TODAY: In 1862, Leo Tolstoy marries Sophia Andreyevna Behrs.
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Sample the Toronto International Film Festival’s literary offerings, featuring the latest Brontë biopic and Ottessa Moshfegh’s best work yet (?). | Lit Hub Film
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Mario Vargas Llosa considers “the invisible work” wrought by Juan Gabriel Vázquez’s novel of never-ending war, Looking Back. | Lit Hub Criticism
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A recipe straight out of the “Midwestern comfort food canon,” Maren Ellingboe King’s sour cream sugar cookies. | Lit Hub Food
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With three episodes left of The Rings of Power’s inaugural season, will it manage to maintain its momentum and goodwill—or will it just (irreparably) piss us off? | Lit Hub Film & TV
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Andrew Keen on Kanye, surveillance capitalism, and our weird, weird, post-realist future. | Lit Hub
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Elizabeth Strout’s Lucy by the Sea, Yiyun Li’s The Book of Goose, and Richard Osman’s The Bullet That Missed all feature among the Best Reviewed Books of the Week. | Book Marks
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Gretchen Rue on the most underrated witches in media. | CrimeReads
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Hilary Mantel, the two-time Booker Prize winner and master of historical fiction, has died at the age of 70. | New York Times
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How libraries became a refuge for people with mental illness—and how they can better support both patrons and librarians. | Slate
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“To have a new explanatory framework foisted onto one’s life is not always healing or generative. It can also feel diminishing, a blow to one’s sense of self.” Rachel Aviv on turning symptoms into words. | The New York Times
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Ocean Vuong reflects on the cultural legacy of Minari. | Vanity Fair
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Joanne W. Golann gives advice on how to publicize an academic book. | Inside Higher Ed
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John Self considers the long global history of book-banning. | BBC
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“I have such a deep relationship with them. In order for me to write about them, I need to inhabit them as fully as possible.” Elizabeth Strout talks about her relationship with her characters. | The Washington Post
Also on Lit Hub: Books that embody the punk ethos • The fun of writing cryptic characters • Read from Amit Chaudhuri’s latest novel, Sojourn