Lit Hub Daily: October 24, 2019

• “This is not he said/she said, because we said these things only to each other.” Susan Straight on what it really means to believe women. | Lit Hub Politics
• The cautionary tale of Napoleon’s Italian exile: how the ousted general’s time on Elba set the stage for his return to power. | Lit Hub History
• “Any element of fiction can be an engine.” Lincoln Michel on the many ways to power a short story. | Lit Hub Craft
• If you think transhumanism is wild nowadays, wait till you hear about the “brain in a vat” visions of yesteryear. | Lit Hub Science
• Liberal attitudes, luxurious hotels, and “all the advantages of nature.” Exploring Baden, the forgotten writerly playground of the European aristocracy. | Lit Hub History
• Does pretending to be Paul McCartney count as researching a book? | Lit Hub
• Six cartoonists on critical failure, one panel at a time: Barbara Smaller, Edward Korren, Mick Stevens, and more face bad reviews with a sense of humor. | Lit Hub
• Libraries are even more important to contemporary community than we thought (and they should be funded accordingly). | Lit Hub
• “I’m a sucker for a good revenge plot.” Kate Kessler recommends 6 crime books driven by a woman’s quest for vengeance. | CrimeReads
• Deep dives into John le Carré’s latest spy thriller, a new biography of Janis Joplin, and a complete history of the Lakotas, are among the Book Reviews You Need to Read This Week. | Book Marks
• “We are the weirdos, mister.” Kate Racculia on The Craft, Carrie, and teenage witches of all kinds. | Tor
• Henry Louis Gates, Jr., the Harvard literary scholar perhaps best known for the PBS series Finding Your Roots, will receive the Chicago Tribune Literary Award for lifetime achievement next month. | Chicago Tribune
• John Lithgow, fresh off starring as Bill Clinton on Broadway last year, has come out with a book of anti-Trump “protest poetry” called, wait for it, Dumpty. | The Hill
• “Thoreau chose to believe hat as long as the milkweed matured its seed, preparing for the following spring, the world could not come to an end.” Lydia Davis on gardening with Thoreau. | The Times Literary Supplement
• You know who could probably hate this suggestion that independent bookstores ought to charge entrance fees? Kathleen Kelly. | The New Yorker
• The case for mixing poetry and politics on the campaign trail. | The New York Times
• New books are retelling well-known stories from the perspectives of women once relegated to the sidelines. | Washington Post

Also on Lit Hub: For many cultures, the key to understanding death is a festival of light: Sasha Sagan on finding hope in the night sky • On Janice Joplin’s earliest days in San Francisco • Read a story from Julia Armfield’s debut collection salt slow.