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Righteous Anger, Rightly Directed: Edouard Louis’s Books About Working-Class Poverty And Pain

"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

My Book Was Canceled. Just Who Is In Charge Here?

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

Coded Letters From The Imprisoned Mary, Queen Of Scots Have Been Deciphered

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

UK’s Women’s Prize For Fiction Is Getting A Nonfiction Equivalent

"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

In Nairobi, A Kenyan Nonprofit Is Making Libraries Truly Public, And Beautiful

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

Penguin Random House Restructures After Its Failed Bid To Buy Simon & Schuster

"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

The Long Friendship, And Many Lunches, Of Yiyun Li And A.M. Homes

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

The Reason Behind The Bold Narration Strategy That Drives One Of 2023’s Best Novels

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

Meanwhile, In London, The British Library Plans A Huge New Extension

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)

Can Lula Deliver More Books, More Literacy, And More Opportunities To Brazil?

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

The Bawdy, Self-Aware Wife Of Bath As First Modern Character Of English Literature

"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 Literary Criticism Is (And Isn’t) For

What is literary criticism — specifically, the kind of highly specialized, theoretically sophisticated textual readings generated by academic critics — really for? - The New York Times

Why Are People Bullying Librarians?

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

Translating Franz Kafka’s Diaries Was A Total Head Trip

"(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

Colleen Hoover Sold Tons Of Books. Then She Published A Coloring Book And It Unraveled

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

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