Lit Hub Weekly: June 7 – 11, 2021

TODAY: In 1929, Anne Frank is born, and in 1942, she’s gifted a diary for her birthday.

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

Also on Lit Hub:

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?

The Best of Book Marks:

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