Lit Hub Weekly: April 8 - 12, 2019

• “Lawrence was not dressing up as any old Bedouin. He was dressing up as a sharif: in other words, as royalty.” Isabelle Hammad on the sartorial statements of Lawrence of Arabia. | The Paris Review
• How do you write a memoir when you can’t remember? Hint: you may need WhatsApp. | Granta
• “It stands in stark opposition to the materialism and individualism that otherwise define our culture. It is defiantly, proudly, communal.” Sue Halpern in praise of public libraries. | New York Review of Books
• A growing body of work,” including a new study in the journal Nature Human Behavior, suggests that Beowulf was the work of a single author. | The Guardian
• File under Surprising, Delightful: Harold Bloom’s literary obsession is a 1920 fantasy novel. | Jewish Review of Books
• “That horse’s head is different than the others.” Nathan Englander revisits Picasso’s Guernica. | The Paris Review
• The state of Kansas will have to pay more than $168,000 in legal fees for attempting to prevent the sale of private notes by one of the lead investigators of the Clutter family murders, the subject of Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood. | KCUR 89.3
• “Will the Earth be destroyed when I’m a grown-up?” A seven-year-old interviewing David Wallace-Wells on climate change is no less bleak than you’d expect. | Orion Magazine
• Bond, James Bond: How Ian Fleming (and his most famous creation) influenced the CIA in the 1960s. | Salon
• “When you’re still a teenager, it’s hard to know how to think of yourself because you receive so many contradictory messages”: Longreads interviews Susan Choi on her new novel, teenage psychology, #MeToo, and more. | Longreads
• This year’s Met Gala theme is… Susan Sontag? | Vogue
• According to this stylistic analysis, the most Austenian of Jane Austen’s novels is Emma, and the most Austenian phrases are “am sure,” “the others,” and “her sister.” Typical Jane. | Medium
• “You fly over the desert, or race across it, but you don’t actually have to experience it. It’s a circumscribed adventure”: Tim Parks on why trains, planes, and all kinds of automobiles have long enthralled writers, from Dostoevsky to Woolf. | The New York Review of Books
• Sweet’N Low presents: literature! A brief history of product placement in books. | Vox
• “I think the voice in the book is pretty chill and neutral.” Read a chill, neutral interview with Bret Easton Ellis. | The New Yorker
• “By foregrounding the story of one extraordinary man, Blight also delivers the larger story of four of the most dramatic decades in our national history”: Mary Corey on David Blight’s monumental biography of Frederick Douglass. | Los Angeles Review of Books

Also on Lit Hub:

Viet Thanh Nguyen on how not to bore your audience at a reading • Philip Dray on Henry Louis Gates Jr.’s new book and the “glorious failure” of Reconstruction • Annie Proulx on freewheeling nature writer Ellen Meloy • Chris Rush on how a painter becomes a writer • The allure of Killing Eve’s cool-girl assassin • Your starter kit for the weird and wonderful world of surrealist literature • On attempts to warn future humans of the poison we’ve buried • How conspiracy theories came to dominate American culture • Red state blues: on traveling in transition • Russell Brand on rehab, recovery, and choosing the right mentor • How Michelle Tea found a spiritual home in her Polish heritage • In Sri Lanka, a writing workshop that aims for peace after decades of civil war • Claire Fisher on teaching incarcerated women • When even your imaginary male muses don’t measure up • Let’s all stop pigeonholing Sally Rooney as a “Millennial Writer” • Kate Bolick: A day in the life of one of New York’s best hairstylists • On falling in love with Malcolm X—and his mastery of metaphor • What do we really mean by “women’s fiction”? • On the necessary surrender in publishing a book • Discovering Ralph Waldo Emerson in the golden age of sneakers • Nathaniel Rich on how the consensus on global warming was lost • Jenny Odell on the small rebellion of inactivity • In praise of Ruth Reichl’s redemptive Twitter presence • From the Bronx to Nigeria, how Kith/Kin’s Kwame Onwuachi became a chef • Was Bram Presser Jewish grandfather handpicked by Hitler to curate the mysterious Museum of Extinct Races? • The first in Harmony Holiday’s new Disappearing Archive Series: LeRoi Jones on The Merv Griffin Show • When a first-person narrator sneaks into your story: Jennifer duBois on the emergent I • 15 great cat poems • Lizzie Post got stoned every day to write about pot etiquette • Wright Thompson on the fine art of American sportswriting • The CIA scheme that brought Doctor Zhivago to the world • Justine Hyde on Joy Division and life in a far-flung suburb • How Ramona Quimby helps kids make sense of this unstable world • Eight books that define (and defy) the canon of hip hop literature • On applying the lessons of acting to storytelling

Best of Book Marks:

New on CrimeReads:

Hanna Jameson reconsiders classic novels as dystopian masterpieces • Michael Gonzales on  the horror comics of his youth and finding his way to writing • Oscar de Muriel on the thin line between science, quackery, and folklore in the Victorian era • The many death-defying missions of legendary WWII spy Virginia Hall •  Lisa Scottoline on secrets, suburbs, and justice as a consolation prize • Rebecca Rego Barry gives us a brief history of the Newgate Novel • Nina Revoyr talks power, privilege, and the contradictions of Los Angeles • Here is the best historical crime and mystery fiction of 2019 (so far) • The best and biggest thrillers coming out this April • Leye Adenle talks Nigerian noir, Lagos, and humor • Elizabeth Fremantle on Frances Howard, a Jacobean countess framed for murder • J. Kingston Pierce leads us on a tour of the genesis of Lew Archer •  Kris Waldherr looks to the Victorians to process tragedy • Rachel Howzell Hall on reworking Agatha Christie, defying expectations, and finding her voice, interviewed by Désirée Zamorano • Your essential true crime reads out this April • Leading Ross Macdonald expert Tom Nolan on the noir giant’s legacy • All the crime and mystery movies to stream this April