Lit Hub Daily: May 6, 2025
THE BEST OF THE LITERARY INTERNET
TODAY: In 1862, Henry David Thoreau dies.
- “More than that, political art that seeks only to speak to this moment tends to flatten narrative in its attempt to be relevant.” Kevin Nguyen doesn’t think we need timely novels. | Lit Hub Craft
- Jiordan Castle remembers navigating a complex and tumultuous relationship with her father. | Lit Hub Memoir
- New books by Aaron John Curtis, Rosie Stockton, Isabel Allende, and more are out today! | Lit Hub Reading Lists
- Why lawyers love Jane Austen: “This power to persuade, when it does succeed, often forms the central cog to Jane Austen’s plots.” | Lit Hub Criticism
- What can a single container ship tell us about the global economy? More than you think! | Lit Hub Politics
- Jemimah Wei discusses writing Singapore, sisterhood, and “flirting with the internet.” | Lit Hub In Conversation
- “We were to present ourselves as good immigrants. The kind that would never overstay a tourist visa, then mouth off about it in a book three decades later.” Jill Damatac on family, home, and how immigration splits the self. | Lit Hub Memoir
- Dean Van Nguyen chronicles the radical New York history behind hip-hop. | Lit Hub Music
- “I liked Marvin Helgarson. He was tall, not just everyday tall but tall even by Minnesota standards, though that’s not why I liked him.” Read from Lori Ostlund’s new story collection, Are You Happy? | Lit Hub Fiction
- “I find its politics detestable but its voice irresistible.” Vinson Cunningham mediates on his love/hate relationship with The New York Post. | The New Yorker
- John Kelly remembers legendary outsider cartoonist, comics historian, and music critic John Peck, also known as the Mad Peck. | The Comics Journal
- Sam Rosenfeld considers Who Is Government, Michael Lewis’ paean to civil service, in the age of DOGE. | The New Republic
- “My theory: just as the Janeite has lived a better life, they will die a better death—perhaps not free from existential distress but more equipped to meet it.” Wendy Anne Lee ponders how Jane Austen prepares us for death. | Broadcast
- James Chandler explains why the Trump administration’s aggression against universities is not, actually, about fighting antisemitism. | Los Angeles Review of Books
- Angelica Frey examines the significance of Roy Orbison’s music to David Lynch’s filmography. | JSTOR Daily
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