Lit Hub Daily: November 5, 2021

TODAY: In 1857, Ida Tarbell, one of the leading muckrakers of the Progressive Era, is born.  

• “It makes me very angry to think of the causes behind all the misery in the world, and the way it’s all concentrated here in Harlem.” Ralph Ellison on injustice and poverty in 1937 New York. | Lit Hub History

• What happens if you get sucked into a black hole? You know, just for peace of mind. | Lit Hub Science

• “It was a chance to shoot the city in the most beautiful way possible, while shooting a character who’s dealing with the economic realities of living in New York.” Noam Baumbach and Greta Gerwig on making Frances Ha. | Lit Hub

• Karen Lloyd considers Pisces, baptism, and the human need to swim. | Lit Hub

• How did America become a country of tipping and subminimum pay? Saru Jayaraman traces the system’s origins back to slavery. | Lit Hub

• INTERVIEW WITH AN INDIE PRESS: The staff of Two Lines Press talk about supporting works in translation. | Lit Hub

• Gary Shteyngart’s Our Country Friends, Sarah Hall’s Burntcoat, Ai Weiwei’s 1000 Years of Joys and Sorrows, and Paul McCartney’s The Lyrics all feature among the Best Reviewed Books of the Week. | Book Marks

• Nick Kolakowski on the driving fatalism behind Ian Fleming’s James Bond. | CrimeReads

• On the power and legacy of Sonia Sanchez. | NPR

• “Personally, I now know there’s no finite amount of empathy, and therefore no choice that needs to be made about where it goes.” Katharine Blake discusses her creative nonfiction debut, the tragedy of her cousin’s crime, and the exploration of heartbreak. | Shondaland

• Fonda Lee explores the toxicity of Twitter and the platform’s impact on the literary community. | Medium

• Sang Young Park considers the literary possibilities of K-pop lyrics (translated by Anton Hur). | Words Without Borders

• “This is the internet at its utopian best.” Frances Wilson recommends getting lost in the Public Domain Review. | The Times Literary Supplement

• Ariel Henley talks about writing that fosters “a deep understanding of trauma and what that trauma looks like in just day-to-day life.” | The Rumpus

• These literacy-focused nonprofit groups are addressing the “need for students to learn about other students’ cultures, and a need for students to see themselves.” | The New York Times

Also on Lit Hub: How cheap postal rates for books contributed to American democracy • Five great books you may have missed in October • Read from Elif Shafak’s latest novel, The Island of Missing Trees

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