![\"\"](\"https:\/\/lithub.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/the-fallen-9781668079744_xlg-199x300.jpg\")
<\/p>\nFifteen-year-old Eileen disappeared on a quiet Sunday evening in February 1954. She was at work when it happened. Eileen was a maid at a bed-and-breakfast in a large Georgian townhouse in inner-city Dublin, where she remade the crumpled beds, bundled the laundry into bags, ready to be collected, and smoothed the white linens across the breakfast tables. Each week she was paid ten shillings, and she lived in the small maid\u2019s quarters located in the attic of the B&B. This was not just a handy living arrangement but a necessary one. Dublin was not Eileen\u2019s hometown; she had arrived in the capital the year before as a runaway, escaping a life that she could not bear.<\/p>\n
Eileen was born in 1939 at a Mother and Baby Home. These Homes were clandestine institutions run by Catholic nuns, places for women and girls who had had sex outside marriage, and found themselves pregnant, which was a catastrophic social taboo. Ideally, after the baby was born, the mother would leave them behind. She then returned to her normal life carrying her private shame, but with her social standing intact. The nuns then took it upon themselves to make arrangements for the illegitimate child.<\/p>\n
Illegitimacy <\/i>is an ugly word, but in Ireland at the time it was a legal category assigned at birth. For most of the twentieth century, the Irish government counted the number of illegitimate babies and tracked their year-on-year growth or hoped-for decline. They scrutinized this in comparison to the levels of illegitimacy in other countries, particularly their close neighbor, Britain, which was also doing the same dismal demographic calculus. The size of Ireland\u2019s illegitimate population was lamented in government like an ill-gotten under-class. By the time Eileen was born, the matter of illegitimacy was a permanent social anxiety.<\/p>\n
Eileen remembered how she adored her mother and loved to see her arrive at the house, but also how quickly she learned that she was expected to contain that feeling.<\/p>\n
Eileen\u2019s mother had been working as a live-in domestic maid for a well-heeled family when she found out she was pregnant. The father of her baby was the husband, the man of the house. So this problem\u2014and certainly no one was say-ing that this pregnancy was anything other than a problem\u2014was hers alone.<\/p>\n
When Eileen was born, her mother did as was expected and left her at the Mother and Baby institution, where Eileen stayed until she was four years old. Eileen hadn\u2019t been adopted, and so either a family member would have to come and retrieve her, or she would be sent to the industrial school\u2014a dire place for poor orphaned children, also run by religious orders. Eileen\u2019s mother was by then working elsewhere in the country, so in the end it was her married sister, Sheila, who came to collect the little girl. Auntie Sheila said she would raise Eileen alongside her own, older stepson.<\/p>\n
Eileen\u2019s mother visited whenever she could get leave from her domestic duties. Eileen remembered how she adored her mother and loved to see her arrive at the house, but also how quickly she learned that she was expected to contain that feeling. During her mother\u2019s infrequent visits, Eileen was to treat her with no more than polite formality. Recalling these years, she said, \u201cI was never allowed to speak to her alone when she came to see me.\u201d<\/p>\n
As Eileen was illegitimate and a source of great shame for the family, her aunt tried to muffle signs of her presence. When the family traveled by horse and carriage through the town, Eileen was made to curl up in the footwell, where she was covered by a blanket. She was not allowed to attend the local school and was made to travel to a school in another town where her family was not known.<\/p>\n
Home life was where the danger lay for Eileen. Auntie Sheila\u2019s stepson was vicious and sexually predatory. Eileen hardly knew what was happening to her, but she came to dread whenever her aunt announced that she and her husband were heading out, leaving Eileen alone with her step-cousin.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat cruel life,\u201d as Eileen described it, went on until she was thirteen, when she was taken out of school, her education over. Auntie Sheila had arranged for Eileen to be sent to work as a domestic for a local farmer who had a gaggle of children and endless errands to be done. The life of live-in servitude flummoxed Eileen, who said that her \u201cblood ran into water.\u201d She became lifeless. Within months, she was back with Auntie Sheila, laid out in bed for days on end, trying to recuperate.<\/p>\n
What Auntie Sheila seemed to learn from this episode was that the demanding combination of children and the farm had pushed Eileen too far. Once she was upright again, Eileen was sent to one of the nearby big houses, the stately-looking homes of the landed gentry or respectable and monied classes\u2014the doctors, the vets, the big farmers. There, she had no lands to tend to and no children to monitor and feed.<\/p>\n
People sometimes gently mocked them and their small intrusions by dismissing them as \u201cHoly Joes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Instead, Eileen spent day after day down on her knees scrubbing that grand house until she felt something in her yield; she was fourteen and a half when she ran away to Dublin. She said that she \u201cloved\u201d the bed-and-breakfast; she liked the two other girls who worked there because they were from the country as well, and that the owner, Miss Mullins, was usually milling about the place too. If her dream had been to live a life of her own making, she seemed to have succeeded.<\/p>\n
Then, on that Sunday evening in February, Miss Mullins was out. With her gone, the other two girls vanished up the stairs as they hurried to dress for a dance in town that evening, Eileen recalled. Since she wasn\u2019t joining them, Eileen found herself alone in the bed-and-breakfast.<\/p>\n
