- “So much injustice in a woman’s life can be traced back to a man claiming the power to control her narrative.” Lacy M. Johnson on the lies men in power tell. | Lit Hub Politics
- Ocean Vuong pays tribute to the ten books that made his novel novel possible, from The Gangster We Are All Looking For to Go Tell It on the Mountain. | Lit Hub Reading Lists
- “The paradox is that one has to read the stories to understand how wrong we have been.” Lauren Groff on the forgotten genius of Nancy Hale. | Lit Hub Literary Criticism
- Patricia Lockwood on John Updike as malfunctioning sex robot, Jonathan Lethem on Edward Snowden’s self-portrait, and more of the Book Reviews You Need to Read This Week. | Book Marks
- “She was the grande dame of American crime fiction, at the height of her powers, when she fell into a murder mystery of her own.” Sarah Weinman on Mary Roberts Rinehart. | CrimeReads
- In which Haruki Murakami may or may not reveal the seed of his cat obsession, and also writes beautifully about his father. | The New Yorker
- Apocalyptic race wars, nationalist coups d’etat, and more: On the terrifying world of far-right literature. | The New Republic
- Cookbooks are selling. Why aren’t their authors making more money? | The New York Times
- “I had this sort of feverish, drugged-up night of my illness watching that episode of The Smurfs about mortality.” Anne Boyer on novels, Balzac, and “noting the bee.” | The Believer
- A new collection has “shattering” testimonials from school shooting survivors. | The Washington Post
- Nell Zink, Joy Williams, and the case for climate negativity. | Longreads
- On Jane Eyre as “multilingual, ever-changing global text.” | The Conversation
- As Beijing tries forcibly assimilating the Uighur population in northwest China, many Uighurs have moved to Istanbul, where they attempt to keep their culture alive through music, painting, poetry, and more. | Foreign Policy
- “I’ll never forget my best friend’s father ranting about “entitlements” as he walked out the door on his way to pick up an unemployment check.” Amy Brady on the Topeka of her childhood (and of Ben Lerner’s new novel). | Slate
- From NYRB Classics to the Chicago Quarterly Review, here are four literary anniversaries worthy of celebration this year. | The Washington Post
- Are we living in a simulation? Are you a simulation? Is this newsletter a simulation? | The Paris Review
- On Susan Choi’s Trust Exercise and what it means to honestly represent sexual assault in fiction. | The Nation
- “Nostalgia for 70s era bohemia runs high, particularly in these fractious times.” On the ongoing Eve Babitz renaissance (also known as “the Babitzance”). | The New York Times
- The Washington Post reports on a particularly tense Q+A at an event for She Said in DC, where, audience members said, moderator Bob Woodward missed the mark. | The Washington Post
- Relax, bookish scofflaws: the end of library late fees is near. | WSJ
Also on Lit Hub:
The end of the decade is nigh, and so our reckoning continues with the ten best debut novels of the 2010s • Karl Ove Knausgaard has some thoughts on one of Norway’s great writers • Madeleine Watts on Patrick White, Australia’s great unread novelist • Jeanette Winterson and Mark O’Connell discuss the future of humanity in a tech-dominated world • Cornel West on the revolutionary Foundry Theater, “a uniquely American movement against the dominant forces in America” • Mieko Kawakami on the women characters of Haruki Murakami • On Virginia Woolf, Anne Carson, and the use of form to investigate truth and death • Anthony Doerr on the pleasure of throwing out all the rules when writing a short story • On the irreconcilable temptations of Anne Carson • Felicia Day on writer’s block, weirdness, and women with swords • Why give a rapist a voice? Jeannie Vanasco on writing the character of her abuser • Steve Luxenberg on journalism versus storytelling • Are civilization and income inequality inextricably intertwined? • On Monsieur Bovary, one of literature’s most necessary characters • Lev Grossman on the history of cartography in sci fi, fantasy, and more • Running a bookstore aboard a 100-year-old Dutch barge never gets boring (though it sometimes gets wet) • With Jenny, Sigrid Undset told a cautionary tale of a doomed flâneuse • Feeling lucky? Perhaps this brief history of gambling with dice will change your mind • On the courage and complexity of Olga Tokarczuk • On Emma Tenayuca—one of the great unsung heroes of the American labor movement—and the San Antonio pecan shellers strike of 1938 • Can fiction teach AI to feel? • Letters from a young artist trying to make it in New York: when Jerome Robbins, dance icon, could barely land an audition • A poem by Javier Zamora from the new issue of Freeman’s • The secret to shopping in used bookstores, revealed • All hail the mighty hashtag • Bill Mullen on James Baldwin’s last two unfinished works • Eileen Pollack considers the rage of the angry young men on campus and our responsibility toward them • On the congressional climate change committee that went toe-to-toe with the Koch Brothers • Jonathan Safran Foer on humanity’s struggle with apathy bias • On Ann Petry, the author who didn’t care to be remembered • Julia Alvarez on the 2019 Border of Lights Virtual Vigil
Best of Book Marks:
Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon, Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man, John Williams’ Stoner, and more rapid-fire book recs from Jamel Brinkley • Memoirs of an Ex-Prom Queen author Alix Kates Shulman recommends five books that made her a feminist, from To the Lighthouse to Their Eyes Were Watching God • To celebrate the release of her new novel, here’s a reader’s guide to becoming obsessed with Jeanette Winterson • A haunted Ivy League campus, a plucky interstellar janitor, and a group of intrepid space nuns all feature in October’s Best Sci-Fi and Fantasy Books • New releases from Ben Lerner, Jeanette Winterson, Tegan & Sara, and Rachel Maddow all feature among the Best Reviewed Books of the Week
New on CrimeReads:
From seaside amusement parks, to Scandinavian trolls, 10 books you should read this October • Tara Laskowski on grief, longing, and ghost stories • Michael Nava shows us how a private eye novel can be the perfect metaphor for being gay in the world • Shaun Hamill grapples with the legacy of H.P. Lovecraft • Rene Denfeld on escaping the Green River Killer • The best opening paragraphs of Graham Greene • “Every age has its own set of fears.” Stephen Chbosky talks horror, creativity, and imaginary friends • Peter Steiner makes the case for Kafka as crime writer • Akanksha Singh discusses the new documentary about Michelle Carter • Kira Peikoff on how fiction can get us talking about issues that matter
