TODAY: In 1870, the Russian literary weekly Niva (“Cornfield”) is first published in Saint Petersburg. The magazine, which ran until 1918, included contributions from Leo Tolstoy, Anton Chekhov, Maxim Gorky, Alexander Blok, Osip Mandelstam, and Anna Akhmatova.
- The best books of the best of 2017 lists: we did the math so you don’t have to (in this case, math = counting). | Literary Hub
- Am I smarter than a second grader? Evan Lavender-Smith debates his son on the merits of Wikipedia, and the etymology of “ladybird.” | Literary Hub
- In memoriam: the literary figures we lost in 2017. | Literary Hub
- The best-reviewed biographies, memoirs, and science fiction and fantasy books of 2017. | Book Marks
- Margaret Atwood, Naomi Klein, and other writers share the books that inspired them to become feminists. | The Guardian
- Masha Gessen profiles Rūta Vanagaitė, a best-selling Lithuanian writer whose statements about her country’s complicity in World War II have destroyed her career. | The New Yorker
- These are airport novel numbers, not poetry ones: Thoughts on the massive popularity of Rupi Kaur and other “Instapoets.” | The New York Times
- Lynn Steger Strong on the plotless novel as the art of the privileged. | Literary Hub
- On the curious decision to have Tucker Max, the “the one-time king of ‘dick lit,’” co-write comedian and actress Tiffany Haddish’s memoir. | Jezebel
- She was their anchor, and they cast her aside: How Brigid Hughes, former editor of The Paris Review, was erased from her job. | Longreads
- The Goldfinch adaptation will feature Ansel Elgort, Aneurin Barnard, and Willa Fitzgerald (who will also star in a mini-series adapted from Little Women, the trailer for which was just released). | Variety, Vulture
- The writer and philosopher Bette Howland has died at the age of 80. Read A.N. Devers on Howland’s importance, here. | New York Times, Literary Hub
Also on Literary Hub: Joan Juliet Buck on how far you have to go to get to the center of your life · 8 must-read crime titles for the winter holidays · Read “The Gift” by Jean-Philippe Blondel.
