Lit Hub Daily: August 3, 2021

TODAY: In 1887, English poet Rupert Chawner Brooke, whom W. B. Yeats reportedly described as “the handsomest young man in England,” is born.  

• Your August literary film and TV watchlist features Hot Priest recast as Lord Merlin, Sandra Oh as the chair of an English department, some truly bonkers CGI, and more. | Lit Hub TV

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• A whiskey highball for Carson McCullers, plus other signature cocktails—and scents—of famous authors. | Lit Hub

• “Praying itself is an act of faith. So, too, is the act of writing, and falling asleep in the same bed with someone who doesn’t seem to like you anymore.” James Tate Hill on the painful balancing act between the personal and creative. | Lit Hub

• 21 new books coming out this week means 21 reasons to visit (or call!) your local indie. | The Hub

• Zach Schultz grieves the loss of Anthony Veasna So and marvels at his debut collection, “as much a critical contribution to contemporary queer literature as a loving tribute to his community of Cambodian Americans.” | Lit Hub

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• Samantha Montano considers post-Katrina New Orleans and the insidiousness of disaster capitalism, which uses the language of rebuilding to line the pockets of the wealthy. | Lit Hub Politics

• New titles from Shirley Jackson, Alexandra Kleeman, Stephen Graham Jones, and Charlie Jane Anders all feature among August’s Best Sci-Fi and Fantasy. | Book Marks

• Lisa Lutz rediscovers the gin-soaked screwball mysteries of 1930s-gal-about-town Craig Rice. | CrimeReads

• WATCH: Patricia Santana talks to Ona Russell (in a tent) about why young adult fiction is for everyone. | Lit Hub Virtual Book Channel

• Unpacking the history of summer reading: how the season inspired a whole genre of its own. | New York Times

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• “We tend to think that evil people can be easily identified, and people who do evil things come around and look a specific way. But evil is not done just by one kind of person.” Silvia Moreno-Garcia on the possibilities of noir. | Kirkus

• Five books by Black authors that shed light on Canada’s historical involvement in the transatlantic slave trade as well as contemporary Black life. | CBC

• Alex Jung sifts through the legacy of Anthony Veasna through the lens of those who knew him. | Vulture

• Private equity is getting into book clubs—Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine sold for “north of $900 million” to Blackstone Group Inc. | Variety

• “There’s danger anytime we acknowledge our ghosts.” Azareen Van der Vliet Oloomi and Alexandra Kleeman in conversation. | BOMB

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• A reading list of working class literature, whose authors are, too often, “only ever allowed conditional access to the art world.” | The Guardian

• Two new books engage with the question of what makes up urban spaces and how form and function intersect in their design. | Los Angeles Review of Books

Also on Lit Hub: Daniel Sherrell navigates love and desperation in the time of climate change • Azareen Van der Vliet Oloomi finds lessons in history, from Tehran to Orange County • Read from Ash Davidson’s debut novel, Damnation Spring

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