TODAY: In 1784, Samuel Johnson dies.
- Just in time for the holidays we have found our new favorite cookbook: the 1970s classic Cooking for Orgies and Other Large Parties. | Lit Hub Food
- The rise of the downfall of the dirtbag heiress: Chelsea Davis on a uniquely American obsession. | Lit Hub Criticism
- “Each dance and its music belong to a time and place.” The wonderful Gary Snyder on the sacred power of a little bit of dancing. | Lit Hub
- “Hell, a man don’t have to go so far as spruce needles to survive.” From Jim Christy’s classic account of the far North. | Lit Hub Travel
- “The other world is the one we’re already exploring, plundering—even ruining.” Christopher Schaberg on imagining the Anthropocene beyond Earth. | Lit Hub
- Bethanne Patrick talks to John Becker about the family legacy of America’s favorite cookbook, The Joy of Cooking. | Lit Hub Food
- Rounding up all the best international crime fiction of 2019, perfect for the armchair traveler. | CrimeReads
- Seth’s Clyde Fans, Chris Ware’s Rusty Brown, and George Takai’s They Called Us Enemy all feature among the Best Reviewed Graphic Literature of 2019. | Book Marks Best of 2019
- Kopano Matiwa’s acclaimed 2008 debut novel Coconut, about two black women who grow up in the white suburbs of Johannesburg, is getting a film adaptation. | OkayAfrica
- “Carrère is masterly both at singling out the telling detail and of grasping and conveying his subject as a whole”: Robert Gottlieb on the remarkable and admirably imperfect writings of Emmanuel Carrère. | The New York Times
- When it comes to portraits of Jane Austen, how do scholars separate the “definitelys” from the “maybes”? | The Times Literary Supplement
- “Celebrate writing and writers you love. Don’t go out of your way to be an asshole or devalue writing that matters to other readers. And don’t buy books on Amazon!” Kelly Link on returning to her bookselling roots. | Poets & Writers
- “It struck me, when I finished the novel, that long before the protests that exiled him Murugan was already a dead writer.” Read a profile of Tamil writer Perumal Murugan. | The New Yorker
- “Impeachment is a political process as much as a legal one—and it duly involves two linguistic struggles.” | The Economist
- Kelly Link on independent bookstores and what makes a good literary citizen. | Poets & Writers
Also on Lit Hub: What does the future of transportation look like? • Lit Hub Recommends • Read a story from Claire Rudy Foster’s collection Shine of the Ever Arc.
