Lit Hub Daily: December 18, 2018

• The best of the best (of the year): the ultimate best books of 2018, by the numbers. | Lit Hub
• Scholastique Mukasonga on the power and privilege of a loaf of bread in rural Rwanda. | Lit Hub
• “Writing an essay is its own exercise in grieving. It never ends up as you hoped it would.” Amy Jo Burns on Alexander Chee, Sigrid Nunez, and grieving for a friend and mentor. | Lit Hub
• “People with Witzelsucht compulsively pun, make borderline offensive remarks, and become excessively familiar with strangers.” A case for giving your dad a break this holiday season. | Lit Hub
• The latest edition of our series of new poetry by indigenous women, curated by Natalie Diaz. | Lit Hub
• Rounding up the 15 best psychological thrillers from 2018, including new works from Tana French, Megan Abbott, Jessica Knoll, and many more. | CrimeReads
• Chicago Review of Books Editor Adam Morgan brings us the 10 Best Book Reviews of 2018. | Book Marks
• From Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club to John Cheever’s “The Swimmer,” Ann Hood recommends Five Books Filled With Food. | Book Marks
• “This is how all bad relationships should end. Just: helicopter. Credits. No contact with civilians.” Sandra Newman on the fitting departure of Buffy’s lamest boyfriend. | The Cut
• In an interview with the New York Times, Alice Walker professed her admiration for a book by anti-Semitic conspiracy theorist (and lizard people truther) David Icke. Woof. | Tablet
• English folk band The Unthanks has created a musical walking tour to accompany Emily Brontë poems. | The Guardian
• Merriam-Webster’s word of the year is “justice,” which people looked up 74% more this year than in 2017. Wonder why . . . | Merriam-Webster
• Private in a public space: How European cafés became havens for Jewish intellectuals. | The New Yorker
• Celeste Ng uses too many em-dashes, (obviously) prefers Baldwin to Kerouac, and reads Agatha Christie on holiday. | The TLS
• From Ariana Grande to Nina Simone to Outkast: Oyinkan Braithwaite shares her playlist for My Sister, the Serial Killer. | Largehearted Boy

Also on Lit Hub: On But That’s Another Story, Jodie Foster talks to Will Schwalbe about her all-time favorite book • Our favorite Literary Hub stories of the year • Read from The Dakota Winters