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Lit Hub Weekly

The chunk of chilled rubber seen ’round the world: how legendary physicist Richard Feynman helped figure out the Challenger disaster. | Lit Hub History

Put the spark back in your love life writing practice: what Ron Hogan’s learned from Conan O’Brien, Hannah Gadsby, Mary Oliver, and more. | Lit Hub Craft 

Fights with publishers, birthday cards, four drafts of The Life of the Mind: Samantha Rose Hill dwells in Hannah Arendt’s archives. | Lit Hub History

“How is it that blindness, in a largely ocular-centric culture such as ours, holds such (metaphorical) power?” M. Leona Godin considers Homer, Borges, and the lived reality of the blind writer. | Lit Hub

James Wood on Francisco Goldman's autofictional immersion, Geoff Dyer on a chronicle of a doomed Antarctic expedition, and more of the Reviews You Need to Read This Week. | Book Marks

Molly Odintz with 24 new and upcoming queer crime novels to read all year long. | CrimeReads

Laura Miller laments the inability of readers (particularly on social media) to distinguish between a character’s viewpoint and that of the author. | Slate

“For more than three centuries, at least, English speakers have yearned for more sophisticated ways to talk about gender.” On the long history of gender-neutral pronouns. | The Atlantic

How Milman Parry unmasked the true identity of the writer of the Iliad and the Odyssey. (Hint: It wasn’t Homer). | The New Yorker

From Ulysses to Mrs. Dalloway and more, here are ten novels told in a single day. | The Guardian

Amber Sparks considers mythologies of writing practices, and the slippery dream of being “just a writer.” | Why Be Happy When You Could Be Writing

Read these eight queer titles in translation, recommended by international writers and translators. | Words Without Borders

Gaza’s poets speak about their lives: “Growing up in Gaza is inspiring for anyone, but especially for poets—life here is poetry blown into pieces and scattered all over the place.” | Al Jazeera

Adam Bradley on the legacy of Ralph Ellison and Invisible Man. | T Magazine

Compound sentences. Expletive constructions. Flat verbs. Aatif Rashid considers the unexpected power of writing like Hemingway. | Kenyon Review

“Part of the reason why I titled the book Somebody’s Daughter is that part of the point of the book is found family—friends, boyfriends, teachers.” Ashley C. Ford on her memoir, therapy, and anxiety. | Shondaland

A Quest for Love: Jesse Thistle discusses growing up Métis, colonialism, and Indigenous history. | Publishers Weekly

A brief history of the fire that destroyed three ancient Roman libraries—along with a score of rare texts. | JSTOR Daily

“Here, amid the crowds and neon lights, he saw all kinds of queer stories unfold before his eyes.” A portrait of queer life in Taiwan. | Words Without Borders

The horrors of incarceration: on the works from and about Guantánamo Bay. | Los Angeles Review of Books

“Revisiting The Beauty Myth, I found it beautifully written, accessible, and righteous. I also found it daft.” Rereading Naomi Wolf’s seminal feminist text in the wake of her turn toward public anti-vax propaganda. | The New Republic

How Bill Bryson’s A Walk in the Woods rocked the Appalachian Trail community • Aminatta Forna on the pains of insomnia • Rebecca Rego Barry digs through Marlon Brando’s personal library • After our pandemic year, Marta Bausells puzzles over the conundrum of time • Why are we so afraid of the dark? • Edward Slingerland on the science behind alcohol as muse • Larissa Zimberoff on the history of turning waste into edible food • Alexander Lobrano recounts a dinner out with Giorgio Armani • Anne Sebba on the many fictional afterlives of Ethel Rosenberg • Brian Stelter calls for a reckoning at Fox News • Kathryn Lofton deconstructs Edith Hamilton’s Mythology for modern times • Traversing the most dangerous region of the Norway coast • Gillian Osborne on color theory and William Blake’s “The Ecchoing Green” • Libby Copeland on America’s obsession with genealogy • E.J. Levy on being late to the party, in both publishing and parenting • Andy Martino digs into the cheating scandal that nearly ruined baseball • “There is no place on Earth where human presence does not cast a shadow” • Brian Hall on approaching a writing project with the mentality of a carpenter • Tiya Miles considers the importance of material ownership for enslaved African Americans • How Harold Pinter reinvented the contemporary period drama • Ly Tran on finding home by the water, from the Mekong Delta to Coney Island • Goldberg on the young doctors who went from medical school into a pandemic • What can we learn about the COVID-19 aftertimes from the period following the Black Death?

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Damaged Heritage begins with the Elaine Race Massacre, perhaps the worst massacre against African-Americans in U. S. history, and ends with reconciliation between two descendants–one Black, one white–from the two sides of the conflagration. “Classic” has been used to describe this book. Start reading now.

Leaving the Atocha Station, My Year of Rest and Relaxation, Song of Solomon, and more rapid-fire book recs from Zaina Arafat • “I think no one but Mailer could have dared this book.” Joan Didion on Norman Mailer’s Pulitzer Prize-winning “true crime novel,” The Executioner’s Song • N. K. Jemisin’s Inheritance Trilogy, Toni Morrison’s Beloved, and more rapid-fire book recs from K-Ming Chang • New titles from Rivka Galchen, Lionel Shriver, Akwaeke Emezi, and Lawrence Wright all feature among the Best Reviewed Books of the Week

Nekesa Afia with six novels that capture the essence of history • Laurie R. King on Emily Gerard, the Scottish anthropologist who inspired Stoker’s Dracula • James Wade looks at the growing genre of East Texas noir • Marilyn Peterson Haus explores the twinned hardships of mental illness and stigma • Paul Howarth has some tips for writing an effective villain • Olivia Rutigliano with summertime crime films set at the beach • Eric Redman dives into the shark-infested waters of Hawaiian detective fiction • Connie Berry on the soothing balm of British humor • Allie Pleiter: “knitting and reading simply go together” • Anne Sebba on why Ethel Rosenberg matters

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