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:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lithub.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/276342"}],"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 Brought to you by\u00a0Book Marks<\/a>, Lit Hub\u2019s home for book reviews.<\/p>\n *<\/p>\n \u201cIn the souk that is contemporary publishing, much attention has gone recently to the minimalists and the tinkerers, to writers of short novels steeped in irony. It\u2019s been a meal of small plates, reflective of short attention spans.<\/p>\n The Jamaican writer Marlon James\u2019s new novel,\u00a0The Disappearers<\/em>, at 600-plus pages, is instead a maximalist\u2019s banquet: It is humane, blood-flecked, disturbing and sustaining. It takes James 90 pages to say hello. It\u2019s another 70 pages before his story settles into your guts and begins to twist them. It\u2019s yet another 150 before you fully comprehend his loping authority and the scale of his ambitions. Booster rockets fall away. Disparate coordinates begin to converge.<\/p>\n Why not just say it? With this novel about gay experience and murderous homophobia in Jamaica and elsewhere during the 1980s and \u201990s, James has written a masterpiece, the novel of the decade and possibly of the century thus far.<\/p>\n It deserves to be talked about alongside Salman Rushdie\u2019s\u00a0Midnight\u2019s Children<\/em>, for its tumult of language and its crisscrossing post-colonial themes; Toni Morrison\u2019s\u00a0Song of Solomon<\/em>\u00a0(James picks up on a revenge scenario from that novel); and William Faulkner\u2019s\u00a0Absalom, Absalom!<\/em>\u2014the greatest American novel, I\u2019d argue\u2014for many reasons but especially for the way James, like Faulkner, hammers his themes like a Vulcan, rolling over them relentlessly from new and sometimes oblique angles, advancing and enlarging his attack each time. This is another way of saying\u00a0The Disappearers\u00a0<\/em>was one of the signal reading experiences of my adult life. It sank knives deep into my heart. I\u2019m still in recovery from it.<\/p>\n \u2026<\/p>\n \u201cThis novel is related in coarse, blunt and wired language: the darker vocabularies we hold back. It\u2019s a hard book to talk about in a family newspaper. One feels like Norman Mailer coerced into using the fig-leaf term \u2018fug\u2019 in\u00a0The Naked and the Dead<\/em>, or the street gang member in\u00a0West Side Story<\/em>\u00a0who shouts at Officer Krupke, \u2018Krup you!\u2019 I suppose you could call James\u2019s language slang, which Carl Sandburg described as \u2018language that rolls up its sleeves, spits on its hands and goes to work.\u2019 But hands are not what is spat upon here.<\/p>\n \u2026<\/p>\n \u201cPatricia Highsmith, whose baleful influence is felt in this novel, wrote that \u2018because of what they have been through, all homosexuals are blood brothers across time.\u2019 James, a long-haul trucker of the human spirit, carves that notion into his novel\u2019s chest. You don\u2019t finish\u00a0The Disappearers<\/em>. It finishes you.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2013Dwight Garner on Marlon James\u2019\u00a0The Disappearers<\/strong><\/em><\/a>\u00a0(The New York Times<\/em><\/a>)<\/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
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/s26162.pcdn.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/09\/U.S.A-200x300.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n