Lit Hub Daily May 21, 2021
TODAY: In 1908, the film adaptation of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, “marvelous and mystifying in its magnificence,” premieres in Chicago.
Nuclear War: What’s In It For You? and 76 other wild book titles you’ve (probably) never heard of. | Lit Hub
“What does it mean to be ‘untouchable’ during a pandemic in which the upper classes are making the world more dangerous for the lower?” Saikat Majumdar considers class and caste in India’s Covid crisis. | Lit Hub Politics
Rafe Posey advises on how to avoid bottomless research holes and navigate the “boggy ground between world-building and pedantry.” | Lit Hub Craft
“INGREDIENTS: One mastodon, plants, water.” Alex Bezzerides on the first humans to start cooking meat (and why we have them to thank for braces). | Lit Hub History
Sharmila Cohen recommends translated sci-fi books by and about women, featuring Olga Tokarczuk, Hao Jingfang, and more. | Lit Hub Reading Lists
“As a writer who goes into these subcultures, I always feel the temptation to point and sneer, which is breathtakingly easy and isn’t all that interesting.” Barrett Swanson in conversation with Jordan Kisner. | Lit Hub
INTERVIEW WITH A JOURNAL: Everything you need to know about Apogee, the journal where marginalized writers are the first priority. | Lit Hub
From gentleman thieves to consummate professionals, Ashley Weaver takes a look at safecrackers in fact and fiction. | CrimeReads
New titles by Francis Spufford, Claire Fuller, Sarah Schulman, and Aminatta Forna all feature among the Best Reviewed Books of the Week. | Book Marks 
“The Israeli soldiers will ask the child not, Did you throw stones, but, Why did you throw stones.” Read Rachel Kushner’s 2016 account of her time in the West Bank. | n+1
Considering the (banal, pervasive) filing cabinet, and its critical role in 20th century information infrastructure. | Places Journal
“It is the fanciest hotel I have ever stayed in, and I am here only because I might die.” Alex McElroy reflects on their eight-day stay at a New York City quarantine hotel. | Esquire
Are unions the way to diversify the publishing industry’s overwhelmingly white workforce? | Workday Minnesota
“Stories can feel almost like human contact, or at least connection—something I think a lot of us have been missing lately.” Brian Broome on the power of storytelling, his memoir, and empathy. | PEN America
Claire Fuller discusses craft, character development, and ownership. | Full Stop
“Everybody is a reader, you just have to find the right book that speaks to your soul.” Talking to Darlene Okpo, who recently opened the new Brooklyn bookstore Adanne. | Vogue
NEW ON LIT HUB RADIO
Rebecca Solnit on why it matters that George Orwell loved gardening, * Why you won’t catch Ralph Nader complaining about food, on The Literary Life. * Michael Lewis on writing an “oddly reassuring story about American government,” on Open Source. * As nationalism rises, is there a future for the center left? * Sci-fi writer Adrian Tchaikovsky wonders if humanity is the final stage of evolution, on New Books Network.
ALSO ON LITERARY HUB
THE CURIOUS CASE OF WILLIAM S. BAEKELAND
Dave Seminara gets mixed up in the culture of extreme travelers. 
DOES A COLOR EXIST IF WE DON’T HAVE A NAME
FOR IT? Adam Rogers on the gap between concept and language. |
