Former Democratic National Committee Chair Donna Brazile has come under fire for her new tell-all political memoir Hacks: The Inside Story of the Break-Ins and Breakdowns That Put Donald Trump in the White House. Brazile has been deeply critical of Hillary Clinton, and in interviews she has called Clinton’s presidential campaign “worse than Hurricane Katrina.” More than 100 former senior aides with Hillary for America responded with a rebuttal to Brazile’s account, proclaiming, among other things, that “It is particularly troubling and puzzling that she would seemingly buy into false Russian-fueled propaganda, spread by both the Russians and our opponent, about our candidate’s health.” House minority leader Nancy Pelosi and current DNC Chair have also spoken out against Brazile’s account. Brazile has this response for her critics: “Go to hell.”
Jonathan Franzen considers how we can prepare for climate change in the era of Trump: “I don’t have any hope that we can stop the change from coming. My only hope is that we can accept the reality in time to prepare for it humanely, and my only faith is that facing it honestly, however painful this may be, is better than denying it.”
Following mounting allegations of sexual misconduct against Kevin Spacey, Netflix has announced that it has canceled a Gore Vidal biopic in which Spacey had been cast to play the author. Meanwhile, novelist Alexander Chee provocatively considers Spacey’s response to the allegations.
Publisher’s Weekly explains why, in the age of e-books, it has become increasingly difficult to define a bestseller.
Nancy Friday, the bestselling author of My Secret Garden and other studies of gender politics, has died at age eighty-four.
Kirkus Reviews has announced the winners of its annual book awards. What It Means When a Man Falls from the Sky: Stories by Lesley Nneka Arimah won for fiction, and The Gulf: The Making of An American Sea by Jack E. Davis won for nonfiction.