Two unremarkable-looking middle-aged women came in from the street and approached Eileen at the front desk. She did not know them, and they were not guests. Many years later she would find out that they were members of the Legion of Mary, a volunteer organization whose lives were devoted to the veneration and imitation of Mary, the Mother of God and Blessed Virgin, who exemplified purity and a sinless life. The Legion of Mary saw themselves as an army engaged in a perpetual \u201cwarfare\u201d against \u201cthe world and its evil powers\u201d; their only mission was to guard Ireland\u2019s moral boundaries.<\/p>\n
In their self-appointed position as neighborhood apostles, their members pounded the pavements, identifying people who might need to be saved from vice, from sin, from potential proselytism by Protestant charities. They set about \u201cinfluencing every home, shop, factory, office, and every other place its members might be set by circumstances.\u201d In this wide-reaching role, they sometimes sidled up to young girls on the street whom they suspected of wayward tendencies, who exhibited signs of what they described as \u201cpre-delinquency,\u201d whose downfall seemed dangerously imminent, and to whom they must issue their warnings about evil. People sometimes gently mocked them and their small intrusions by dismissing them as \u201cHoly Joes.\u201d<\/p>\n
There were numerous similar groups devoted to the Virgin Mary, but the Legion of Mary was the most prevalent.<\/p>\n
From their foundation in 1921, officials in the Irish Catholic Church treated the Legion with caution, but they quickly earned enormous popularity with diehard Catholics. They held public meetings that were attended by ever-increasing crowds, and their membership grew exponentially into a \u201cLegion of Mary frenzy.\u201d One mother had written to the Archbishop in the 1920s, not long after the Legion of Mary was founded. This woman was worried about her daughters who had become swept up in this obsessive new group.<\/p>\n
She had kept a secluded schedule, unlike her workmates, Eileen said; as she \u201cnever went out and never done anything wrong,\u201d she had nothing to fear.<\/p>\n
Despite rearing them as \u201cgood Catholics,\u201d this desperate mother wrote, since her daughters had joined the Legion of Mary, they had been treating her and her husband as though they were \u201cno longer good enough Catholics in their estimation.\u201d Their concerns faded into a minority view. By the 1950s, the Legion lived up to their name and had garnered a twenty-five-thousand-strong membership.<\/p>\n
The Catholic Church eventually came to share the Legion of Mary\u2019s outlook, and the Pope had declared that 1954 was going to be the Marian year. The Virgin Mary and her immaculate conception were to be celebrated, and perhaps no other nation threw themselves into the veneration of Mary that year quite like the Irish. The post office issued a series of special stamps to mark the occasion, while people painted the entirety of their houses, inside and out, in bright shades of \u201cMarian blue.\u201d A new statue-building craze saw Marian grottos erected across the country, tucking figures of the Mother of God into rockfaces and roadsides.<\/p>\n
On desolate rural strips or town squares, Mary is always the same. Hands clasped, head bowed, blank and fair of face. Each statue the perfect epitome of silent, mothering, virginal womanhood that Ireland had come to worship. Apparently, Protestants looked on and thought the Catholics, and maybe the Irish in particular, were hardly Christian at all, as they obsessed so over Mary. In Ireland, Christ sometimes had the appearance of a second-tier messiah in his own religion.<\/p>\n
It was this kind of obsequious zeal that possessed the two women now standing before Eileen in 1954\u2014Holy Joes that had been roving the city\u2019s streets in search of women and girls in imminent moral danger, and believed that they had found one in Eileen. They immediately pursued a peculiar, almost personal, line of conversation.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou are far too good to be working here.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd too nice.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe could bring you to a nicer place to work, with more money.\u201d<\/p>\n
From that moment on she was to be known only as \u201c60.\u201d In the days that followed, everything else was stripped from her.<\/p>\n
Eileen was not sure what it was these two women were really talking about, but she did not ask them to clarify. She had been raised in the traditional Irish way, in which deference and obedience to your elders were paramount\u2014she knew that she was not meant to ask questions, especially of people who possessed an air of authority, as these two women did. But even in her silence, Eileen did not feel a warning sense of suspicion, or recognize the sinister edge to this confrontation. She had kept a secluded schedule, unlike her workmates, Eileen said; as she \u201cnever went out and never done anything wrong,\u201d she had nothing to fear.<\/p>\n
The two women insisted that there was no time to waste, and that Eileen should come with them immediately. \u201cI didn\u2019t know what to do,\u201d Eileen said. \u201cI was reared up very strict, and you didn\u2019t say no in them days. In the fifties you didn\u2019t say no, you\u2019d be afraid to say no. So, I said okay.\u201d Fifteen-year-old Eileen followed them out of the bed-and-breakfast and got into their car, which was parked just outside. Eileen sat in the back seat as they drove her to O\u2019Connell Street, the city\u2019s main thoroughfare. They crossed the bridge over the River Liffey, and went out the other side of town.<\/p>\n
Did she begin to wonder if she ought to have waited to tell Miss Mullins? She hadn\u2019t so much as left a note; presumably Eileen believed she would return. It didn\u2019t take long before they were in a part of Dublin Eileen did not know. They passed salubrious redbrick houses with long gravel driveways set in off the road. The car slowed as it reached a lively street, and when the traffic eased, they pulled right and went through a gate with an arched metal sign above it: saint mary magdaLens asyLum. This was not hidden or tucked away; it sat among the row of ordinary local businesses: butcher, dairy, post office, pub, Magdalene Laundry.<\/p>\n
They led her up a set of shimmery limestone steps. A nun in pitch-black robes appeared at the door, who showed them through to a parlor, a grand and dignified room where the nuns received guests and hosted events. Whatever task these two women had set out upon was now complete, because they turned to leave. Before they did, one of them paused and looked back at Eileen, who was still standing in obedient silence, and said, \u201cWe\u2019re putting you in here for your own safety.\u201d<\/p>\n
