- Philip Roth has died. Read him in conversation with John Freeman about mortality (and other things), on the time he was kicked out of Prague, remembering an old friend, Richard Stern, and here you can read some of the earliest reviews of Portnoy’s Complaint. | The New York Times, Lit Hub, Book Marks
- “There’s no consistent approach. There’s no way in which I’ve mastered writing a novel.” Highlights from Philip Roth’s many “Fresh Air” interviews with Terry Gross. | NPR
- Bill Gates thinks you should read George Saunders, Walter Isaacson, and Kate Bowler this summer—and coincidentally, he also has some cute puppies to show you. | Gates Notes
- “A terrarium is made to be viewed, and so is a train wreck.” Kirstin Allio on Wild Wild Country and why we love cults. | The Paris Review
- Atossa Araxia Abrahamian on Casablanca, which, when read “as a migration narrative . . . reminds us that the identification papers we carry were created not to give us freedom but rather to curtail it.” | The New York Review of Books
- Nobody in the world will ever care about your book as much as you do: Tom McAllister reveals some hard truths about publishing a book. | The Millions
- A blistering John le Carré letter from 2010, in which he refers to Tony Blair as “one bad Scottish piglet” and Christopher Hitchens a “truly odious little twerp,” is coming up for auction. | The Guardian
- From Dave Eggers to Nora Ephron to Maria Semple, 90 books for comedy fans. | Vulture
- “These are big bloomers to fill.” Rachel Syme on the new TV adaptation of Picnic at Hanging Rock. | The New Republic
- On the delicate ethics of autofiction in Iceland—a nation of 350,000 people who are all related to one another (and love family gossip). | The Times Literary Supplement
- “If ‘outrage’ meant a lynching or rape a mere 150 years ago, how did it come to express something as trivial as one starlet’s retort to another?” ZZ Packer on the evolution of “outrage.” | The New York Times
- “The irony of mounting a serious marketing campaign to sell the foundational document of worldwide communism did not escape us, but neither did it hold us back.” OR Books cofounder Colin Robinson on the time he (almost) got Barney’s to stock the Communist Manifesto. | Jacobin
- “You use literature to run away from the void, but you also use it to approach the void.” Zachary Pace interviews Wayne Koestenbaum. | Frieze
- Katrina Dodson on translating Clarice Lispector, which “sometimes felt like a mystical journey, or at the very least a vision quest in which her sentences rose up like feral hallucinations as I groped at their meaning.” | The Believer
- It’s official: Lauren Groff has given the best “By the Book” interview in recent memory. | The New York TImes Book Review
Also on Lit Hub:
What is the right poetry collection for you? A complete guide that may or may not be more accurate than astrology • Thomas McGuane talks to Téa Obreht about ranching, writing, and deciding not to live the “literary life” • Ursula K. Le Guin, editing to the end: on collaborating with a literary icon • Jane Austen’s concerns about the practicalities of marriage are as relevant today as they ever were • Heather Abel wonders if summer camp made her a liar—which is to say, a novelist • Karl Taro Greenfeld on coming to terms with being a “minor” writer • We all have our favorite Sherlock Holmes stories, but which ones did Arthur Conan Doyle love best? • Waking up to bullets: on America’s great common denominator, indiscriminate gun violence • Sitcoms and politics: on our complicated enjoyment of “good cop” cop shows like Brooklyn Nine-Nine • Ego and impulse have always been a threat to democracy: Ingrid Rossellini on the utter folly of relying on your “gut” in politics • First he was transfixed, then he was… disappointed. On the boyhood classmates who drove Marcel Proust to write • Zadie Smith, George Saunders, Ursula K. Le Guin and more: read 13 of the best literary interviews in the history of Interview Magazine (RIP) • Man Booker International prize-winner Jennifer Croft has some strong feelings about who’s going to win next year’s prize • “Men still too often see their writing as canon.” David Hayden pays homage to the women who influenced his writing
Best of Book Marks:
In the wake of his passing last week, we look back at the first reviews of Tom Wolfe’s 5 most iconic books• Book Marks is delighted to be supporting PBS’s Great American Read—a new eight-part series that explores and celebrates America’s favorite novel • The Last Watchman of Old Cairoauthor Michael David Lukas recommends books by Zadie Smith, James Baldwin, and Margaret Atwood • Cynthia Ozick on William Trevor’s final stories, Victor LaValle on Stephen King’s monstrously good new novel, and more Book Reviews You Need to Read This Week • Writer and critic Bradley Babendir on Marilynne Robinson, Zinzi Clemmons, and the economics of writing • Psychedelic drugs, tyrannical teen pop stars, a Paul Simon biography, and more all feature among our Best Reviewed Books of the Week
New on CrimeReads:
J. Kingston Pierce looks at the lives and works of 12 artists from the golden era of pulp covers • From Deadwood to Veronica Mars, 12 crime TV shows canceled far too soon • An insider’s guide to Spain’s thriving crime writing scene • Counting down 10 of the most likable anti-heroes in the history of noir • Danger lurks just next door: the 10 creepiest neighbors in modern suspense • Historical crime writer Brenda Clough breaks down the many laws used to oppress women in Victorian Britain • From Terry Pratchett to Philip K. Dick, Claire North’s guide to speculative noir • 19th century novels, crime series, and the evolution of serialized storytelling • When in doubt, hone in on the falcon: the 42 best covers of The Maltese Falcon, ranked • How historical fiction humanizes our forebears • On the obsessive nature and creep factor of birdwatching and detective work • Collective trauma, political scandal, and the comforts of true crime during moments of personal crisis
