“Perhaps you had better stay in the womb, I think, just to be safe.” Alexandra Petri on The News.

Bret Stephens continues to be a dingbat.

Jay Fernandez identifies a few common mistakes that book reviewers make. (Some of this is nonsense! But it’s still interesting.)

The final book in Hilary Mantel’s Thomas Cromwell trilogy is coming out in 2020! AT LAST I can read Bring Up the Bodies!

Here’s Mikki Kendall talking about how not all harassment is sexual (though it is also sexual!)

On not knowing where you fit as a biracial person.

Caveat emptor: These dolls are haunted (yet collectible).

Amanda Stern wrote a book about a childhood of anxiety, and found that she had to understand parents before she could help other kids like her.

Jim DeRogatis’s new book about R. Kelly isn’t just about the failings of the criminal justice system and pop culture consumers, says Tressie McMillan Cottom; it’s about the downfall of committed, longform journalism and what that means for predators like Kelly. And here’s Hannah Giorgis on the same topic and the many many people who failed Kelly’s victims. And also Treva Lindsey on the culture’s failures around R. Kelly.

“People are mortal, but IP lives forever.” On the mega-franchises that have become our only widely shared cultural touchstones.

Jenny Zhang considers the idea of “authenticity” in ethnic cuisine and what we’re really looking for. I also highly recommend the Sara Kay article that’s linked inside of this one.

Vulture endeavors to define a beach read.

DOWN WITH SPONTANEITY.

Lindsay King-Miller writes about the appeal of murder lesbians (no, not JUST Killing Eve) (but yeah, Killing Eve).

Every NIMBY’s speech at a public hearing.

Happy weekend! What have you been reading?

The post Haunted Dolls Is Really the Highlight: A Links Round-Up appeared first on Reading the End.

Anyway, here are some other links.

So I’m feeling some kind of way about all the predictably sympathetic coverage of the Austin bomber, and here’s a thing Ijeoma Iluo wrote.

“Angels in America gentrifies blackness out of the American AIDS story”: Steven Thrasher on the most prominent AIDS story we continue to tell.

And now for some good news: Sales at feminist presses are up!

A meeting of the mutual admiration society between NK Jemisin and Neil Gaiman. How heartwarming.

Are we applying (yes) different standards to artists who are also mothers (yes)?

Accessibility at AWP, the country’s largest conference for creative writers, was — not great.

Gina Rodriguez is your Carmen Sandiego. What a blessing.

Constance Grady is here to explain why Ready Player One seemed like harmless fun when it came out, versus the toxic madness it seems like now.

Publishers and bookstores grapple with the recent revelations of harassment by kidlit authors.

We might — have a whole other organ that we didn’t know about before? Y’all, science is wild.

Roxane Gay enjoyed the first two episodes of the Roseanne reboot. She’s not watching any more of it.

Becky Albertalli has your list of queer YA books to enjoy!

There is a story about Dostoevsky meeting Dickens that you may have heard. It’s fiction. But that made-up story — first written about in an article for The Dickensian — is just the tip of an iceberg of scholarly fraud.

Alexandra Petri is a national treasure. “If male authors described men the way they describe women.”

Last but not least, there’s an incredible StoryBundle of world SF, and you can have it as your own for most of the month of April. Hop on it! Ten awesome books for fifteen dollars!

The post Never Will I Not Scream about Jesus Christ Superstar: A Links Round-Up appeared first on Reading the End.

This is not tremendously on brand for me, but I just need y’all to know that there are people whose job title is “smokejumper” and before they became smokejumpers, their job title was “hot shot.” For real. This is real life. Here is how excited I was to share this news with Whiskey Jenny.\

Once again, I want to really emphasize that we have done nothing to deserve Alexandra Petri. Here’s her recap of the second and third presidential debates.

2016 is not real. Here’s the evidence. The thing about Mike Hookem is pretty compelling.

How the Nobel Prize winners are nominated, vetted, and chosen.

To the extent of my knowledge (ie based on the movies on this list I have seen), I fully endorse Sonia Saraiya and Jasmine Guillory’s list of the 33 Best RomComs of all time.

A comics author went on an absolute tear about Romani parents crippling their children on purpose, at this year’s Comic-Con. It was an astounding shitshow of ignorance and racism. Andrew Wheeler has a thorough summary of what happened and some thoughts on the way forward for Marvel.

Mentally ill women are missing from our genre fiction.

If you can stand reading more about white nationalism, this is the story of how a prominent white nationalist and member of a hate group that has committed nearly 100 murders in the five years renounced his toxic politics.

Claudia Rankine, queen of my heart, is using her MacArthur Genius Grant to study whiteness (and race in general).

Public Books has released a frankly pretty astonishing syllabus on rape culture in response to All That Shit in the past two weeks. I’m bookmarking this so I can read every single thing they’re recommending. Anyone care to join me?

The post 2016 Is an Illusion: A Links Round-Up appeared first on Reading the End.

In case you missed it, I wrote a fandom vocabulary primer for the Oxford Dictionaries blog.

The goddess Alexandra Petri (the woman who brought us Emo Kylo Ren) outlines the Great American Novel.

A history of Harry Potter fandom.

The Seattle Seahawks made a loud noise about the statement they were planning to make before their opening game, but what they said was a whole lot of nothing.

“Modern patriotism has become Kabuki citizenship”: Wesley Morris burns the house down, per usual, in this piece on Colin Kaepernick for the New York Times; as does Rembert Browne for NYMag. These Grantland alums, I’m telling you!

If you believe that a frown is a thing you do with your mouth, this article is going to mess you up.

GUESS WHAT KATE BISHOP COMIC

I know it’s sad when a marriage ends, but also, my first instinct was to be excited for whatever Sam Donsky and Anne Helen Peterson were going to have to say about it, and they did not disappoint. I am just so fascinated by celebrity narrative-crafting.

Kiese Laymon on what the American flag means to him.

It’s time to retire the Rom-Com Bitch, says Bim Adewunmi, with an admirably thorough analysis that includes MY BELOVED While You Were Sleeping.

The post I Am an Aunt: A Links Round-Up appeared first on Reading the End.

This is your annual reminder that Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is the best. You may forget about this important issue from time to time, but I will always be here to remind you.

Ship Your Enemies Glitter. There’s really nothing further that needs to be said about this.

Alexandra Petri has some theories about Mike Huckabee’s sudden obsession with Beyonce.

It all started one afternoon in 2008. “Mike, c’mon,” Rick Santorum yelled, disgruntled, after flawlessly executing the entire choreography for “Single Ladies” while Huckabee struggled and flailed behind him. “It’s step step kick seven eight, stepping left on first and four, and you need to keep your head down. Look, Newt has it.”

 

“I have it,” Newt Gingrich added. “It’s simple, yet elegant. Like a moon base.”

Social justice-themed speculative fiction: A list from the B&N Sci-Fi and Fantasy blog.

An art and feminism Wikipedia edit-a-thon created Wikipedia pages for dozens of female artists not previously included in the online encyclopedia. Hooray!

Here is a baby turtle eating a strawberry. Thanks, Mother Jones.

Has it been a while since you took in some of Anne Helen Peterson’s wonderfully cogent and feminist pop culture criticism? It has for me! Here she is on the trouble with “It Girls.”

Book Riot’s FAQs about reading diversely have been terrific so far, and I’m excited for future installments. Here’s Part 1 and Part 2.

The post We’re just here for the husbands: A links round-up appeared first on Reading the End.