Finding Eileen gone, the girls she worked with did not call the police. It is likely that the Legion of Mary returned and explained matters to Miss Mullins. Maybe, like Eileen, Miss Mullins knew not to ask questions either. Perhaps privately she felt annoyed about the inconvenience of having to hire another girl, but thanked them nonetheless. We will never know exactly what occurred in the wake of Eileen\u2019s absence. There is no archive for quiet moments of compliance and inaction. Something along these lines must have happened, because no one came looking for Eileen.<\/p>\n
Later that evening, the nun took Eileen\u2019s clothes, then cut off her hair and changed her name. She was no longer Eileen; she was to be designated by a number. From that moment on she was to be known only as \u201c60.\u201d In the days that followed, everything else was stripped from her.<\/p>\n
Where she was and what was happening would take her weeks to figure out. Why it had happened, that would take decades to be revealed.<\/p>\n
__________________________________<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Excerpted from <\/em>The Fallen: The Lost Girls of Ireland\u2019s Magdalene Laundries and a Legacy of Silence<\/a> by Louise Brangan. Copyright \u00a9 2026 by Louise Brangan. Reprinted by permission of Simon & Schuster, Inc. All Rights Reserved.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Fifteen-year-old Eileen disappeared on a quiet Sunday evening in February 1954. She was at work when it happened. Eileen was a maid at a bed-and-breakfast in a large Georgian townhouse in inner-city Dublin, where she remade the crumpled beds, bundled<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29404,"featured_media":270951,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[6,43101,43092,43095,43360],"tags":[4610,1625,82530,110056,110057,731,110055,110058],"class_list":["post-270948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-history","category-newsandculture","category-politics","category-religion","tag-catholicism","tag-ireland","tag-irish-history","tag-louise-brangan","tag-magdalene-laundries","tag-simon-and-schuster","tag-the-fallen-the-lost-girls-of-irelands-magdalene-laundries-and-a-legacy-of-silence","tag-virgin-mary"],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5rKFr-18u8","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/lithub.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/longform-banner-32.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lithub.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lithub.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lithub.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lithub.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29404"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lithub.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=270948"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lithub.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270948\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lithub.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/270951"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lithub.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=270948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lithub.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=270948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lithub.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=270948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":276623,"date":"2026-09-03T14:26:07","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T18:26:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lithub.com\/?p=276623"},"modified":"2026-09-03T14:26:07","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T18:26:07","slug":"a-new-font-promises-to-hide-your-text-from-ai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lithub.com\/a-new-font-promises-to-hide-your-text-from-ai\/","title":{"rendered":"A new font promises to hide your text from AI."},"content":{"rendered":" Can you read the text above? Because large language models can\u2019t.<\/p>\n The design and tech company Mixfont has created Decoy Font<\/a>, which promises to hide your text from AI crawlers. As covered in Dezeen<\/a>, the font works by using two layers for each letter, a clear outline and then a darker, blurred shape underneath. Humans are able to parse both layers\u2014try squinting or stepping back\u2014 but AIs can\u2019t. (This is Mixfont\u2019s second experiment with AI-proofing text. Their first was Ghost Font<\/a>, a sort of nausea inducing font that hides by moving.)<\/p>\n \u201cMost AI systems work by reading the pixels of an image up close,\u201d according to Mixfont,<\/a> \u201cSo when this type of image is pasted into an AI model\u2026the LLM focuses on the foreground text because that is what is most clearly outlined.\u201d It\u2019s a clever, lo-fi way to break AI models’ ability to process your writing.<\/p>\n I like this experiment, both as a design object and as a creative way to resist AI. Plus I love camouflage (sorry to my friends who have heard a lot about dazzle ships) and I hate AI. Unfortunately, Mixfont is hardly a fellow militant in the anti-AI resistance.\u00a0The company describes<\/a> itself as \u201can AI-powered digital font foundry,\u201d and most of their tools let users AI generate synthetic fonts (based on other people\u2019s design work, presumably).<\/p>\n Mixfont’s AI-resistant design experiments are part of their broader work in AI, a way \u201cto test the limits of what LLMs would easily solve,\u201d Mixfont founder Eric Lu told Dezeen.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cI think the reaction to the font shows that there are many folks who feel strong AI fatigue,\u201d Lu said, \u201cand want a way to defend themselves against the presence of AI in their lives.\u201d You\u2019re preaching to the choir, my friend! It’s not too late to repent.<\/p>\n You can play around with Decoy Font and read more about the methodology on Mixfont\u2019s website.