Lit Hub Daily September 14, 2021
TODAY: In 1613, Sir Thomas Overbury is murdered as the result of a scandal caused by his poem “A Wife.”
“It was only months before that I was devouring Walter Farley and writing love letters to a horse. (I will have you… I will!)” In which Joy Williams responds to our questions via typewriter. | Lit Hub Questionnaire
Colson Whitehead talks crime fiction, midcentury modern furniture, and why a heist novel was the best way to tell the story of New York. | Lit Hub
It’s a busy month for books... Here are 15 new ones out today! | Lit Hub
George Makari considers the phobic world of Richard Wright’s Native Son, which “asks the reader to identify either with a brutal killer or with an evil social order.” | Lit Hub Criticism
Is Pinocchio really about lying? Or why we should all go to school? | Lit Hub
This month’s 5 Authors, 7 Questions, No Wrong Answers features Ben Apatoff, Callie Garnett, Lee Matthew Goldberg, Saïd Sayrafiezadeh, and José Vadi. | Lit Hub Questionnaire
“Headless walruses were washing ashore and they were trying to figure out, were the heads removed before or after they went in the water?” Mary Roach on finding the weird and wild in science stories. | Lit Hub Nature
Amanda Jayatissa celebrates the slow-burn suspense of South-East Asian thrillers. | CrimeReads “Nouveau roman meets Manhattan geography, under sci-fi moonlight.” When John Updike reviewed Don DeLillo’s Cosmopolis. | Book Marks
WATCH: Edward Glaeser on the evolution of city life · Azeem Azhar on the exponential gap of technology. | Lit Hub Virtual Book Channel Ottessa Moshfegh recounts a chance encounter with an unforgettable artist on the eve of 9/11. | GQ
In praise of using a physical dictionary, which “feels like prying open an oyster rather than falling down a rabbit hole.” | New York Times Magazine
Janice Lee on her new novel, the apocalypse, and intentional composition. | The Rumpus
How two recent novels challenge horror’s Final Girl trope. | Slate
“Writing fake letters to advice columns could not be considered a good career move.” On the consequences of practicing an underappreciated art. | Gawker
Elizabeth Warren and Adam Schiff are asking Amazon to prevent its algorithms from promoting books that misinform the public on COVID-19. | The Guardian
Tia Williams lists the books she read while writing her latest novel, including those by Stephen King, Melissa Febos, and others. | New York Magazine
NEW ON LIT HUB RADIO
Listen to The Iliad book by book on Season 2 of Audiobook Break. * Sarah Thankam Mathews reads her story “Rubberdust,” on Storybound. * On So Many Damn Books, Julie Shapiro and Claire Boyle on producing the latest issue of McSweeney’s, an audio-visual exploration. * Dana Gioia on why Ray Bradbury’s work is still essential, on Big Table.
BOYS ENTER THE HOUSE IS THE MUST-READ TRUE CRIME BOOK FOR FALL
Through the testimony of siblings, parents, friends, lovers, and other witnesses close to the case, Boys Enter the House retraces the footsteps of John Wayne Gacy's victims as they make their way to the doorstep of the Gacy house itself. Start reading now.
ALSO ON LITERARY HUB
WHY AN EARLY FEMINIST ADVOCATED FOR THE RIGHT TO DIVORCE
On the trap of being a mother “who knows how to do it all.” |