TODAY: In 2001, Ken Kesey dies. 

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“Not all great achievements are influential, or at least not on everybody.” William Gass on 12 of the most important books in his life • MTA vs. MFA: an argument for the train as the next great creative workspace • “Delusion plus diligent work.” Karen E. Bender on the traits that just might mean you’re a real writer • The antidote to all those 30 under 30 lists out there: 20 debut works of fiction by women over 40 • How much did Emily Dickinson’s earliest editors alter her poetry after her death? (Spoiler: kind of a lot) • On Pittsburgh, otherness, and the virulence of anti-Semitism • “I chose my writing over hers—isn’t this what creative people are supposed to do?” Laura Esther Wolfson on almost being Svetlana Alexievich’s translator • Following the evolution of haiku, from Bashō to Salinger and everything in between • “The men behind Jackson’s candidacy convinced a plurality of the American that he was on their side, whatever side it was.” On Andrew Jackson, who’s… basically Trump, right? • New poetry by Natasha Tretheway, from her new collection Monument • “Write the book that you would want to read.” In which Rakesh Satyal offers some good writing advice, but more importantly, reveals the pick-up line that changed his life • On the wartime lectures of Józef Czapski, the Polish army officer who conjured Proust in a Soviet prison camp • “Without external demands on my time… I would get nothing done.” In praise of writing in the cracks of a busy day • What happens when you destroy a library book? • How rare booksellers around the world rallied against an Amazon-owned company—and won • Craig Morgan Teicher on the moment Sylvia Plath found her genius • The “dream techniques” Ishiguro used to write The Unconsoled • “His revisions in this original manuscript seem to show the writer self-censoring phrases that could be seen as homoerotic”: see Oscar Wilde’s handwritten edits to The Picture of Dorian Gray

 

Best of Book Marks:

From The Hate U Give to New York 214012 Novels to Remind You What’s at Stake • The author of The Life of Saul Bellow Zachary Leader talks to Jane Ciabattari about his five favorite literary lives • This week in Secrets of the Book Critics: Leena Soman Navani on writers on the margins and finding inspiration in other artforms • From Ursula K. Le Guin to N.K. Jemisin, Leah Schnelbach recommends 5 Sci-Fi and Fantasy books to look out for in November • A beatifying of Lucia Berlin, a savaging of Jill Soloway, and more Book Reviews You Need to Read This Week • New titles from Lucia Berlin, Lee Child, Idra Novey, Sebastian Faulks, and more all feature among our Best Reviewed Books of the Week

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New on CrimeReads:

In honor of the 100th anniversary of Armistice Day this Sunday, J. Kingston Pierce looks at 9 mysteries set in the immediate aftermath of the Great War • “It’s an old game everywhere, actually. In the U.S., it’s known as the numbers.” Ed Lin on gambling, luck, lotteries, and what makes Taiwanese receipts so long •  Sarah St. Vincent on security, ambivalence, and violence against women • CrimeReads editor Dwyer Murphy looks at 9 crime books that engage with the opioid epidemic, from Sara Gran’s Dope to Don Winslow’s The Force • Wendy Webb recommends 8 modern Gothics to keep you reading all winter long • Katrina Carrasco on the cheerful sinners of historic Port Townsend • “Something about my childhood in New York in the seventies was a kind of urban ferality…” Jonathan Lethem on childhood, Leonard Cohen, Raymond Chandler, and utopia • Jon Land on continuing the iconic character of Jessica Fletcher, and how to fictionally inhabit the world of Murder, She Wrote • Jack Reacher, Jack Ryan, and James Bond are back! Ryan Steck rounds up all the best thrillers out this November • November’s best international crime releases, as selected by the CrimeReads editors • Serial killers in the family, gender-bending Pinkertons, and mysterious disappearances: all the debuts you need to read this November • Idra Novey talks bookstores, despots, and revolution with Maaza Mengiste • Laura Thompson on the long history of hanging women in England, and how loopholes gradually replaced nooses • Lynne Truss remembers fondly her first dinnerwith the venerable British institution known as the Detection Club

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