TODAY: In 1957, a California Superior Court judge rules that Allen Ginsberg’s poem “Howl” is of “redeeming social importance” and thus not obscene.
- “There is an art to being a good tour guide of the depths of mathematics.” How storytellers use math (without scaring people away). | Lit Hub Criticism
- Taunts and abuse: Deborah Tannen on what really happened at the Trump-Biden debate. | Lit Hub Politics
- “What if we thought of Michael Jackson’s addiction to plastic surgery not as self-loathing body modification, but as a form of artistic practice?” Namwali Serpell on our endless fascination with faces. | Lit Hub Science
- In critics we trust: the best reviewed non-fiction of September. | Book Marks
- Lee Child’s biographer takes a close look at the evolution of Reacher. | CrimeReads
- “Indifference to life seems to matter when using a weapon, but not so much when using the much vaster powers of the state as a weapon.” Louisvillian ZZ Packer on the Breonna Taylor decision, and Daniel Cameron’s sins of omission. | The New Yorker
- “I was always outspoken. The book just gave me a bigger platform to say everything I was always saying.” Viet Thanh Nguyen on how his role on the Pulitzer board transcends literature. | NBC News
- The American Library Association’s list of most challenged books is “a distressing sign of how the culture war has shifted.” | Washington Post
- From Lorraine Hansbery to Joyce Carol Oates: the National Portrait Gallery celebrates the women writers who shaped the past century of American Literature. | Smithsonian
- “I’ve incorporated climate writing into my curriculum as a professor of creative writing so that the subject is central.” Emily Raboteau talks about how literary writers approach the climate crisis. | The Lafayette
- Feeling hopeless about the state of—well, everything? These books could reaffirm your faith in humanity. | The Guardian
- “I’m just really excited and proud of the different spaces I’ve been able to exist in in meaningful ways.” Writer Rachel Cargle on opening an independent bookstore in Akron, Ohio. | WKSU
- Rumaan Alam interviews author and critic Charles Finch about the purpose of literary criticism. | Slate
- “People, generally speaking, gravitate toward pithy phrases and simple rules, even just to end up disagreeing with them.” On Louis Sullivan, the originator of “form follows function,” and the popularity of how-to books. | Lapham’s Quarterly
- A flex: Author and New Yorker poetry editor Kevin Young was named the new director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture. | The New York Times
- Patrick Bassett, the new CEO of Powell’s Books, says bookstores are adjusting to the fact that the pandemic is “the new reality.” | The Oregonian
- How not to store your books: Michael Dirda on his “Smaug-like book hoard” and the limits of “Swedish death-cleaning.” | The Washington Post
- This collection of the world’s most eccentric books includes some quirky, surprising, and just plain weird selections. | The Guardian
- Merve Emre on Ingeborg Bachmann, “whose novels cast a pitiless light on the relationship between patriarchy and fascism.” | NYRB
- Alert: binge-reading is the new Netflix. . . almost. | Wall Street Journal
Also on Lit Hub:
We cannot stress this enough: without the mighty beaver we are all well and truly screwed • Katherine Gaudet on raising reluctant readers • John Freeman on the power of participatory democracy • Blaine Wilson (Tsartlip First Nation) on life under one of the oldest treaties in North America • David R. Roediger: Why does everyone in this country think they’re middle class? • Brian Dillon reminds us of the genius of Theresa Hak Kyung Cha • Vaughn Scribner on made-up monsters in the age of imperial conquest • On Bedwyr Ab Ion Thomas’s mission to reach one million Welsh speakers • Amir Ahmadi Arian on navigating literary censorship in Iran • Didn’t think we could love W.S. Merwin more than we already did • Jonathan Alter on a crucial moment in Jimmy Carter’s presidency • Seven books that rethink mass incarceration, a reading list from the National Book Foundation • Sara Reggiani on translating Ellen Meloy and finding an unlikely home in the Utah desert • Jeremy Sigler does what we all want to do: goes on a rant at an Apple Store • Darcey Steinke life in our newly masked world • Ru Freeman: What does it mean to be an American citizen? • How a 27-year-old heiress helped shape the post-WWII world • On malaria, drought, and the personal consequences of greed • James Raven asks what is a book? • Gregory Ariail on Kafka’s newly translated “lost” writings • Juliana Hatfield has been appearing on tribute albums for three decades and isn’t sure why • Henry Kogan on the questions we should all be asking about the president’s tax returns • In which Jamieson Webster does a very very very close reading of the poet Paul Celan • On riding out the COVID-19 pandemic in the heart of the old Holy Roman Empire • What a video game can teach us about getting through a pandemic • Beth Kephart makes a case the memoir in essays
Best of Book Marks:
David Biespiel recommends five books, a play, and a film on the meaning of Texas • A month of literary listening: AudioFile’s best audiobooks of September • Midnight’s Children, Luster, Wolf Hall, and more rapid-fire book recs from Cree LeFavour • Mariah Carey’s memoir, Colm Tóibín on Marilynne Robinson’s latest Gilead novel, Parul Sehgal on the legacy of the Zealy slave Daguerreotypes, and more of the reviews you need to read this week • “No contemporary American author writes with more clarity and depth of feeling about the quotidian moral questions of ordinary people“: Lori Feathers on the novels of Marilynne Robinson • New titles from Marilynne Robinson, Nick Hornby, Naomi Novik, and Mariah Carey all feature among the Best Reviewed Books of the Week
New on CrimeReads:
5 international crime novels to check out this fall • Thomas H. Carry pays homage to the long tradition of darkly humorous crime novels • October’s best new crime and mystery novels • Mark Pryor rounds up 8 thrillers featuring Americans in Europe • Olivia Rutigliano examines the rearranged Sherlockian world of Enola Holmes • Why writers are always in pursuit of the Maltese Falcon, from Gordon McAlpine • Tyler Maroney goes inside the secret world of private investigators • What are the sexiest books in contemporary crime fiction? • Mike Sager on the mysterious life of a 1970s guru