TODAY: In 1924, James Baldwin is born.
- James Tate Hill recommends five great audiobooks to make your summer road trip just a little bit better. | Lit Hub
- “This monstrous development of technology has brought a completely new kind of poverty to human life.” Walter Benjamin on the meaning of “barbaric” after WWI. | Lit Hub
- “The joy that can be had from cooking never existed for me until I was able to escape my dysphoria.” Veronica Scott Esposito on what cooking taught her about transitioning. | Lit Hub
- The museum of coincidence: Stefan Draschan photographs people who look like the paintings they’re looking it. | Lit Hub
- “Afong Moy serves as a bridge, a foil, and then equally as a window, to America’s cultural perception of China.” On the life of the first Chinese woman in America. | Lit Hub
- Tom Chatfield traces the evolution of the technothriller, “a fertile colliding ground for technology, conspiracy, crime, politics, the factual and the fantastical.” | CrimeReads
- A new novel from Richard Russo, a history of the most misunderstood punctuation mark, and a memoir by Ben Folds all feature among the Best Reviewed Books of the Week. | Book Marks
- “Catcher in the Rye is not only no longer beloved, it has become something even more tragic: uncool.” Dana Czapnik on how to read Salinger’s classic coming-of-age tale today. | The Guardian
- In which 31 poets recommend 31 books of poetry—one for every day in August. | Electric Literature
- “Nearly as soon as the ink was dry on those first semicolons, they began to proliferate.” On the birth of Kurt Vonnegut’s least favorite punctuation mark. | The Paris Review
- Curious about Marianne Williamson’s books but not curious enough to read them? Say no more. | EW
- A first-edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone with two typos (including a misspelling of “Philosopher” on the back cover) sold at auction for £28,500. | CNN
- “Her novels seek justice but remain highly skeptical of its possibility, at least by literary means”: Reflecting on the legacy of the late Croatian author Daša Drndić. | The Nation
- Has the spirit of Francisco Franco left Spain? The country’s most beloved living author, Javier Marías, has reason to doubt it. | The New York Times Magazine
Also on Lit Hub: What the beginning of an Ebola outbreak looks like • The Astrology Book Club: what to read this month, based on your sign • Read an excerpt from Ruchika Tomar’s debut novel A Prayer for Travelers.
