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Arts & Culture / Books

Going back to the roots of English grammar to uncover its many myths

Most of What You Think You Know About Grammar Is Wrong

And ending sentences with a preposition is nothing worth worrying about

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How to Tour Jane Austen’s English Countryside

Follow in the footsteps of Mr. Darcy and the Bennet sisters and take in the manors and gardens of rural England

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The Gory Details of Artist Katrina van Grouw’s Unfeathered Birds

A British artist, with experience in ornithology, explains how she created anatomical drawings of 200 different species of birds for a new book

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Texas’ New Library Won’t Have Any Books

In San Antonio, an entirely bookless library system

The World Until Yesterday

The History of Mapmaking, Jared Diamond’s Latest and More Recent Books Reviewed

Also on the docket, travelling by fire and understanding the concept of “antifragility”

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Smithsonian.com’s Top Books of 2012

Looking for a reading list for the holidays? Check out our favorite books that we featured on the site this past year

Beehive ginger

Flower Power, Redefined

In a new book, Andrew Zuckerman embraces minimalism, capturing 150 colorful blooms on white backdrops

Consider the Fork: A History of How We Cook and Eat

The History of Cooking and Other New Books, Reviewed

Why should we consider the fork? And a new biography of the ill-fated George Armstrong Custer

Langston Hughes is one of the many poets featured in the National Portrait Gallery's "Poetic Likeness" exhibition.

Who Are the Geniuses Behind Your Favorite Poems?

A new exhibit at the National Portrait Gallery unmasks the titans of modern American poetry

Lewis Lapham, the legendary former editor of Harper's, who, beginning in the 1970s, helped change the face of American nonfiction, has a new mission: taking on the Great Paradox of the digital age.

Lewis Lapham’s Antidote to the Age of BuzzFeed

With his erudite Quarterly, the legendary Harper’s editor aims for an antidote to digital-age ignorance

The front and back of the Building Stories box

Designing Lives and Building Stories, Chris Ware’s Comic Book Epic

In Building Stories, cartoonist Chris Ware presents the banality of everyday life as a stunning comic epic

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The Next Pandemic, the End of Men, Edward Curtis and More Recent Books Worth Reading

The scariest thing about deadly diseases is how little we know about them

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“Black Hands”

A new poem by Amit Majmudar

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“Midafternoon Midsummer”

A new poem by Coleman Barks

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The Hobbit You Grew Up With Isn’t Quite the Same As the Original, Published 75 Years Ago Today

The Hobbit was first published 75 years ago today - and it wasn’t exactly the way you remember it

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Ten Famed Literary Figures Based on Real-Life People

Who were the sources for characters such as Robinson Crusoe or Dorian Gray?

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What’s the Perfect Book to Get Over a Breakup?

Alain de Botton has provided a valuable service: giving reading prescriptions for a “shelf-help” approach to everyday problems

Double Cross: The True Story of the D-Day Spies

D-Day Spies, Lost Antarctica, Eating Dirt and More Recent Books

A new history blows the cover on British spies in World War II

Martin Amis, England's most famous living novelist, has just moved from London to the United States.

Martin Amis Contemplates Evil

England’s most famous living novelist has moved to America—and tilted the literary world

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As Long As Books Have Existed, Invisibility Has Been a Dream

We just have to look to literature to learn that there’s always been a real danger to the prospect of being invisible

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