Lit Hub Daily: May 26, 2020

• If you enjoy and value Lit Hub please consider becoming a supporter! | Lit Hub
• Your 2020 summer books preview is here! In which we recommend our favorite upcoming titles to read while you keep your distance. | Lit Hub
• “When an eel is denied a way to achieve its main purpose in life—procreation—it seems able to live forever.” ?Patrik Svensson on the mysteries of the European eel. | Lit Hub Science
• “I’d gone there a few times in shiny tops or bell‑bottoms, but this was the first time I’d bent my gender all the way.” Meredith Talusan on race, drag, and transitions. | Lit Hub
• History is no longer a circle, nor is progress guaranteed: Szczepan Twardoch on our need to give meaning to catastrophe. | Lit Hub History
• On the life and times of Fred Birchmore, pioneering sportsman who cycled around the world. | Lit Hub Sports
• The Shining, Matilda, Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls, and more rapid-fire book recs from Kristen Arnett. | Book Marks
• Laird Barron on leg-breakers, Alaskan hard men, and writing toward a piece of the truth. | CrimeReads
• “No theoretical language I know of serves me in describing or interpreting this era of American unhappiness.” Marilynne Robinson considers the future of America. | NYRB
• An ode to the (highly stay-at-home-appropriate) fashion nightgowns in Sophia Coppola’s Virgin Suicides adaptation. | Refinery29
• What made Swedish journalist Patrik Svensson’s debut book, The Book of Eels, which blends memoir and science history, a breakout success in his home country? | The New York Times
• Following controversies about a lack of diversity in the world of romance fiction, the Romance Writers of America is thinking about how to improve its track record. | The Guardian
• “Science is an imperfect vehicle, as any truth-seeking discipline must be.” Two new books look at the impulse behind science denial and why misinformation is so persistent. | Undark
• Canceled your Memorial Day travel plans? These novels, set around the world, could help fill the void. | Los Angeles Times
• On the timeless art of the bookcase flex. | JSTOR

Also on Lit Hub: When all of New York City stopped reading the news at once • The letter that changed Emily Dickinson’s life • Read an excerpt from J.M. Coetzee’s new novel The Death of Jesus.