Lit Hub Daily: December 20, 2023

It’s time for another Lit Hub tradition, in which Emily Temple scours all the Best Of lists to tally the Ultimate Best Books of 2023. | Lit Hub Reading Lists

Thirty years after its premiere, Paul Morton considers how Steven Spielberg’s Schindler’s List has endured, for better and for worse. | Lit Hub Film & TV

Sukhada Tatke on the cautious optimism of poet-philosopher Lewis Thomas: “To step into his universe is to shed preconceived notions of ourselves, our existence, and our world.” | Lit Hub Science

Checks and balances? Daniel Kiel and Lori Ringhand discuss the state of the Supreme Court. | Lit Hub Politics

“Obviously, I was burning with curiosity about what Richard’s book would be about. I was also wary.” Matthew Hays reflects on the complicated experience of reading a late friend’s novel. | Lit Hub Memoir

“The premise is simple: Show up with a book, commit to vanquishing a chapter or two and chat with strangers about what you’ve just read.” An evening at a “reading party.” | The New York Times

Writers, artists, and filmmakers weigh in on their best film experiences of the year. | Metrograph

“Smith diligently repudiates a triumphalist narrative of progress—the present casts its long shadow over the novel—but she offers no theory of history in its place.” Rosemarie Ho on The Fraud and the condition of the social novel. | The Point

Ramona Pierce reports on a student-led campaign against book bans in Kentucky schools. | The Nation

Mr. Darcy: Canceled? | Slate