Lit Hub Weekly: May 10 – 14, 2021
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Tayari Jones reconsiders a watershed moment of Black storytelling, Gloria Naylor’s The Women of Brewster Place, nearly 40 years later. | Lit Hub
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How an obsessive scholar saved Iceland’s literary legacy, while a three-day fire burned down Copenhagen—and virtually every book in it. | Lit Hub History
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Pride and Property: Phyllis Richardson on the homes that influenced Austen’s writing, from the rectory at Steventon to Chawton cottage. | Lit Hub
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Sarah Broom on Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, John Banville on Graham Greene, Lauren Oyler on Torrey Peters, and more of the Reviews You Need to Read This Week. | Book Marks
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From family estates to wartime residences, Phyllis Richardson looks at the homes that inspired Agatha Christie’s settings. | CrimeReads
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Carmen Maria Machado responds to the parents and school boards seeking to ban her memoir, In the Dream House. | The New York Times
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Barry Jenkins discusses The Underground Railroad, the horrors of American history, and avoiding the exploitation of Black trauma in art. | BuzzFeed News
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Kiese Laymon explores “the paradoxes of revision, restoration, and repair” in Black friendships. | New York Magazine
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So much for companionable solitude—Walden Pond is teeming with jellyfish. | Atlas Obscura
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This is how trans and nonbinary voice actors are radically changing up the audiobook landscape. | BuzzFeed News
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“These concerns are the stuff of life: What are other people for? What do we want from them?” On reading Jon Klassen’s new children’s book on the eve of the After. | Los Angeles Review of Books
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Jessi Jezewska Stevens considers Georgia O’Keeffe, Toni Morrison, and flowers, which are “endlessly accommodating of projections.” | The New Yorker
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When it comes to learning, do digital or printed texts work best for students? | Los Angeles Times
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“Ghosts feel distinctly Korean to me, and they’re something I’ve shared closely with my mother.” Alex Sujong Laughlin considers the power of ghost stories and the Korean diaspora. | Harper’s Bazaar
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“I’m interested in reading broadly, but I want to first and foremost read the work of Black women writers.” Newly appointed Triangle House literary agent Kima Jones on finding new works by marginalized writers. | Okayplayer
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“The spirit of manifest destiny has been rebranded into the travelogue.” Rosa Boshier breaks down the relationship between capitalism, appropriation, and place. | Catapult
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How much do writers make for their books? A look at the numbers. | Book Riot
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“I have to fight being subsumed into the system, and I don’t always do that.” Alison Bechdel analyzes power, separatism, and gaining mainstream recognition. | Vulture
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“For me, the secret to surviving parenthood is the same as the secret to surviving anything tough/demanding: community.” Nicole Chung on letting go of illusions in parenting, and saying yes to dessert. | Raising Mothers
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“She’s an albacore around my neck.” A masterclass in malapropisms from The Sopranos. | Counter Craft
Also on Lit Hub:
How a pandemic reading project turned Josh Raff into an Austenite • Read an interview with Anne Carson and Robert Currie • Sean Flynn sets out to purchase a peacock • Antonia Pont in praise of sitting • Why do we find creepy children so compelling? • A brief history of the Times wedding pages • How an Irish barman left his mark on the literary world • Anna Dorn on trying to avoid a law career • On being told that your debut novel is plotless • Kate Durbin talks to Chelsea Hodson about the Greek Chorus of objects on Hoarders • John Domini reckons with the Neapolitan Mafia • Sarah Sentilles on the complicated pain of trying to adopt a child • Alison Bechdel on transcendentalism and bliss • Nesrine Malik investigates the roots of “political correctness” • Jennifer Weiner takes the Lit Hub Questionnaire • Andrew McCarthy on landing his career-changing role in Pretty in Pink • Suzanne Simard on the moral reckoning of clear-cutting a forest • The most discussed books on the internet, according to robots • Ashley Nelson Levy wonders how the pandemic might change motherhood literature • Who owns the seaside, anyway? • Marc Hamer on following the Vita Sackville-West school of gardening • On the redemption of Rudy Gobert, COVID Patient Zero of the NBA • Nandana Dev Sen on translating her mother • Martha C. Nussbaum on abuse in the art world • “I thought: Oh, thank God. There are gay women in heaven” • When did mountain climbing become equivalent with business success? • How desire propels the writing life • Joshua Corey on the “macabre waltz” of Hannah Arendt and Martin Heidegger • How the singular “they” saved a translation • Tobias Carroll rereads the work of M. John Harrison
The Best of Book Marks:
Jane Eyre, Anna Karenina, Charlotte’s Web, and more rapid-fire book recs from Mary Morris • From the archives: The authority of suicide in Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar • Dracula, The Time Traveler’s Wife, The Men Who Stare at Goats, and more rapid-fire book recs from Ruth Ware • New titles by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Stacey Abrams, and Edmund de Waal all feature among the Best Reviewed Books of the Week
More from CrimeReads:
Kaira Rouda on a new trend in domestic suspense titles • Julia Sirmons with a field guide to the long history of skyjackings • 80+ crime novels, mysteries, thrillers, and nonfiction books to keep you reading all summer long • Otto Penzler on Mary Roberts Rinehart, America’s answer to Agatha Christie • Heather Martin, Lee Child’s biographer, on a new book that reveals insights into Child’s journey • S.A. Lelchuk with 9 great thrillers featuring alter egos • Olivia Rutigliano on the persistent mystery of Arthur Conan Doyle’s name • Iona Whishaw recalls a family history of espionage • Lisa Levy with 5 psychological thrillers you should read this May • Zack Budryk on Mare of Easttown and the prestige crime series