Lit Hub Daily: December 10, 2021

• Alex Lockwood on the Gustave Flaubert novel-that-wasn’t, “an encyclopedic panorama of human stupidity” that surely inspired the likes of Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure. | Lit Hub

• The new Fifth Siren podcast recommends books about the past, present, and looming future of Venice. | Lit Hub Reading Lists

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• “When you’re a young girl, trying to process what your gender means to the world, this is an incredibly tempting milieu.” Rachel Kapelke-Dale considers the toxic dream of the ballerina. | Lit Hub

• A constellation of stars: Jennifer Clements muses on the new film adaptation of her 2014 novel, Prayers for the Stolen. | Lit Hub Film

• Joan Didion, Rachel Kushner, Hanif Abdurraqib, Ann Patchett, and Jenny Diski all feature among the Best Reviewed Essay Collections of 2021. | Book Marks

• The best true crime books of 2021, featuring works from Elon Green, Audrey Clare Farley, Mikita Brottman, and more. | CrimeReads

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• Kylie Warner considers Shirley Hazzard’s stories of the hypocrisies of bureaucratic culture. | The Point

• “Poetry out of testimony.” Vivian Gornick on the power and popularity of personal narrative. | The Yale Review

• Amanda Gorman breaks down her writing habits. | Bustle

• “It feels extremely gratifying and fulfilling to now be the person who’s created something, rather than a piece of someone else’s vision.” Emily Ratajkowski on her essay collection, literary inspirations, and patriarchal standards. | Vice

• On the life and literary career of Harriet the Spy creator Louise Fitzhugh. | The New Yorker

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• Francesca Wade on Gertrude Stein’s lesser-known notebooks, which gave “fresh insight into Stein’s private struggles with friendships, lovers, and her own identity.” | The Times Literary Supplement

• Who were Shakespeare’s female editors? | The Guardian

Also on Lit Hub: David Kirby on writing the unknowable • Mike Roe on the shows (and memes) that followed 30 Rock • Read from Lisa Harding’s latest novel, Bright Burning Things