- Jennifer Egan, Pankaj Mishra, and George Saunders (among many others) weigh on their favorite books of the year. | The Guardian
- “I collect pets: young girls—girls from ten to sixteen years old; girls who are pretty and sweet and naive and innocent.” On Mark Twain’s disturbing predilection for adolescent girls. | The Paris Review
- On loving both Kathy Acker and Chris Kraus, even if they “did not love . . . did not even ‘like’” each other. | Bookforum
- if you’re reading this then you survived: A poem by Ocean Vuong (with an introduction by Ben Lerner). | Harper’s
- “He knew no one could suspect him of having murdered his brother.” A recently-discovered story by Dashiell Hammett. | Electric Literature
- Jesmyn Ward on Ava DuVernay, whose “perspective adds a revelatory dimension to the representation of black people in this country.” | Smithsonian
- “The task is always to write every single piece like it’s your only one.” An interview with Parul Sehgal. | SSENSE
- Even for a notoriously Eeyore-ish industry, 2017 was a grim year: What bestsellers reveal about the past year in publishing. | Slate
- On Nabokov, bad readers, and the “narrowly politicized version of reading and writing critique that dominates interpretive practices today.” | Boston Review
- Despite the impressive amount of mayhem and gore on view, Three Billboards is an unusually literary film: Francine Prose on the debt Martin McDonagh’s latest owes to Flannery O’Connor. | The New York Review of Books
- On Anna Kavan’s Ice, a “fantasia about predatory male sexual behavior that takes place during an apocalyptic climate catastrophe” that no longer feels like science fiction. | The New Yorker
- This is not one dour Nordic genius paying homage to his dour Nordic predecessor: On the Munch Museum’s exhibition Towards the Forest: Knausgaard on Munch. | The Point
- Despite the best efforts of preservationists, James Baldwin’s former home in France will be demolished after all—and replaced with a luxury apartment complex. | The New York Times
- “Writers who simply represent (rather than report on) extremists leave rhetorical spaces open for Nazi ideology to flood in.” How to write—and not to write—about Nazis. | The New Republic
- Seven writers on aunts, who, “chosen and by blood, shape us in ways that our mothers and fathers cannot.” | The Outline
- From Don’t Let Me Be Lonely to Secondhand Time, recommendations of books to gift from indie presses. | Conversational Reading
Also on Lit Hub:
The incredible joy of putting into words: James Salter on why he wrote · 20 other Notable Books that were not on the New York Times‘ year-end list · Beyond lyric shame: Ben Lerner on the prose poetry of Claudia Rankine and Maggie Nelson · An excerpt from Charlotte Saloman’s virtuoso graphic novel, painted while in hiding from the Nazis · Claire Vaye Watkins on childhood, addiction, and the search for home· On Myriam Gurba. Jade Sharma, and the new bad girls of contemporary literature · Aisha Sabatini Sloan on the dangers of writing for a white audience in an MFA · On the long history of writers claiming links between melancholy and creativity·
This week on Book Marks:
Shilts does not canonize or martyrize the Mayor of Castro Street: A 1982 review of Randy Shilts’ biography of Harvey Milk’s · A geek’s delight, seasoned with the historical skulduggery and theological debate: On Bible Nation · Jasanoff does not forgive Conrad his blindness: Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o on Joseph Conrad and Maya Jasanoff’s The Dawn Watch · Unquiet adulthood: a 1960 review of John Updike’s Rabbit, Run · Joyce Carol Oates talks Muhammad Ali and Jonathan Eig’s new “sympathetic yet unsparing” biography · Spellbinding or silly?: two takes on James Salter’s Light Years · False to morality: a scathing 1890 review of The Picture of Dorian Gray · Joe Biden, Vladimir Lenin, Julia Child, and more: the best-reviewed books of the week
