- “It’s downright strange that intelligent women would call a book that disposes of its protagonists’ dreams in order to settle them into lives darning socks “required reading” for young girls today.” Reconsidering Little Women as a “feminist” novel. | Vulture
- “Speaking of any of this is a transgression.” Leonard Cohen’s son on his father’s final poems. | The Guardian
- “When physicians care for their patients, they have a responsibility both to treat, and to heal. And poetry can help with healing.” A Harvard medical student on how doctors can use poetry—and understand it as part of the Hippocratic Oath. | Nautilus
- The Kuwaiti government is stepping up its literary censorship, banning books including 100 Years of Solitude, 1984, and even The Little Mermaid (for seashell bikini reasons). | The New York Times
- On the 30th anniversary of the publication of Roald Dahl’s Matilda, a statue has been unveiled of the bookworm (and LGBTQ+ icon) facing off against Trump. | New Statesman, TIME
- “The truth was that being Korean and being adopted were things I had loved and hated in equal measure.” Nicole Chung on the complexities of her childhood. | BuzzFeed Reader
- “I’ve heard lots of criticism of what I’m doing,” she said. “I’ve been told these aren’t stories.” Rumaan Alam profiles Diane Williams, whose new Collected Stories has 784 pages of . . . stories. | The New York Times
- “I still remember that original encounter, how it felt like a flare from my own secret world, all the inchoate longings and obsessions of being a teen-ager somehow rendered into book form.” Emma Cline on The Virgin Suicides. | The New Yorker
- From Andrea Dworkin to Brittney Cooper, the books Rebecca Traister read while writing Good and Mad (and two she wishes she had). | The Cut
- “If the narrator is flawed, it makes it easier to fool the reader because you’re not withholding anything.” Tana French on the art of the red herring. | Vulture
- “It was a place where she read to deepen her literary education and her communion with her mother, and a place where she was inducted into mysteries of sexuality.” Mary Shelley’s obsession with the cemetery feels fairly on-brand. | JSTOR
- An appreciation of the Paddington Bear books —particularly the pop-ups—on the 60th anniversary of A Bear Called Paddington. | Smithsonian
- Angela Flournoy profiles Barry Jenkins as he puts the finishing touches on his adaptation of James Baldwin’s If Beale Street Could Talk. | The New York Times Magazine
- Louise Erdrich, Leni Zumas, Bina Shah, Naomi Alderman, and more: on the rise of the feminist dystopia—and it’s not just because of Trump. | The Atlantic
- Kelly Link, Natalie Diaz, John Keene, and Dominique Morisseau have been awarded MacArthur Genius grants. | MacArthur Foundation
Also on Lit Hub:
October picks: the 21 books Lit Hub contributors are looking forward to reading in this, the spookiest month • From All About Eve to Secretary, 31 movies based on short stories • “Reading for this year’s anthology was as much a political act, and a way of taking a stand, as my writing.” Roxane Gay on what makes a story political in 2018 • Ann Patchett on Sandra Boynton • Two poems by Ursula Le Guin • In which we learn that Charles Dickens had three ravens, but only one raven-name idea • 23 women horror writers who are (almost) scarier than the patriarchy • Did the creator of The Twilight Zone plagiarize Ray Bradbury, or are time-warping carousels more common than previously assumed? • Nicole R. Fleetwood on raising a black son not to be afraid• On the literary heroes of teen Benjamin Franklin, from Socrates to The Spectator • Autonomous everything: from surgical robots to computerized weapons, algorithms are taking over our world • Nicole Im on suicidal sharks and self-harm • Alice Walker talks history, weeping while writing, and the pleasures of spontaneous song • Mary Gabriel on how Lee Krasner made Jackson Pollock a star • Matthew Daddona talks to Diane Williams, beloved writer’s writer, and master of the (very) short story • Leif Enger on the equalizing power of the kite (and why he never leaves home without one) • Introducing The Avid Reader, essential reading advice from our favorite writers. Up first, Helen Simpson on the pleasures of Chekhov’s story, “Oysters” • “He came from dykes and to dykes he shall return…” Mikaella Clements on the queerness of Ernest Hemingway • For Fiction/Non/Fiction, Elizabeth McCracken, Tony Tulathimutte, Hadara Bar-Nadav, and Kathryn Nuernberger weigh in on MFA vs. pretty much everything • Michael Crichton is taller than some dinosaurs. And other surprises from this ranking of famous writers’ heights • Heather Havrilesky is fed up with American gurus • On the heartbreaking pain of falling in love with books you just can’t have • Remembering Inge Feltrinelli, a publishing legend• David Ulin on the recently rediscovered Neal Cassady letter that inspired On the Road
Best of Book Marks:
Award-winning poet and Cave Canem Executive Director Nicole Sealey on why she read a poetry book every day for a month • On Sunset author Kathryn Harrison on her five favorite Los Angeles memoirs • This week in Secrets of the Book Critics: NYLON Executive Editor Kristin Iversen on The Lover and the amorphous boundaries of the literary world • Wicked wizards, sinister spouses, vicious Victorians, and more villains and monsters from PBS’ The Great American Read • Dan Chiasson on Max Ritvo’s final poems, Katie Kitamura on Olivia Laing’s Acker experiment, Stormy Daniels’ Trojan horse, and more Reviews You Need to Read This Week • New titles from Leif Enger, Andre Dubus III, Hampton Sides, and Jodi Picoult all feature among the Best Reviewed Books of the Week
New on CrimeReads:
9 new crime novels to read this October • The 15 women crime writers—from Christie to Sayers—whose work has been brought to the big screen more than any others • “Tey opened up the possibility of unconventional secrets.” Val McDermid on the mysteries of Josephine Tey, the dream of one last novel, and a collection from The Folio Society • The Birth of American Detective Fiction: Leslie S. Klinger on the unlikely crime solvers who launched a phenomenon and made way for the noir movement • Rebecca Romney visits an immaculate recreation of 221B Baker Street in Pennsylvania and considers the enduring charms of Sherlock culture • S.L. Huang on why we need more problematic women in crime fiction Ben Macintyre on Oleg Gordievsky, the greatest spy you’ve never heard of, and how he prevented a devastating nuclear war • “Karen Berger on publishing Anthony Bourdain’s final novel, and Bourdain’s lifelong passion for dark comics, “the bastard child of publishing” • From The Beekeeper’s Apprentice to Elementary, Sherry Thomas rounds up her favorite Sherlockian pastiches • Crime novels make the best travel guides: Peter Gadol rounds up 7 books that take the reader on a journey and show “the city from another, often troubling perspective” • “Why is it then that a lot of crime fiction avoids the borough like the plague?” Angel Luis Colón looks at why there aren’t more crime novels set in the Bronx • Peter Stone rounds up 12 of the best thrillers featuring political scandals, from rigged elections to rogue submarines • Read an exclusive excerpt from Mary Roberts Rinehart’s The Red Lamp, the first in the American Mystery Classics series • Laurie Loewenstein on the mom-and-pop jails that once scattered across America, and the strange intimacies these setups created • Nic Joseph examines the iconography of the ordinary in crime fiction, from country houses to rideshares • “That’s the problem with novels as instruments of progress. You can only show the truth that readers want to see.” Leo Benedictus on the history of addictive novels, and what makes a story dangerous