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Can you read the text above? Because large language models can\u2019t. The design and tech company Mixfont has created Decoy Font, which promises to hide your text from AI crawlers. As covered in Dezeen, the font works by using two<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17056,"featured_media":276625,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[43099,43092,43445,43646],"tags":[20922,18017,327,53324,112160,112161,8302],"class_list":["post-276623","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-design-newsandculture","category-newsandculture","category-technology","category-the-hub","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-design","tag-fonts","tag-llm","tag-ned-ludds-army","tag-tech"],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5rKFr-19XF","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/lithub.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/decoy-font.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lithub.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276623","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lithub.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lithub.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lithub.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17056"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lithub.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=276623"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lithub.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276623\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lithub.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/276625"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lithub.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=276623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lithub.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=276623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lithub.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=276623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":276593,"date":"2026-09-03T11:17:54","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T15:17:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lithub.com\/?p=276593"},"modified":"2026-09-03T11:17:54","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T15:17:54","slug":"remembering-gloria-steinem-author-and-agent-of-the-second-wave","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lithub.com\/remembering-gloria-steinem-author-and-agent-of-the-second-wave\/","title":{"rendered":"Remembering Gloria Steinem, author and agent of the second wave."},"content":{"rendered":" Gloria Steinem, the trailblazing feminist journalist best known for embodying the American second wave, has died at 92.<\/p>\n Steinem was a co-founder of Ms<\/a>.<\/em>, a magazine that debuted the honorific unrelated to marital status. From 1971 to 1987, monthly issues of Ms. <\/em>found their way into desperate living rooms, where they radicalized and consoled girls and women. The mag ran endorsements for both Shirley Chisholm<\/a> and a re-empowered Wonder Woman<\/a>. It broke stories about the wage gap, the Equal Rights Amendment, date rape, and domestic violence.<\/p>\n Many articles in its pages set the national tone for the (late) Roe v. Wade<\/em> ruling, including the famous open letter<\/a> that ran in 1971. Aiming to de-stigmatize abortion and demanding “a repeal of all laws that restrict our reproductive freedom,” the letter was signed by dozens of celebrities who admitted to having abortions\u2014including Susan Sontag, Nora Ephron, Lillian Hellman, and Billie Jean King.<\/p>\n Steinem typified and took flack for embodying a very specific femininity. As a cis, white, straight, thin, conventionally beautiful person, her early activism centered conundrums specific to those categories. (See: her 1963 expose in Show<\/em> magazine, “A Bunny’s Tale<\/a>,” reporting on indignities at the Playboy Club.) The Black feminist Alice Walker famously left Ms.<\/em> over elitism charges in the 80s. But Gloria’s personal remit and multicultural commitments grew wider over her career.<\/p>\n After shifting up the Ms.<\/em> masthead, she turned to activism. And per Belinda Luscombe’s remembrance in Time,<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n She campaigned on behalf of native people, was arrested while protesting apartheid, publicly opposed the first Gulf War, advocated for disarmament in Korea, spoke against child abuse, female genital mutilation and pornography, and was an early supporter of LGB rights. (It took her a little longer<\/a> to endorse the transgender movement.)<\/p>\n She found friends in unlikely places, and enemies in the proto-manosphere<\/a>. Her books included My Life on the Road<\/em><\/a>, Revolution From Within<\/em><\/a>, and the forthcoming An Unexpected Life<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n *<\/p>\n I got the chance to meet Gloria back in 2018, when I was an understudy in a play about her life. Emily Mann’s Gloria: A Life<\/em><\/a> was inspired by several of Steinem’s own autobiographies, including My Life on the Road<\/em> and Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n All I really knew of Ms. Steinem before jumping into this project could be summed up in signifiers. (Specifically: Playboy, Ms.,<\/em> and Aviator sunglasses<\/a>.) Despite my awareness of this image<\/a>, there was also the dim sense that her kind of glamorous feminism didn’t directly apply to the kind my grandmothers had needed. I was excited, that’s to say\u2014but a little skeptical. Anyway, they say to never meet your heroes.<\/p>\n When we walked into the first read-through, Gloria was fluttering around the space, giving all the actors bespoke thank you bracelets emblazoned with feminist slogans. (A friend of hers had made these.) She was warm and present and weirdly humble about the task ahead.<\/p>\n She kept insisting she’d signed up for the biopic treatment for one specific reason: inspired by her work with the late Cherokee Nation leader Wilma Mankiller<\/a>, act two of our play was designed as an open forum “talking circle,” i.e., a space where any audience member might air grievance or offer insight to the end of raising our collective consciousness.<\/p>\n That will be the best part,<\/em> she kept repeating, dismissing the life story we’d all been hired to interpret. To prove her point, she would come and moderate as many talking circles she could, and on evenings when she was busy changing other lives, other feminist luminaries would be tapped to hold the space.