employ star power to fuel ticket sales – is fine 'as long as theatre does not become homogeneous'. Celebrity-led productions have become increasingly common in recent years. Emily in Paris star Lily Collins, for example, made her West End debut in a widely panned production of Bess Wohl's Barcelona last year, while several celebrities, including singers Cheryl Cole and Lily Allen, have starred in 2:22 A Ghost Story. 'It's about how that person is used and whether their celebrity is harnessed to the cart of the production in a positive way, because sometimes that can really work,' Blanchett said. 'But it's the follow-spot theatre that you're talking about, where the lead actress or actor is slightly more brightly lit than others… You used the word 'cynical'. I think you can smell that.' Elsewhere in the interview, Blanchett said the secret to a successful production is believability. 'In everything you do, you're very aware that you're walking that line with an audience where you're saying, 'We're doing this for you but it is absolutely happening,'' she explained. 'Theatre's like a magic trick. Are you coming with me? Are we going here together?' Blanchett will star as Arkadina in Ostermeier's forthcoming adaptation of Russian writer Anton Chekhov 's play alongside Mad Max actor Tom Burke in the role of Trigorin and Emma Corrin as Nina. Chekhov's 1985 play follows Arkadina, a dominating personality who must navigate a series of personal conflicts when she visits her family's country estate. Her husband is romantically pursued by a younger actor, while her son attempts to break free of Arkadina's influence. Speaking to Porter earlier this month, Blanchett revealed she finds herself frequently inspired by youngs actors, including her co-star Corrin. 'I'm just amazed by not only their aliveness of their point of view, but also their technical reserves in ways that I couldn't have even imagined having or possessing when I was their age,' she said. The Seagull will show at The Barbican in London for six weeks, starting on 26 February 2025.
