Lit Hub Daily: July 6, 2022

TODAY: In 1937, Bessie Head, often considered Botswana’s most influential writer, is born.  

• Lit Hub’s Most Anticipated Books of 2022, Sweater Weather Edition—or, 230 books to read before 2023. | Lit Hub Reading Lists

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• Gabriel Pasquini peeps into the world of Doug Metzger, and his “extraordinary, dogged, lonely—perhaps hubristic?—quest” to host the most ambitious literary podcast in the world. | Lit Hub History

• Rachel Yoder doesn’t bully herself into writing, and more revelations from the Lit Hub Questionnaire. | Lit Hub

• Readings to inspire democratic struggle in the face of tyranny. | Lit Hub Politics

• “The tale of tycoon spacefarers, a dying planet, and artificial intelligence resonates in strange and interesting ways with our current moment.” Lincoln Michel on John Wyndham’s Stowaway to Mars. | Lit Hub Criticism

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• Matt Rowland Hill finds inspiration at the intersection of literary and spiritual canons. | Lit Hub Religion

• Mohamed Shoair considers the cultural and political impact of Naguib Mahfouz, whose work “poses questions about the limits of truth and fiction, death and life, sanity and madness.” | Lit Hub Politics

• The best new crime novels coming out this month. | CrimeReads

• New titles from Becky Chambers, T. Kingfisher, and Julia Armfield all feature among July’s Best Sci-Fi and Fantasy Books. | Book Marks

• “Stories are effective weapons, so our usage of them must come with responsibility. This is particularly true of the stories we tell to young people.” Jonathan Russell Clark on the lies of Go Ask Alice and Jay’s Journal. | Esquire

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• Read an early short story by Shirley Jackson. | The New Yorker

• Is the “apron-tugger” the new bodice-ripper? Bettina Makalintal considers the rise of the food-themed romance novel. | Eater

• “I went into a lot of rooms feeling or being made to feel as though I was lucky to be there—particularly as someone who saw very few people like me in those rooms—so how could I ask for more than what I was offered?” Nicole Chung offers negotiation tips for writers. | The Atlantic

• “I find it very soothing to put stuff on the table.” CJ Hauser on writing about her life. | TIME

• Books that give us insight into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. | The Guardian

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• Lauren Arrington takes a look at the women who reported on the Vietnam War and “returned, like the soldiers, nursing wounds that their countries would refuse to acknowledge.” | Public Books

Also on Lit Hub: Tarell Alvin McCraney on the late Randall Kenan’s embrace of curiosity • Great women through the ages: a historical fiction reading list • Read from Gabrielle Zevin’s latest novel, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow

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