<\/p>\n Again, I was skeptical. (Audience participation…) But her self-effacement was charming. As we dug into the play and I started connecting the dots about this “life” Gloria kept relegating to the sidelines\u2014from the unstable Ohio childhood, to the landmark stint at the 1977 Women’s Conference<\/a>\u2014I got even more shook. It was hard to imagine living as much as this woman had and not wanting to talk about it.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Her commitment to the cadre, her anti-hierarchical ethos, these things will stay with me. Our play slid off the personal details of Gloria, preferring to center her work. Her points of connection with Bella Abzug<\/a>, Dorothy Pitman Hughes<\/a>, Flo Kennedy<\/a>, and Wilma Mankiller<\/a>.<\/p>\n At the talking circles, Gloria exemplified her lifelong practice. She was a deep listener, frank and curious and welcoming. But whenever anyone thanked her for changing the world, she waved it off. Look around, not up,<\/em> she liked to say of heroes. We build solidarity side to side.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Our show was up and running during the Kavanaugh hearings. There were a few nights following Dr. Christine Blasey Ford’s testimony when the talking circle was filled with rage and tears. I remember looking over at this octogenarian icon, chic and robust as ever, as she held the group’s consciousness. All that thorny feeling. All that unruly life<\/em>.<\/p>\n And I remember thinking, Gloria, you were right. This<\/em> is the best part.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Gloria Steinem, the trailblazing feminist journalist best known for embodying the American second wave, has died at 92. Steinem was a co-founder of Ms., a magazine that debuted the honorific unrelated to marital status. From 1971 to 1987, monthly issues<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17066,"featured_media":276600,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[43102,43109,43101,43103,43092,43095,43098,43646],"tags":[112153,45886,112149,53453,112148,71369,1044,112145,10777,5080,72349,90332,24187,11202,24185,112146,64161,112147,21486],"class_list":["post-276593","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-biography","category-events","category-history","category-memoir","category-newsandculture","category-politics","category-style","category-the-hub","tag-a-bunnys-tale","tag-bella-abzug","tag-consciousness-raising","tag-dr-christine-blasey-ford","tag-emily-mann","tag-equal-rights-amendment","tag-feminism","tag-flo-kennedy","tag-gloria-steinem","tag-icons","tag-literary-obituaries","tag-ms-magazine","tag-remembrance","tag-rip","tag-roe-v-wade","tag-second-wave","tag-shirley-chisholm","tag-wilma-mankiller","tag-wonder-woman","book-an-unexpected-life","book-my-life-on-the-road","book-outrageous-acts-and-everyday-rebellions","book-revolution-from-within"],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5rKFr-19Xb","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/lithub.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Untitled-design-30.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lithub.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276593","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lithub.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lithub.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lithub.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17066"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lithub.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=276593"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lithub.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276593\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lithub.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/276600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lithub.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=276593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lithub.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=276593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lithub.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=276593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":276551,"date":"2026-09-03T09:03:18","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T13:03:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lithub.com\/?p=276551"},"modified":"2026-09-03T09:03:18","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T13:03:18","slug":"the-independent-press-top-40-bestsellers-fiction-33","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lithub.com\/the-independent-press-top-40-bestsellers-fiction-33\/","title":{"rendered":"The Independent Press Top 40 Bestsellers: Fiction"},"content":{"rendered":" Here are this week\u2019s Independent Press Top 40 Bestsellers<\/a> for fiction, based on sales in hundreds of independent bookstores nationwide, generously provided by the American Booksellers Association.<\/a> Compiled, designed, and distributed by The Independent Publishers Caucus<\/a>.<\/p>\n *<\/p>\n 1. The Calamity Club<\/em><\/a> by Kathryn Stockett (Spiegel & Grau) _________________________________________<\/p>\n Here are this week\u2019s Independent Press Top 40 Bestsellers for fiction, based on sales in hundreds of independent bookstores nationwide, generously provided by the American Booksellers Association. Compiled, designed, and distributed by The Independent Publishers Caucus. * 1. The Calamity<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":74,"featured_media":269719,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[43069,6,43070,43135],"tags":[108921,53909,111025],"class_list":["post-276551","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-craftandcriticism","category-features","category-literary-criticism","category-readinglists","tag-independent-press","tag-independent-publishers","tag-the-independent-press-top-40-bestsellers-fiction"],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5rKFr-19Wv","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/lithub.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/fiction-scaled.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lithub.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276551","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lithub.