TODAY: In 1899, Japanese novelist and short story writer Yasunari Kawabata is born.
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“In a perversion of all laws of the universe, I’m about to read my father a story before bedtime.” Séamas O’Reilly on reading his memoir to the man who taught him to love books (and skipping over the hardest bits). | Lit Hub Memoir
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Lousy at first impressions: When tomatoes made their debut in Renaissance Europe. | Lit Hub Food
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Keith Gessen explores the often-disturbing biographies of great children’s book authors, from Eric Carle to the secretive author of the Frances books. | Lit Hub
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An affair to remember: When Rob Reiner’s alter ego (Harry) met Nora Ephron’s alter ego (Sally). | Lit Hub Film & TV
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Leila Mottley’s Nightcrawling, Tom Perrotta’s Tracy Flick Can’t Win, and Andrew Holleran’s Kingdom of Sand all feature among the Best Reviewed Books of the Week. | Book Marks
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“Praise the shoe that transports us somewhere / more magical than where we are now.” Poems about life in 2022 by Daniel B. Summerhill, Victoria Chang, and more. | The Wall Street Journal
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Tertulia is the latest in a parade of apps hoping to “reproduce online the serendipity of walking into a bookstore and discovering new books and authors.” | The New York Times
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“I’m a poet who’s never experienced true romantic love; I believe this is an American tragedy.” Morgan Parker reflects on a lifetime of singlehood. | ELLE
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“Our lives were strikingly similar. The greatest difference was I was allowed to execute my dreams. Floyd was murdered in the process of executing his.” Darryl Robertson on the new biography His Name Was George Floyd. | Esquire
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“There’s a difference between basing a novel on someone else’s story and using someone else’s written account of that story.” Roxana Robinson on Wallace Stegner and authors who use other people’s writing. | The New Yorker
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What are the most influential queer books of all time? | Book Riot
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“To find the creative spark in a difficult moment can be extraordinarily liberating.” Adam Dalva on Body Work and the necessity of writing about trauma. | The Atlantic
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What’s up with all the Chekhov revivals these days? | Los Angeles Times
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“There’s a disconnect between what we know of American politics today and this notion that the spirit of freedom abroad is fighting, with American help, a great battle with autocracy.” Pankaj Mishra on Ukraine, sanctions, and the politics of humiliation. | The Drift
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Lukas Moe looks at “quit lit” and its context in an unsustainable academic system. | Los Angeles Review of Books
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Ahead of Bloomsday, step inside Ulysses Rare Books, the antiquarian bookshop near Davy Byrne’s pub (IYKYK). | Financial Times
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A new exhibition shows the ways that children’s books captured the civil rights movement. | The New York Times
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Heather Schwedel investigates the latest titling trend in women’s fiction: the “protagonist does a thing” formula. | Slate
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A look at the oldest cookbooks from libraries around the world. | Atlas Obscura
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Should writers stop talking? | Gawker
Also on Lit Hub:
James Patterson remembers the time James Baldwin fought Norman Mailer • Sloane Crosley on writing a novel for people who haven’t figured it out yet • Who are the “real” writers anyway? • Heather O’Neill on writing and mothering • Madhushree Ghosh on hosting Diwali in her new home • Pushing the borders of nonfiction • Joseph Han on the militarized history behind a favorite food • How graphic novels convey a bygone New York • What would a modern-day Austen novel look like? • Tété-Michel’s apolitical travelogue could transform us all • What the Ancient Greeks thought they understood about blood • Reyna Grande on giving her kids the childhood she never had • All fiction is climate fiction now • Adam White on breaking (some of) the rules he gives his writing students • Turns out, summer vacations are a 19th-century invention of the rich • Philip Schultz on the creative juice behind unpleasant emotions • How jazz fueled a nationwide dance craze • Taylor Brobry on growing up gay in North Dakota • On the intimate history between skin and ink • How Bo Seo became a world-champion debater • Who were the first humans in Britain? • How Utica became a city for refugees • Edafe Okporo on life as a gay ex-priest in Nigeria • Read excerpts from Mary Churchill’s World War II diary • On the discovery of the first T. Rex fossil • “Writing a novel is such a big How—a Voltron, really, of many little Hows.” • On the early days of the Heterodoxy Women’s Club • Life as a paramedic in March 2020 • The final journals of Antigone Kefala, one of Australia’s most significant writers • Toward a definition of Indigenous futurism