Lit Hub Daily: August 11, 2021

• “To traffic in the baffling is to maintain a certain endurance for that which doesn’t yield much, maybe any, result.” Kyle Beachy reflects on Marilynne Robinson’s Housekeeping and the theology of skateboarding. | Lit Hub

  Article continues after advertisement

• Siri Hustvedt considers the evolution of hate-speech narratives, from 17th-century witch trials to the scourge of QAnon. | Lit Hub Politics

• Charlie English reflects on Hitler’s murderous endeavor to impose his artistic vision on Germany. | Lit Hub History

• Eulogy for a cousin: SNL star Cecily Strong pays tribute to a late family member. | Lit Hub

• If literary writers want to “create fiction that confronts a new awareness of hard problems,” they have a lot to learn from genre writers. | Lit Hub Craft

  Article continues after advertisement

• In praise of “Sick Lit”: Eleanor Henderson recommends memoirs by women that explore chronic illness, addiction, and trauma. | Lit Hub Reading Lists

• Emily Oster in praise of parenting with data. | Lit Hub Virtual Book Channel

• The Art of the Hand-Sell: Booksellers from six indies rave about their favorite reads. | Book Marks

• Veronica Bond celebrates the atmospheric thrills of literature’s gothic castles. | CrimeReads

• What if the best beach read is… nothing? Alex McElroy makes the case for leaving your books at home this one time. | The Atlantic

  Article continues after advertisement

• “The history of book reviewing is a history of frustration and disappointment. Why should our era be different?” On the state of the book review. | n+1

• Percival Everett discusses honest art, inequity in publishing, well-meaning racism, and the quest for the novel nobody likes. | Booth

• Cecily Strong recommends her most memorable reads. | Elle

• Tiana Nobile, Ansley Moon, and Marci Calabretta Cancio-Bello talk about being Asian American adoptee poets, identity, and self-care in the time of the pandemic. | Catapult

• “It was quite threatening.” Authors speak out on Goodreads-focused extortion schemes. | TIME

  Article continues after advertisement

• Has the pandemic changed our approach to physical books? | The Washington Post

Also on Lit Hub: Kit Mackintosh dives into the subculture of Brooklyn drill music • Angel Khoury considers what it means to evoke a place in literature • Read from A.K. Blakemore’s debut novel, The Manningtree Witches