TODAY: In 1974, Mexican poet Rosario Castellanos Figueroa dies.
- R.O. Kwon courts internet controversy with the following take: what if we shelved our books spine in. |Lit Hub
- 1921. 1946. 1984. 2018… the more we change, the more we stay the same. Gabrielle Bellot offers a genealogy of the totalitarian novel. |Lit Hub
- From the Overlook to Netherfield, a brief tour of the grandest buildings in literature. |Lit Hub
- When you’re asked to design a cover after others have tried: Colleen Reinhart on starts from scratch on Courtney Maum’s Touch. |Lit Hub
- “Keep an eye on the weather; there’ll be a storm later.” Jon McGregor on his five favorite books set in small English villages. | Book Marks
- “You have to admire the chutzpah of swearing in a court of law . . . and professing with a straight face that you shot your cheating boyfriend four times by accident.” The strange case of Jean Harris, the schoolmistress who snapped. | CrimeReads
- On Saturday, pro-Infowars protesters ransacked London’s largest socialist bookstore, Bookmarks. Community members have responded with donations and “overwhelming” support. | The Guardian
- “This is where librarians get librarian-y.” On the squad of literary sleuths who track down half-remembered books. | Atlas Obscura
- “In the months before his accident, she imagined he must have sensed himself plummeting toward some kind of end.” Read an excerpt from Laura van den Berg’s The Third Hotel. | Buzzfeed Reader
- While TV shows are often referred to as “novelistic,” a new line of books has been designed to resemble seasons of TV. | Vox
- “[She was] a major public intellectual—responsible, self-questioning, and morally passionate.” Sandra M. Gilbert on the prose of Adrienne Rich. | The Paris Review
- A film adaptation of Nella Larsen’s classic Harlem Renaissance novel Passing is in the works, with Tessa Thompson and Ruth Negga attached to star. | Deadline
- First there were millennial pink covers, then “bouquet books”—now, the next big thing in book design might be “Gen-Z yellow” (yes, really). | Bustle