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lithub.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lithub.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/74"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lithub.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=276551"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lithub.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276551\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lithub.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/269719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lithub.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=276551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lithub.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=276551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lithub.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=276551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":276588,"date":"2026-09-03T08:00:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T12:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lithub.com\/?p=276588"},"modified":"2026-09-02T21:11:42","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T01:11:42","slug":"heres-the-2026-shortlist-for-the-caine-prize-for-african-writing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lithub.com\/heres-the-2026-shortlist-for-the-caine-prize-for-african-writing\/","title":{"rendered":"Here\u2019s the 2026 shortlist for the Caine Prize for African Writing."},"content":{"rendered":" Today, the Caine Prize for African Writing, which awards \u00a310,000 annually to the best short story by an African writer living on the continent or in the diaspora, has announced its 2026 shortlist. These five writers were selected from a record 407 entries from 27 African countries:<\/p>\n Gladwell Pamba<\/strong> (Kenya) for “The Last Shop,” Jahazi Press <\/em>(August 2024);<\/p>\n Melara Mvogdobo<\/strong> (Cameroon) for “Dieu Merci!<\/a>,” Literatur.Review <\/em>(August, 2025);<\/p>\n Akinwande Jordan<\/strong> (Nigeria) for “So Long Now It\u2019s Starting To Look Like Eternity,” Naira Books (February 2026);<\/p>\n Yasmine Zohdi<\/strong> (Egypt) for “The Absence of Stains<\/a>,” The Republic <\/em>(August 2025); and<\/p>\n Simbarashe Steyn Kundizeza<\/strong> (Zimbabwe) for “The Blue Fighter<\/a>,” The Shallow Tales Review, <\/em>(June 2024).<\/p>\n The winner of the 2026 Caine Prize will be announced at a ceremony in London in October and will then be presented with the Prize in their country of origin. Congratulations to the finalists!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Today, the Caine Prize for African Writing, which awards \u00a310,000 annually to the best short story by an African writer living on the continent or in the diaspora, has announced its 2026 shortlist. These five writers were selected from a<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":74,"featured_media":276589,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[43201,43092,43646],"tags":[46682,16790],"class_list":["post-276588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-book-news-newsandculture","category-newsandculture","category-the-hub","tag-the-caine-prize","tag-the-caine-prize-for-african-writing"],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5rKFr-19X6","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/lithub.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/caineprize-copy.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lithub.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276588","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lithub.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lithub.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lithub.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/74"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lithub.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=276588"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lithub.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276588\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lithub.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/276589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lithub.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=276588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lithub.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=276588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lithub.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=276588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":276575,"date":"2026-09-03T06:30:26","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T10:30:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lithub.com\/?p=276575"},"modified":"2026-09-03T09:03:52","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T13:03:52","slug":"lit-hub-daily-september-3-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lithub.com\/lit-hub-daily-september-3-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Lit Hub Daily: September 3, 2026"},"content":{"rendered":" TODAY: In 1897, Sally Benson is born. <\/span>\n How J.P. Donleavy\u2018s The Ginger Man\u00a0clawed its way to press: “He maintained The Ginger Man, a serious work of fiction, was being misrepresented, damaging the book and its prospects and his reputation as a serious writer.” | Lit Hub Biography<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":276582,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[45236],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-276575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lit-hub-daily"],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5rKFr-19WT","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/lithub.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/sallybenson.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lithub.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276575","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lithub.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lithub.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lithub.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lithub.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=276575"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lithub.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276575\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lithub.