TODAY: In 1908, Simone de Beauvoir is born in the 6th arrondissement of Paris, France.
- The coup attempt was not a surprise—some readings on how we got here: Rebecca Solnit on the natural culmination of white supremacist identity politics • Timothy Denevi, in the crowd with QAnon as Trump calls for a coup • David Zucchino on the Wilmington insurrection of 1898, which began as a campaign to curb Black voting rights • Liesl Schillinger on the dark magnetism of Donald Trump • A roundtable on the white power resurgence • Rebecca Solnit on the Trump thuggocracy • Darryl Pickney on the American tradition of anti-Black vigilantism. | Lit Hub Politics
- Much remains uncertain about the year ahead, but at least we know the books will be great! Here are 228 of our most anticipated. | Lit Hub Lists
- Demanding poltergeists, foul-mouthed Ouija boards, and more tales of the 19th century American Spiritualist boom. | Lit Hub History
- The most anticipated crime books of 2021: all the mysteries, thrillers, and crime novels you need to get through the year ahead. | CrimeReads
- “Each time, I have found shocks of recognition on the page, but they are always new ones, never the ones I was remembering.” Jenny Offill on a lifetime of rereading Mrs. Dalloway. | The New Yorker
- The past year has been one of reckoning for France’s largely white, scandal-plagued publishing industry. | The New York Times
- “The literary equivalent of falling down an internet rabbit hole”: Why Charles Portis’ Masters of Atlantis is the perfect book for the QAnon age. | Slate
- George Saunders discusses his affinity for Russian short stories, his distaste for social media, and the allure of the doorstopper. | The Guardian
- Nearly a year on, Lila Shapiro goes deep on the American Dirt debacle, and what it says about the publishing industry. | Vulture
- “It was a difficult year for everybody but in terms of my job, I absolutely had a brilliant year.” How the coronavirus crisis made one librarian’s work even better. | The Bookseller
- Was 2020 the year of the villainous white mother in fiction? | Vulture
- “What Love & Basketball gets right is the truth of competitive basketball as an act of physical intimacy.” Read the first installment of Hanif Abdurraqib’s new column about the golden age of basketball movies. | The Paris Review
- New York Times best-selling author Eric Jerome Dickey, whose novels chronicled “the more tender realities of Black life,” has died at 59. | Essence
- “Ease does not necessarily make the finished product any less great.” On Dolly Parton’s songcraft. | Bookforum
- “How often in my life have I wanted to crest on the edge of pure sensation, seeking out the shape of something so big it could obliterate me?” Larissa Pham on running. | Granta
- A latter-day pandemic reading recommendation: Colson Whitehead’s Zone One, which “dumps a bucket of ice water over those who dare to hang on to hope.” | Electric Literature
- Gaze upon some beautiful, optical illusion-forward book covers that prove… books can be deceiving (sorry). | Spine
- Revisiting the twists, turns, and quirks of the life of O. Henry. | Book Riot
- “I don’t think I’ve ever personally known a man or woman who was so loved by so many.” Bob Shacochis remembers his friend, Barry Lopez. | Outside
Also on Lit Hub:
Has the Parent Plot supplanted the Marriage Plot? Peter Ho Davies reflects on the new coming-of-age moment • Daniel Simpson goes deep into the chakras, an oft-misunderstood aspect of yoga • Lore Segal grapples with the perennial question, “Where do you get your ideas?” • On teaching a bird to fly • Nuala O’Connor considers the interior life of Nora Joyce • Randon Billings Noble on the tricky business of rendering epiphanies in nonfiction • Danielle McLaughlin on what goes into a writers notebook • Devon Price examines the “Laziness Lie” at the heart of the American myth • Koa Beck: Why don’t advertisers target queer women? • Camilla Pang on wave patterns as personality types • A poem by Kaveh Akbar • Arthur Miller on the surreal, ideological violence underlying the 1968 Democratic Convention • The early women pioneers of trail hiking •
Watching Cuties, teaching Lolita, and examining moral panic • How to build an antiracist workshop • Andrew Blauner considers the enduring lessons of “Peanuts” • Daniel Lieberman has some ideas on how to make exercise more fun • Tom Vanderbilt learns to sing in his fifties • English teacher Heather Clark about creating spaces for creativity, even amid a pandemic • The quotidien uses of the fourth dimension, revealed!
Best of Book Marks:
New on CrimeReads:
Stacie Murphy traces the history of NYC through 10 historical novels • 10 novels you should read this January • Oliva Rutigliano rounds up 10 classic crime novels now entering the public domain • David Masciotra on Hemingway’s revealing (and very political) only crime novel • Sabina Stent on Hollywoodland, the best neo-noir you probably haven’t seen • Zach Vasquez on noir fiction that explores the narrative of racial passing • Craig Pittman on an icon of Cuban-American Miami crime writing • Rachel Hawkins looks at the many retellings of Jane Eyre • Jon Lellenberg revisits Arthur Conan Doyle’s science fiction classic, The Lost World • Crime and the City heads to Rio