Lit Hub Weekly: August 13 - 17, 2018

• “He had determination and a sense of destiny.” Dwight Garner on the complexities of V.S. Naipaul, who died on Saturday at 85. | The New York Times
• “I was a woman crying in the offices of Playboy magazine. If this were someone else’s story, I’d think, That’s a bit on the nose.” Ling Ma on managing selfhood in the workplace. | BuzzFeed Reader
• From Julio Cortázar’s Hopscotch to the poetry of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, a Latinx reading list to update and amend the literary canon. | Remezcla
• The reading recommendation listicle Emily Dickinson might have written, had Emily Dickinson written listicles. | Lapham’s Quarterly
• “I am most free when I am writing poems.” Ada Limón on chaos, grief, and the power of naming. | BOMB
• “Required reading. A dangerous label, that.” V.E. Schwab on fantasy literature, generic snobbery, and gateway books. | Tor
• For myself, every page was a miracle: Patti Smith on reading Jean Genet’s The Thief’s Journal with Robert Mapplethorpe. | The Paris Review
• “There’s not a single bookshelf in my apartment. You heard me.” Sloane Crosley on her very personal—and semi-sacrilegious—system of literary organization. | New York Times
• “You should have the eyes of a crazy person. Stronger.” Meet the Italian stars of HBO’s adaptation of Elena Ferrante’s My Brilliant Friend. | Vogue
• Apparently not all pyramid schemes are bad, as this successful Instagram book exchange attests. | Slate
• “I want to tell you about the night I got hit by a train and died.” Read a new short story by Laura van den Berg. | Electric Literature
• Now you too can bake “Pie for a Doubting Husband” with the reissue of The Suffragette Cookbook, published in 1915 as a fundraiser by The Equal Franchise Federation Of Western Pennsylvania. | The Guardian
• “It’s a shock, whenever you leave the U.S., to realize how much other people understand that history matters.” Kaitlyn Greenidge on traveling to the Anguilla Literary Festival. | Medium
• “I’d allowed myself to subconsciously shame women for liking something I liked.” How one reader learned to let go of internalized sexism and embrace the romance novel. | The Mary Sue
• Chills, thrills, blood, and boogeymen: the 100 best horror stories ever written, as nominated by fans and chosen by an expert panel of judges. | NPR
• “There are yet more Deep State books to come, a continued low, rageful howl of victimhood that should carry right through the midterms and deep into 2020.” Anna Merlan reads her way through three books of Trumpist conspiracy theories. | Rolling Stone

Also on Lit Hub:

“I can’t forgive his sins. But some of his stories remained in me, as they did in many others.” Gabrielle Bellot on the enigma of V.S. Naipaul • In the aftermath of hate and heroism: survivors of the Portland train knife attack tell their story • Space Force! In which Nathan Englander volunteers to lead the sixth branch of the United States Armed Forces • What happens when you’re dubbed the “funniest woman in America” and you’re pretty sure you aren’t? • Stepping into the boxing ring as a transgender man: Thomas Page McBee prepares for one more fight • A brief history of women mountaineers: Susan Froderberg on breaking the last ceiling • Lottery tickets, cigarettes, a VHS player, the book with the blue cover… Kristen Arnett offers an incomplete list of all things library patrons have asked her for • Nigel Poor, host of Ear Hustle, tells Will Schwalbe what it’s like to record a podcast from San Quentin prison • Nobody grows up wanting to be a missile-maker: Karen Piper on how war put food on her family’s table • On the slyly subversive writing of E.M. Forster, who knew that happy endings don’t require weddings • The trouble with designing a book when its author is in prison • This could be the last, best place on the internet: visiting the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction • Is atheism the last unforgivable sin of American politics? (Because just about every other transgression seems perfectly fine) • From Orwell to Tawada, 11 books (for adults) that feature talking animals • Laura June recommends seven novels that capture the pain and chaos of addiction • Anne Boyd Rioux wonders: Why don’t more boys read Little Women?

Best of Book Marks:

Which is rated higher, the movie or the novel? 17 Books Vs. Their 2018 Adaptations • His Favorites author Kate Walbert spoke to Jane CIabatari about Five Novels to Read Over a Weekend • This week in Secrets of the Book Critics, Chelsea Leu on Madame Bovary, fact-checking writers, and giving comic novels their due • Keith Gessen’s Russia, Nico Walker’s road to perdition, Yanis Varoufakis on a decade of financial crises, and more Book Reviews You Need to Read This Week • A Booker Prize-winner, an incarcerated debut novelist’s debut, and a radical new theory of evolution all feature among our Best Reviewed Books of the Week

New on CrimeReads:

Crime and the ‘City’ visits the Scottish Highlands and Islands and finds a fictional landscape with a high body count and some dramatic, possibly lethal, vistas • Kidnappings, cold cases, and comedy: 5 debut crime novels to read this August • Tori Telfer profiles Megan and Laura: probation officers, true crime addicts and best friends • Con artists, impostors, serial killers, and gangsters galore: a roundup of August’s best true crime releases • Al Capone, gangster publicist: how Capone charmed journalists into a more sympathetic portrayal of the criminal world • A look at the life and legacy of Josephine Tey, one of Golden Age mystery’s most influential and elusive figures • Samurai bureaucracy and iron-clad codes of honor: Susan Spann on crime and punishment in Shogun Era Japan • Hollywood veteran and first time novelist Howard Michael Gould shines a spotlight on 6 under-appreciated crime comedies • Comic book legend Paul Levitz visits the ghosts of New York and looks at why the city has such a complex relationship with the violent past • Adam Hamdy looks at 12 classic techno-thrillers that explore ethics of innovation • Our podcast correspondent rounds up six podcasts that tell the stories of violent children, without sensationalizing their subject matter