Lit Hub Weekly: November 19 - 23, 2018

• Remember the Scholastic book fairs? They might not be quite as magical as you recall. | The Atlantic
• “It’s like in my generation we were culturally trained to be misogynists, homophobes and racists.” Read an interview with George Saunders. | The Guardian
• “So climate change and capitalism are two parts of the same problem; they are effect and cause.” Sci-fi writer Kim Stanley Robinson on how neoliberal market capitalism is “chewing up the biosphere”—and what can be done. | BuzzFeed
• On “the meteoric rise and political urgency of Poland’s pre-eminent novelist,” Olga Tokarczuk. | The Calvert Journal
• Is Beto O’Rourke . . .  the new Knausgaard? | The New Yorker
• “I’m not interested in character because I don’t think character exists anymore.” Rachel Cusk brings some highly controversial opinions in this interview. | The New Yorker
• Newly discovered stories by Naguib Mahfouz, Nobel Prize-winning author of The Cairo Trilogy, will be published later this year. | Egyptian Streets
• “Starvation and suffering also get you high, visionary, and even playful. Work, astonishingly hard work, is part of this writer’s kit.” Eileen Myles on Can Xue’s Love in the New Millennium. | The Paris Review
• Dana Gioia, California’s poet laureate, helped invent the Jello Jiggler, won’t abide Google maps. | LAist
• Hungry for 2019? Tide yourself over with ten of the best books about food from the year that was (and still, regrettably, is). | Smithsonian
• “The clay season is a ghost story. It always has been.” Read an excerpt from Rowan Ricardo Phillips’ The Circuit: A Tennis Odyssey. | The Paris Review
• Move over, Fear: Michelle Obama’s memoir had the best first week of any book this year—and the best since 2015’s Go Set a Watchman. | CNN
• But what did Henry David Thoreau do by Walden Pond? Apparently, lots of yoga. | Big Think
• The Times has published its list of 100 notable books of the year. Duly noted. | The New York Times
• A handy guide to the snubs, game-changers, and heavy hitters of this year’s literary awards season. | Entertainment Weekly

Also on Lit Hub:

Before the Neapolitan novels, there was Sula—so why was only one of these an international phenomenon? • On socially responsible writing in a time of unmitigated disaster • “Pain can be as ineffable and mysterious and internal as love.” Alethea Black, Michele Lent Hirsch, Sonya Huber, Abby Norman, Julie Rehmeyer, and Esme Weijun Wang on what it means to write about women’s pain, part one and part two • Lara Vapnyar on the manufactured “sex-appeal” of Vladimir Putin • Hair of the dog, ash of the scorpion, and not-vulgar sex: a tour of hangover cures through the ages • Mikita Brottman on the ripple effect of death in a hotel • “Addiction of that kind was written off as an affliction of others.” When a nationwide killer hits close to home • From Sadie the Goat to The Great Sandwina, eight pugnacious women outlaws who defied the Victorian era • “Obtaining the cannabis may present certain difficulties.” Alice B. Toklas’ hash brownies recipe is the Thanksgiving miracle we all need • The woman (and the story) behind Degas’ Little Dancer • “I am a better writer because of what patrons have taught me.” Kristen Arnett gives thanks for the virtues she has acquired as a librarian • Grief and recovery in Thousand Oaks: Liska Jacobs on her hometown’s navigation of dual tragedies • Dismissing inclusive children’s books as “too political” does a disservice to all kids • Where are the elderly lovers in literature? Susan Gubar on desire and longing later in life • Omise’eke Tinsley on Beyoncé, sexual politics, and moving beyond slut-shaming • Revisiting the genius of Middlemarch • A brief history of schadenfreude • And some feel good literary content to see you through the long weekend: beautiful early dust jackets of iconic books

Best of Book Marks:

New on CrimeReads:

Molly Macrae looks at 8 of the best crime stories featuring independent bookstores, in celebration of Small Business Saturday • Which thriller should you binge watch over the long holiday weekend? The CrimeReads editors break down all the best new candidates • So, you want to self-publish a book, but how? From fixing plot points, to targeting audiences, Libby Fischer Hellmann has the skinny on the self-publishing gauntlet •  Martin Osterdahl recommends five crime novels that prove Scandinavian crime fiction is more than just procedurals • David Carlson on reliquary theft, foggy streets, and other reasons to set your crime novel in Venice • David Kimmel on discovering a crime in the family, 150 years after the fact • Now that Tom Cruise is out, who will be the next Jack Reacher? Here’s a list of actors tall enough to do justice to Lee Child’s creation • Colleen Coble on ice volcanoes, riptides, and other ways that Lake Superior can kill you • “Even the best have to start somewhere.” H. B. Lyle on the origins of the British secret service