TODAY: In 1754, Henry Fielding dies.
- “It’s not laziness, but criminal, to feign ignorance of the havoc we have wrought on the world.” Fatima Bhutto chronicles this world on fire. | Lit Hub Politics
- “Though I grew up in this part of the world, I am a stranger in a strange land.” Cynthia Tucker writes a letter to a mother—and the South. | Lit Hub Politics
- “It’s not happenstance that there has never been racial equality in America.” Isaac Bailey on the DNA of a nation. | Lit Hub History
- “Prince always accepted what was coming, and was trying to prepare, he told me as far back as 1985.” Neal Karlen on his complicated relationship with an American icon. | Lit Hub Biography
- Abby Ellin on baseball, Larry David, and Bill Buckner’s greatest ever catch. | Lit Hub Sports
- “As a writer and lifelong reader, I look to novels to feed my obsessions.” Clare Mackintosh on the endless appeal of the “what if?” narrative. | Lit Hub
- Juan Gabriel Vásquez on Phil Klay’s Missionaries, Lydia Millet on Sayaka Murata’s Earthlings, and more of the Reviews You Need to Read This Week. | Book Marks
- Curtis Evans delves into Raymond Chandler’s revealing letters to a younger crime writer. | CrimeReads
- “It is laughable and tragic that an award of such influence should be controlled by a tiny and secretive group of Swedes, let alone ones who have shown themselves to be abettors of sexual assault and genocide denial.” Or, why the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature should refuse it. | The Intercept
- Ruth Klüger, the Holocaust survivor and bestselling author known for her criticisms of Holocaust museums, has died at 88. | Deutsche Welle
- For kids and parents who want to cook together, these books for young chefs are a great place to start. | Washington Post
- This infographic of the most popular books set in every country is . . . a little depressing. | Time Out
- “They were careless people . . .” On the Great Gatsby passage taking on new resonance on the current moment. | The New York Times
- “I’m waiting to see: Will all of the work that was done this summer actually play itself out into real systemic change?” Claudia Rankine on reparations and justice. | Los Angeles Times
