Even if you’re not travelling this summer, you can escape with this great selection of books from around the world.

Or, if you’re UK-based, stay closer to home with Book Riot’s 100 Must-Read Novels Set in London.

Red online rounds up life advice from great writers, while The Guardian reviews advice of a different kind: Colum McCann’s Letters to a Young Writer.

JK Rowling has talked about how she would protest a visit by the American president.

Arundhati Roy’s first novel in twenty years, The God of Small Things, went on sale today, and people are excited. But who is this author, and why do people love her so much?

Jacqueline Wilson is writing a Tracy Beaker sequel.

Excerpted on the Pool today in the run-up to the Baileys Prize announcement tomorrow is Maxine Beneba Clarke’s The Hate Race.

Philippa Gregory is to open a new library in North Yorkshire.

Barbara Kingsolver’s masterpiece The Poisonwood Bible comes of age this year, and Faber will be publishing a new edition of the novel to celebrate its 18th birthday.

There’s been a spike in sales of political books as the general election looms larger on the horizon.

Frank Perry has won the Oxford-Weidenfeld prize for his translation from Swedish of Lina Wolff’s Bret Easton Ellis and the Other Dogs.

A rare bookseller has put Harry Potter first editions on sale for over £4,000.

On the Guardian Books podcast, Richard Ford discusses his family memoir.