TODAY: In 1935, Edward Said, author of Orientalism (1978), is born.
- WHY YOU SHOULD VOTE NEXT WEEK: Aleksandar Hemon on the futility of debating fascism · Lewis Lapham on the “dysfunctional, stupefied plutocracy” that has risen to power · Precious Rasheeda Muhammad on the legacy of slavery borne by Black women · Jose Antonio Vargas on appearing on Fox News as an undocumented American · How gerrymandering is destroying American democracy · Elie Wiesel on the problem with tolerance · On Fiction/Non/Fiction Alexander Chee and Jane Coaston talk Midterms, storytelling, and the politics of Black conservatism | Lit Hub
- “I’m haunted by the desire to belong, that eternal wish of every immigrant displaced by choice or history.” Sandra Cisneros on Elena Poniatowska, in this edition of The Avid Reader. | Lit Hub
- “One of the greatest men the world has ever produced.” On Alexander von Humboldt, the forgotten father of Romantic environmentalism. | Lit Hub
- Vampires and ghost stories and Reddit trolls, oh my! It’s the 5 Book Reviews You Need to Read This Week. | Book Marks
- Whatever happened to Barbara Newhall Follett, former child prodigy author who disappeared in 1939? Sarah Meuleman investigates. | CrimeReads
- “[Publishing] is basically like digging a hole in the ground and chucking money in.” Nevertheless! Independent publishers have more sway in the industry than ever. | WSJ Magazine
- Playwright María Irene Fornés, author of “Fefu and Her Friends” and “Abingdon Square,” has died at 88. | Lambda Literary
- “It’s very hard. It was like working with a ghost.” Merve Emre on the new adaptation of a sensational book—Elena Ferrante’s My Brilliant Friend—written by a famous enigma. | The New York Times
- “You will be the kind of person who drinks brandy. You will make new friends. New clothes offer the possibility of reinvention.” On sharing clothes and terror in Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House. | Garage
- Actually nice news: more than 200 people in Southampton formed a human chain to help a bookstore move its stock to a new shop down the street. | NPR
- Idra Novey on 10 imagined governments to distract us from our own. | BuzzFeed Reader
- “Beginning in his eighty-third year, he struck one more lode in the story of Donald Hall.” On the poet’s late work. | The New Yorker
Also on Lit Hub: 15 books you should read this month • Interviews with National Book Award finalists Hanne Ørstavik, Martin Aitkin, and Jarrett J. Krosoczka • Read from The Lake on Fire