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/276582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lithub.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=276575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lithub.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=276575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lithub.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=276575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":276573,"date":"2026-09-03T05:10:06","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T09:10:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lithub.com\/?p=276573"},"modified":"2026-09-03T07:08:27","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T11:08:27","slug":"the-latest-literary-scam-emailing-the-long-dead-legends-of-20th-century-literature__trashed-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lithub.com\/the-latest-literary-scam-emailing-the-long-dead-legends-of-20th-century-literature__trashed-2\/","title":{"rendered":"The Latest Literary Scam: Emailing the Long-Dead Legends of 20th-Century Literature"},"content":{"rendered":" In these first few years of the AI era, tens of thousands of published writers have received emails that begin something like this:<\/p>\n Dear Fred,<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve long admired your novels, but feel that Windsong Malaise<\/i> is the best yet. You etch so sensitively the tensions between the heroine and her brother, and it\u2019s remarkable how he becomes a sort of unconscious doppelganger. Your dialogue feels wonderfully real, evoking the emotions we have all felt when blocked from our dreams by dystopian reality. This is a book worthy to stand with Barthelme, Barth, and Pynchon.<\/p>\n On and on it goes, thoughtfully praising the very aspects of Windsong Malaise <\/i>that you feel most proud of. Such a letter is all the more enticing if the book it concerns is an earlier one that reviewers neglected, and now at last someone sees its unique qualities. Only at the very end of the message does your correspondent mention that he or she works for a federation of 137 book clubs that wants to make Windsong Malaise <\/i>their next choice to read. Of course there will be a very small fee to cover the cost of printing the necessary promotional materials. . . .<\/p>\n Confess: the first time you fell for it. Or almost fell for it. Some of these letters are uncannily well written.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve received many such letters, but a recent one was unexpected. A decade ago, I had the privilege of writing a forward to a new edition of George Orwell\u2019s classic memoir of fighting in the Spanish Civil War, Homage to Catalonia<\/i>. When the age of book promotion scams dawned, an AI engine clearly had read the book but did not know that Orwell had died in 1950. It could not find an email address for him, but it could for the far less illustrious guy whose name also appeared on the cover. Hence, one morning the message below appeared in my inbox. This makes me wonder: if one of us writes a preface to a new edition of Hamlet<\/i>, will we receive an email that begins, \u201cDear Will\u201d? Try it and see.<\/p>\n ————————————————–<\/p>\n From: John Clerk, johnclerk2030@\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013.com Hi George,<\/p>\n I recently revisited\u00a0Homage to Catalonia<\/i>, and what continues to stand out is the raw, firsthand tension between idealism and disillusionment as your experience on the front lines evolves into a deeper confrontation with propaganda, political division, and the fragile nature of truth itself. That combination of lived history and moral clarity is what makes the book so enduring.<\/p>\n Because of that, your work is a natural fit for carefully curated Goodreads Listopia lists focused on themes like \u201cwar memoirs with political insight,\u201d \u201cbooks about propaganda and truth,\u201d \u201cessential political nonfiction,\u201d and \u201cfirsthand accounts of historical conflict.\u201d These are categories where readers actively search for meaningful, perspective-shaping works like yours.<\/p>\n To give some context, Goodreads Listopia is made up of public, reader-created lists where books are grouped by very specific themes, ideas, or historical topics. Readers browse these lists every day when deciding what to read next especially when they\u2019re looking for something insightful or relevant to current discussions. These lists are permanent and continue attracting attention over time, making them a powerful tool for ongoing discovery.<\/p>\n Positioning your book on the right Listopia lists offers lasting benefits:<\/p>\n \u2022 <\/strong>It places your work directly in front of readers already searching for these themes For a book with such historical depth and continued relevance, this kind of targeted, long-term visibility ensures it keeps reaching new generations of readers.<\/p>\n What I do is strategically position books onto the most relevant, high-traffic Listopia lists so they\u2019re discovered by the right audience. Authors in history, politics, and nonfiction have seen consistent improvements in discoverability through this approach because it aligns directly with how readers explore and engage with these topics.<\/p>\n If you\u2019d like me to take care of this for you, just reply\u00a0YES, and I\u2019ll handle everything with no extra effort needed on your end.<\/p>\n I\u2019d love to include your book before the current list placements close.<\/p>\n Best regards, In these first few years of the AI era, tens of thousands of published writers have received emails that begin something like this: Dear Fred, \u201cI\u2019ve long admired your novels, but feel that Windsong Malaise is the best yet. You<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5615,"featured_media":276342,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[43069,11,43101,43070,43445],"tags":[11221,20922,112092,7467,32118,44699,12676,112093,169,106702],"class_list":["post-276573","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-craftandcriticism","category-fullwidth-slider","category-history","category-literary-criticism","category-technology","tag-adam-hochschild","tag-ai","tag-email-scams","tag-george-orwell","tag-homage-to-catalonia","tag-literary-scams","tag-scams","tag-the-feature-image-was-not-created-with-ai","tag-the-internet","tag-what-are-we-even-doing"],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5rKFr-19WR","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/lithub.