TODAY: In 1966, Brian O’Nolan (AKA Flann O’Brien) dies.
- THESE TIMES: In Brazil, they take to their balconies each night in protest · Darin Strauss on how to survive being stuck at home with twin 12-year-olds (hint: TV) · ON THE VBC: On Sheltering, Maris Kreizman talks to debut novelist Alexandra Chang · Librarian Stephen Schmidt talks to Douglas Stuart about his book Shuggie Bain, on Rekindled. | Life in a Pandemic
- “It is inconceivable to me that Chez Panisse might not reopen after this once unimagined siege…” Fanny Singer on growing up in her mother’s legendary restaurant. | Lit Hub Food
- “Wherever its uncitizens are, there the Middle World is.” Breyten Breytenbach on exile as a home in itself. | Lit Hub
- We may be here for a while. These excellent April books are here to keep you company. | Lit Hub
- The operatic rise and fall of Tiger Woods: Michael Bamberger on the power and scandal around one of the world’s great athletes. | Lit Hub Sports
- In this month’s Astrology Book Club, all signs point to staying home and reading. | Lit Hub
- Jane Eyre, Sweet Days of Discipline, Curious George, and more rapid-fire book recs from Rebecca Dinerstein Knight. | Book Marks
- Weed vs. Books: If marijuana dispensaries are considered essential during the pandemic, why aren’t bookstores? | LA Times
- “We are here because our leaders have made mistakes which have had ghastly consequences—cripplings and death and corruption.” In Kurt Vonnegut’s earliest recorded speech, he implored the government to “let the killing stop.” | The Nation
- One way to cope with the fear and uncertainty of impending fatherhood: read all of Michael Connelly’s Bosch novels. | Vox
- “When I try to ponder the future I get this kind of vertigo.” Tom Perotta on The Leftovers (in which 2% of the population mysteriously disappears), and what comes after a crisis. | Boston Globe
- Eve Babitz on celebrity, masculinity, and Hollywood. | Bookforum
- May Alcott Nieriker, who inspired the character of Amy March, was a “feminist force, fostering transatlantic networks for independent women travelers.” | Los Angeles Review of Books
- Here’s how public libraries—leading the ranks of “second responders”—are responding to coronavirus. | The Atlantic
Also on Lit Hub: How to write a collaborative essay • Yoko Tawada in conversation with Madeleine Thien • “Savage”: a story by Kamila Shamsie.
