Lit Hub Weekly: May 7 - 11, 2018

• “Once a woman enters a royal family, every aspect and function of her body becomes a site of proprietary fantasy.” Margo Jefferson on Meghan Markle. | The Guardian
• “In many cases, the confidence men have is not particularly warranted.” Why are so few letters to the editor written by women? | The Atlantic
• Esther Kim on the literature of the Korean diaspora and three Korean modernists you should know. | Words Without Borders
• “West calls his struggle the right to be a ‘free thinker,’ and he is, indeed, championing a kind of freedom—a white freedom.” Ta-Nehisi Coates on Kanye West in the Age of Trump. | The Atlantic
• N.K, Jemisin, Curtis Sittenfeld, and 9 other authors recommend bookstores worth traveling for. | Lonely Planet
• Barnes & Noble may have once been the villain, but now the big bookstore chain may be in need of saving too. | The Outline, The New York Times
• “Resources in my aspiring-comedian tool kit include a strange immunity to shame and a willingness to expose my thoughts and behavior to utter strangers.” Michelle Tea on starting stand-up at 46. | Lenny
• “The effect is something like an absurd and endless syllabus, constantly updating to remind you of ways you might flunk as a moral being.” Lauren Oyler against “necessary” art. | The New York Times Magazine
• “Schulz’s literary legacy is fractured; absence lies at its heart.” Nathan Goldman on the Jewish writer Bruno Schulz, murdered by a Gestapo officer in 1942, and the radical potential of diaspora. | The New Inquiry
• “[It] may not have been the best postmodern novel ever written, but it was, despite stiff competition, perhaps the longest.” Marissa Brostoff on The X-Files. | n+1
• “So I’m freaking out. I’m thinking, What do I do? How am I going to have an addiction and have a baby?” Jennifer Egan on the children—and the moms—of the American opioid epidemic. | New York Times Magazine
• “The Largesse of the Sea Maiden is its own perfect thing, and Lord preserve me, I think I love it every bit as much as I love Jesus’ Son.” J. Robert Lennon on Denis Johnson, his literary legacy, and his magical posthumous work. | The Nation
• “What you give up in control, you gain in collaboration.” Stephanie Danler on the differences between writing a novel and its TV adaption. | Vulture
• “What is our place in a conversation that pulls us in with one hand and pushes us out with the other?” Katie Heaney on her ambivalence about motherhood—and all the motherhood books—as a queer woman | BuzzFeed Reader
• Looking back at (MORE), a unique journalism review of the 1970s that made the press “more self-aware, more self-critical, more flexible, and better able to rethink its best practices in the face of its own failure.” | CJR

Also on Lit Hub: 

From McCarthy to Bolaño, 9 of the most violent works of literature • Rumaan Alam doesn’t believe in writer’s block (but does believe in Joanna Newsom) • Writers of the Zodiac: Meet some revolutionary Taureans, from Marx to Malcolm X • When a YA writer reinvents herself: Francesca Lia Block is so much more than Weetzie Bat •How an unexpected Christmas gift gave Harper Lee the time to write To Kill a Mockingbird • A brief history of recent seven-figure book advances • Fairy tale desire: The things I learned from Snow White • For Viv Albertine, honesty is as punk as it gets • Read from Tommy Pico’s book-length poem, Junk • Dear Book Therapist: What do I read when the worst has happened? • From New York to Copenhagen, the 12 most popular libraries in the world • Lara Feigel reads Doris Lessing and considers the “free woman” during a summer of too many weddings • On labor and loyalty, and how a father’s strike nearly broke a town in two • Simon Winchester: how my father introduced me to precision engineering • Rebecca Solnit on skipping high school and California culture • In honor of Mother’s Day: 22 photos of famous authors and their moms • “What if you get pregnant? Would you be okay with that?” Read from Sheila Heti’s new novel, Motherhood • On the fear, responsibility, and boredom of motherhood • Transcendent compositions: TANAÏS on making perfume and writing fiction

Best of Book Marks:

What do Margaret Atwood, John Irving, Edna O’Brien, and Roxane Gay have in common? They’re all featured in our roundup of the first reviews of every Toni Morrison novel • In the first installment of a brand new series, legendary travel author Paul Theroux suggests 5 books to take on the road • National Book Critics Circle board member Anjali Enjeti talks about Rabindranath Tagore’s poetry and Porochista Khakpour’s fearless criticism • Hanif Abdurraqib on Zora Neale Hurston’s posthumously published Barracoon, Jia Tolentino on Melissa Broder’s The Pisces, and more Book Reviews You Need to Read This Week • A dark WWII fairytale from Michael Ondaatje, a tender true crime tale, a rediscovered slave narrative, and more all feature among our Best Reviewed Books of the Week

New on Crime Reads:

From gothic suspense to globetrotting spies, 9 debut crime novels to discover this spring • 10 mysteries that strike the perfect balance of story and history • 10 psychological thrillers that explore the fears and ambivalences of motherhood • Otto Penzler charts the long, tortured history of the hard-boiled novel • A journey through the world of police procedurals, from Georges Simenon, to Michael Connelly, to Louise Penny • May 3, 1960: the day the world discovered America’s spy program • Celebrating noir’s greatest outsiders, from Parker to Gravedigger Jones • Araminta Hall on silenced women, the psychological thriller, and subverting the male gaze • Alex Segura provides a tour of Miami noir, from Carl Hiaasen to Carolina Garcia-Aguilera • From Psycho to Idaho, 8 of crime fiction’s most terrifying mothers