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/George-Orwell-on-a-computer.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lithub.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276573","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lithub.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lithub.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lithub.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5615"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lithub.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=276573"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lithub.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276573\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lithub.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=276573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lithub.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=276573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lithub.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=276573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":276532,"date":"2026-09-03T05:09:36","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T09:09:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lithub.com\/?p=276532"},"modified":"2026-09-02T21:30:27","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T01:30:27","slug":"5-book-reviews-you-need-to-read-this-week-9-3-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lithub.com\/5-book-reviews-you-need-to-read-this-week-9-3-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Book Reviews You Need to Read This Week"},"content":{"rendered":" Our bevy of brilliant reviews this week includes Dwight Garner on Marlon James\u2019s The Disappearers<\/em>, Kate Tuttle on John Dos Passos\u2019s U.S.A.<\/em>\u00a0trilogy, Parul Sehgal on Rachel Cusk\u2019s\u00a0The Life of M<\/em>, Laura Miller on Kai Bird\u2019s\u00a0American Scoundrel<\/em>, and Alexandra Harris on Colm T\u00f3ib\u00edn\u2019s\u00a0The Bridge<\/em>.<\/p>\n
\n2. The Odyssey<\/em><\/a> by Homer, Emily Wilson (Transl.) (W.W. Norton)
\n3. I Who Have Never Known Men<\/em><\/a> by Jacqueline Harpman (Transit Books)
\n4. The Poison Daughter<\/em><\/a> by Sheila Masterson (Slowburn)
\n5. John of John<\/em><\/a> by Douglas Stuart (Grove Press)
\n6. Heart the Lover<\/em><\/a> by Lily King (Grove Press)<\/span>
\n7. The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion: Vol. 1<\/em><\/a> by Beth Brower (Rhysdon Press)
\n8. Stoner<\/em><\/a> by John Williams (NYRB Classics)
\n9. The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion: Vol. 2<\/em><\/a> by Beth Brower (Rhysdon Press)
\n10. Small Things Like These<\/em><\/a> by Claire Keegan (Grove Press)
\n11. I See You’ve Called in Dead<\/em><\/a> by John Kenney (Zibby Publishing)
\n12. The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion: Vol. 3<\/em><\/a> by Beth Brower (Rhysdon Press)
\n<\/span>13. On the Calculation of Volume (Book I)<\/em><\/a> by Solvej Balle, Barbara J. Haveland (Transl.) (New Directions)
\n14. Helen of Nowhere<\/em><\/a> by Makenna Goodman (Coffee House Press)
\n<\/span>15. Taiwan Travelogue: A Novel<\/em><\/a> by Shuang-zi Yang (Graywolf Press)
\n16. The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion: Vol. 4<\/em><\/a> by Beth Brower (Rhysdon Press)
\n<\/span>17. Lights Out<\/em><\/a> (Into Darkness Series #1) by Navessa Allen (Slowburn)
\n18. Writers & Lovers<\/em><\/a> by Lily King (Grove Press)
\n<\/span>19. The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion: Vol. 5<\/em><\/a> by Beth Brower (Rhysdon Press)
\n<\/span>20. The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion: Vol. 6<\/em><\/a> by Beth Brower (Rhysdon Press)<\/span>
\n21. Fruit Fly<\/em><\/a> by Josh Silver (Crooked Lane)
\n22. Culpability<\/em><\/a> by Bruce Holsinger (Spiegel & Grau)<\/span>
\n23. Scythe & Sparrow<\/em><\/a> (Collector’s Edition) (The Ruinous Love Trilogy) by Brynne Weaver (Slowburn)
\n24. The Berry Pickers<\/em><\/a> by Amanda Peters (Catapult)
\n<\/span>25. Foster<\/em><\/a> by Claire Keegan (Grove Press)
\n<\/span>26. The Overstory<\/em><\/a> by Richard Powers (W.W. Norton)
\n<\/span>27. Orbital<\/em><\/a> by Samantha Harvey (Grove Press)
\n28. Victorian Psycho: A Novel<\/em><\/a> by Virginia Feito (Liveright)<\/span>
\n29. Saving the Rain: Deluxe Limited Edition<\/em><\/a> (Crimson Ridge #4) by Elliott Rose (Kensington)
\n30. My Brilliant Friend<\/em><\/a> by Elena Ferrante (Europa Editions)<\/span>
\n31. The Plight Before Christmas: Deluxe Limited Edition: An Un-EX-pected Sugar and Spice Christmas Romance<\/em><\/a> (Holiday Hijinx #1) by Kate Stewart (Kensington)
\n32. The Employees<\/em><\/a> by Olga Ravn (New Directions)<\/span>
\n33. The Butcher Legacy: A Dr. Wren Muller Novel<\/em><\/a> by Alaina Urquhart (Zando)
\n34. Game On<\/em><\/a> by Navessa Allen (Slowburn)
\n35. The Anniversary: A Novel<\/em><\/a> by Andrea Bajani (Other Press)
\n36. Carmilla, Deluxe Edition: The Dark Sapphic Romance that Inspired Dracula<\/em><\/a> by Sheridan Le Fanu (Pushkin Press)
\n<\/span>37. Kindred<\/em><\/a> by Octavia E. Butler (Beacon Press)
\n38. Portrait of a Witch Undone<\/em><\/a> by K. S. Shay (Erewhon Books)
\n39. We Were Forbidden<\/em><\/a> by Jacqueline Harpman (Transit)<\/span>
\n40. Butcher & Blackbird: The Ruinous Love Trilogy<\/em><\/a> by Brynne Weaver (Slowburn)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/lithub.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Untitled-design-2-1.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\n
\nSent:\u00a0Monday, April 20, 2026 11:03 AM
\nTo: ahochschild@\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013.com
\nSubject:\u00a0George, when truth meets war\u2026 readers keep looking<\/p>\n
\n\u2022 <\/strong>It increases \u201cWant to Read\u201d ads, strengthening visibility across Goodreads
\n\u2022 <\/strong>It encourages organic readership and thoughtful reviews over time
\n\u2022 <\/strong>And it continues working in the background without ads or ongoing promotion<\/p>\n
\nClerk<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
![\"The](\"https:\/\/s26162.pcdn.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/08\/44782eca7910cbb372efc07f64591cfd-197x300.gif\")
<\/p>\n