TODAY: In 1903, Henry James’ The Ambassadors is published.
- The end of the decade is almost here, but which books from the last ten years will stand the test of time? | Lit Hub
- “Richard Avedon colonized the page and stole everything from it. My project became the returning of something back to the page and to the portrait of my uncle.” Jake Skeets finds inspiration in a famous family photo. | Lit Hub
- The forgotten black women of the Italo-Ethiopian War: Maaza Mengiste on gender, warfare, and women’s bodies. | Lit Hub
- What if the secret to writing is… not writing? Kate Angus makes the case for fallow periods. | Lit Hub
- “Blackface and brownface were always power moves when worn by white people.” Gabrielle Bellot on Justin Trudeau, Virginia Woolf, and the Orientalist history of brownface. | Lit Hub
- Misguided chivalry, disastrous dates, and other cartoons in which Liana Finck draws some conclusions about love. | Lit Hub
- “Are there really different textures of air?” Kathleen Jamie considers a passing eagle, and the beauty of desolation. | Lit Hub
- “Plagues and infestations are the original noir.” Heather Harper Ellett takes writing inspiration from a drove of feral hogs. | CrimeReads
- Three Flames author Alan Lightman recommends five great magical realist novels, from Invisible Cities to One Hundred Years of Solitude. | Book Marks
- Chanel Miller, whose account of sexual assault at Stanford captured national attention, critiques the justice system and media coverage of the assault in her new memoir. | The Washington Post
- Hear from staff at the Copper Queen Library in Bisbee, Arizona, which Library Journal named the best small library in America earlier this month. | Tuscon.com
- The latest pick for Oprah’s book club is Ta-Nehisi Coates’ debut novel, The Water Dancer, about a boy born into slavery who later learns that he has a magical power. | CBS News
- Poet, novelist and critic Al Alvarez, known for his 1972 book Savage God and for introducing British audiences to poets including Sylvia Plath and John Berryman, has died at 90. | The Guardian
- In the era of Facebook conspiracy theories and deep fakes, maybe book publishing needs to take a closer look at its fact-checking problem. | The New York Times
- “More courage, Bari Weiss!” Judith Butler on How to Fight Anti-Semitism. | Jewish Currents
- From Atlas Shrugged to On the Road: a selection of cult books that . . . haven’t aged very well. | BBC
Also on Lit Hub: Alfredo Corchado on anti-immigrant sentiment and the horror of the El Paso shooting • The Jazz Age heiress who witnessed WWII up close • Read an excerpt from Ann Patchett’s The Dutch House.
