"Louis's depiction of poverty is more radical in its honesty. Deprivation doesn't just cause pain and hunger; it also fosters hostility. Circumstances warp behavior. ... Louis is scathing about the government's neglect of the working class, but he also makes no attempt to sugarcoat the psychological effects of poverty." - The Nation
What motivates the anti-colonialist cancellers? On the surface, of course, they believe that I’m wrong. But only on the surface. They could react, as thoughtful people do react to things they object to, with skeptical, critical curiosity. - Compact
The 57 pieces of correspondence had been languishing unidentified in the archives of the National Library of France. They date from Mary's 18 years of captivity at the hands of her cousin, Queen Elizabeth I; most are complaints addressed to France's ambassador to England. - Ars Technica
"The Women's Prize is to launch a non-fiction award to sit alongside its long-running fiction prize, in response to research that found that female non-fiction writers are less likely to be reviewed or win prizes than their male counterparts." - The Guardian
The "public" libraries used to be segregated, for whites only, and then they fell into disrepair. Now, Kenyans "are here to reclaim history, to occupy its architecture and to subvert its intended use." - The New York Times
"Though the restructuring is still a work in progress, its goal is to reinvigorate internal competition for new titles among PRH's many imprints. ... The question about how aggressively (the) imprints actually bid against one another came up during the trial … to block PRH's S&S purchase." - Publishers Weekly
Li: "The reason I’m so curious about the concept of the quintessential American writer is because I am not one, although my coming of age as a writer happened in America. So I’m curious about how you define an American writer." - The Paris Review
V.V. Ganeshananthan, whose book Brotherless Night was on the cover of the New York Times Book Review a few weeks ago: "Another writer said, 'Have you considered writing the book in order?' And I thought, that’s that’s a good idea. I should try that." - Slate
The plan is for another 100,000 square feet of space, including the Alan Turning Institute for data science; green walkways; a garden; and many more informal entrances into the library. - The Guardian (UK)
The newly re-elected president "has reinstated the Ministry of Culture, created a new secretariat dedicated to books and literacy and unblocked nearly $200 million in funds allocated for cultural projects." - The New York Times
"Unlike the queens and witches who preceded her in English literature, Alison is not a flat allegorical figure. Her ordinariness makes her radical." - NPR
What is literary criticism — specifically, the kind of highly specialized, theoretically sophisticated textual readings generated by academic critics — really for? - The New York Times
In a comically transparent escalation of this anti-intellectual crusade, they are targeting libraries. Worse, they’ve embraced a characteristically cruel approach to doing so: bullying librarians. - The Nation
"(I was) groping and straining to make sense of Kafka's groping and straining to make sense. Not only could I not always — or even often — be certain that I knew what Kafka meant, I didn't know whether at any given moment he himself knew what he meant." - The New York Times
It Ends With Us is a book about domestic violence. Hoover detractors who say she romanticizes abuse had a new weapon in their arsenal: How can Hoover pretend she takes the subject matter seriously while creating cutesy, juvenile merchandise? - Slate
