Lit Hub Daily: September 5, 2019
THE BEST OF THE LITERARY INTERNET
TODAY: In 1965, the word “hippie” first appeared in print in an article in the San Francisco Examiner by Michael Fallon: “Five untroubled young ‘hippies’ sprawled on floor mattresses and slouched in an armchair retrieved from a debris box, flipped cigaret ashes at a seatbelt in their Waller Street flat and pondered their next move.”
- Who has time to read? And where? And on what? Leah Price offers a brief history of the “traveling” book. | Lit Hub
- Not sure what to read and feeling listless? Here’s THE ULTIMATE list of the most anticipated books of the fall, based on many other lists. | Lit Hub
- “The creation of a novel is akin to a mad scramble up a mountainside.” Walter Mosley on discovering who your book’s characters really are. | Lit Hub
- Charles Johnson remembers the great Paule Marshall, who died last month at 90. | Lit Hub
- “By the turn of the 20th century, swindling and chicanery began to coalesce into a reputable industry.” Mike Magee on the dark side of the Pharmaceutical Industrial Complex. | Lit Hub
- On the “potency, sectarian parochialism and horror of Maoism’s travels in Western Europe and the United States.” | Lit Hub
- Elizabeth Ames, progressive novelist, on the pitfalls of sharing a name with Elizabeth Ames, hardcore free marketeer. | Lit Hub
- Seven contagion classics that are sure to get under your skin, from David Koepp. | CrimeReads
- Michiko Kakutani on Margaret Atwood’s sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale, Jeanette Winterson on Salman Rushdie’s Don Quixote-inspired new novel, and more of the Book Reviews You Need to Read This Week. | Book Marks
- “Only dead people are allowed to have statues, but I have been given one while still alive. Already I am petrified.” Read the first excerpt from Margaret Atwood’s The Testaments. | The Guardian
- In related news, on Wednesday Amazon broke the sales embargo on Margaret Atwood’s The Testaments, which is pretty much bad for everyone except them. | The Hub
- “Writing is a long process of terror punctuated by periods of intense, unsurpassed pleasure.” Tash Aw and Chia-Chia Lin in conversation. | The Believer
- Jade Sharma, author of Problems, has died at the age of 39. | Catapult
- Are your dream slumber party guests 150,000 books? Why not plan a vacation to this library/bed and breakfast in Wales! | Smithsonian
- z’We are biased to believe in being, especially our own, and have a very difficult time conceiving of non-being”: Roy Scranton on why it’s so hard for us to imagine any kind of global mass extinction scenario. | The Baffler
- Last week, lucky visitors to a New Orleans po-boy shop were given a great lunchtime deal: food and an autographed copy of Sarah Broom’s The Yellow House (and a photo with the author herself). | New Orleans Advocate
Also on Lit Hub: “It happens gradually, then all at once”: on Otherppl, R.O. Kwon on leaving her faith • The life and times of Earl Campbell, a Texas football legend • On Prince Albert’s dream of an industrial Britain • Read an excerpt from Monique Truong’s new novel The Sweetest Fruits.
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