TODAY: In 1752, satirical novelist and playwright Frances Burney is born.
- Stephen King wields prolific mastery over many genres, and yet the word “literary” still eludes him… | Lit Hub
- Elizabeth Rush on how Hurricane Sandy turned regular people toward radical environmentalism. | Lit Hub
- Real talk: What are cows saying when they moo? | Lit Hub
- “In a country this small, isn’t it extraordinary that so many of us have turned to crime?” Liz Nugent on how growing up in 1980s Ireland inspired her to write feminist crime fiction. | CrimeReads
- “A review, written well, should guide you to a book if you’re the right person for it, even if there are negatives…” An interview with critic Heather Scott Partington. | Book Marks
- “How should we navigate the nowhere of the present, and where else is there to go?” Alexandra Kleeman on Kathy Acker’s sci-fi novel, Empire of the Senseless. | The Paris Review
- Questlove’s self-help guide, Viv Albertine’s memoir, and other music-related books to read this summer. | Pitchfork
- “I harbored this idea that John Kidd had abandoned the perfect Ulysses to become the perfect Joycean—so consumed by the infinite interpretations of the book that he departed this grid of understanding.” On the mysterious disappearance of a celebrated Joyce scholar. | The New York Times Magazine
- Honestly, that any of this exists at all is so very, very random: Oren Harman searches for dark matter at the beginning of the universe. | Lit Hub
- Fictionalizing a nuclear attack on 1950s New York was all too easy for Collier’s Magazine. | Lit Hub
- Unless she is Mary Poppins-level perfect, in books and films the nanny is mostly a threat: Jessa Crispin on The Perfect Nanny and other ominous caretakers in pop culture. | The Baffler
- How to read 30 books in 30 days or die read 12 trying. | Fast Company
- “Whenever people say that writing is a lonely process, I both do and don’t understand what they mean.” An interview with Lillian Li. | The Millions
- Ethan Hawke will star as abolitionist John Brown in a new TV adaptation of James McBride’s National Book Award-winning novel The Good Lord Bird. | Variety
Also on Literary Hub: Joseph O’Neill doesn’t like writing, and other questions honestly answered · Male rage: What does it take to break the cycle from father to son? · Read from Rosalie Knecht’s novel, Who is Vera Kelly?
