NPR’s Book Concierge for 2022

Brittle Paper‘s list of 100 Notable African Books of 2022.

The Guardian‘s Best Books of 2022.

Paste‘s Best Fantasy Books of 2022.

Kirkus has a bunch of subject-specific lists of best books of 2022.

The Globe and Mail‘s Best Books of 2022.

Laura Miller’s best of 2022. Dan Kois’s best of 2022. (both from Slate)

Shelf Awareness: Best Books of 2022

Chicago Tribune‘s Best 10 Books of 2022

New Scientist‘s best nonfiction of 2022

Washington Post‘s 10 Best Books of 2022

New York Times‘s Best 10 Books of 2022

Foreign Affairs’ Best Books of 2022

Time‘s 100 Must-Read Books of 2022

Barnes and Nobles’ Best Books of 2022

Chicago Public Library’s Best Books of 2022

Vulture’s Best Books of 2022

I am absolutely delighted about Goncharov (1973), and I think you will be too. It is, however, another illustration of how much fandom loves to invest emotions in white characters and whiteness.

“Don’t you want to be able to retire?” How home-reno shows are making us think we want and need home changes we don’t like.

What will writers do without Twitter?

Thank heaven someone has done an oral history of the 12-foot Home Depot skeletons. God bless this Vice article, and God bless the 12-foot Home Depot skeletons. They’re so stupid. I love them so much.

Aubrey Gordon has a new book out and is a national treasure!

An all-spoilers review of what makes Andor so great.

Usually I love the “this industry is completely unregulated!” exposes but this one on hospice is even more of a goddamn bummer travesty than these pieces usually are. Also like… this article takes some turns. You think it’s just “this industry is completely unregulated!” and then some time goes by and there’s a WHOLE ASS SCHEME with a LAWYER IN A WIG DISGUISE and shit. (Seriously, holy shit, I cannot overstate how insane this article is.)

“As the queer content of many of Donatello’s sculptures has been the subject of intense scholarly debate, it would have been intellectually rigorous for the catalogue to address these debates more directly. Instead, silence was observed in deference to the Catholic Church.”

Kavita Das has a new book about writing on social issues, and here she is in a roundtable on the subject with Gaiutra Bahadur and the wonderful Gabrielle Bellot.

The US absolutely owes it to our Afghan allies to adjust the status of refugees now in the US to allow them to stay. Otherwise, they’ll be deported back to Afghanistan. If you take nothing else away from this links round-up, please call your elected officials about this!

Emancipation (the movie!) hadn’t been on my radar until this week, and Valerie Complex has a typically thoughtful review of the movie in itself and the place of Black trauma in cinema.

Always nice to read a story about how romance novels gave someone joy in hard times!

Wesley Morris talks about the crisis of the type of movies that build movie stars.

“Ironically, this is the most personal piece of writing I have ever published.” Isabel Kaplan’s boyfriend (a writer) broke up with her because she’s a writer.

Twitter is awful and being terminally online is awful and everything is awful.

“Our ambulances are simply the entrance to a broken pipeline.” An EMS worker in New York City weighs in on Eric Adams’s shitty new proposal to institutionalize more mentally ill people so that the rest of the New York public won’t have to look at them anymore.

America doesn’t have a polarization problem; it has a white supremacy problem.

Gretchen McCulloch has helpfully standardized how we spell the abbreviated version of the word “usual.” Thanks, Gretchen McCulloch!

Iron Horse asked seven poets about their revision process, and here’s the result.

Have a wonderful weekend! Good luck with your TBR lists! I regret nothing!

The post ‘Tis the Season for Best Books Lists: A Links Round-Up appeared first on Reading the End.

Here’s why the VFX world of the movies is so extremely broken.

Color-blind casting is supposed to create a fantasy world for a broader set of audiences. But it comes with its own problems. See also: “Does colonialism exist in Bridgerton’s world?”

The wonderful Gabrielle Bellot considers Netflix’s Sandman.

Conspiracy theories about celebrity pregnancies are unalloyed misogyny.

The CEO who (allegedly) raised everyone’s salary to $70,000 is an abuser, and he has been known to be one for quite some time. Please stop RTing his content!

What makes a dumpling a dumpling? (Challenge: Read this story without achieving semantic satiation on the word “dumpling.”)

“[She] sometimes converses like she has a tiny Bachelor producer in her brain” is the funniest description I can imagine. Anyway, here is a compassionate and smart profile of Meghan Markle!

I am obsessed with this London Underground-style map of the human body.

Why have US universities let themselves become pipelines to Lockheed Martin and similar defense contractors?

JK Rowling has uh. has written a new book. of sorts.

How Normal Gossip (a newish favorite podcast of mine!) gets made.

Masiyaleti Mbewe considers the state of African millennial fiction — though tragically without mentioning the very millennial (in my opinion) The Eternal Audience of One.

Charlie Warzel reflects on the mistake that led to him being Twitter’s main character for a day, and considers what we can learn from it.

Add this to the list of Scientology’s abuses: It relies on a steady stream of immigrant labor that it acquires by cheating the R1 visa system and abusing immigrant workers.

One of my favorite genres of article is “THIS SYSTEM IS TOTALLY UNREGULATED.” For your consideration today: dog training.

“Hollow moral leadership upheld by a spectacle of extravagant, ill-gotten wealth has enabled Britons to remain proud of rather than reflective about empire and its destructive impact today.”

“The Queen is not entitled to your grief.” Ayan Artan, a Somali-British writer, considers the marketing effort on behalf of the monarchy to conceal and erase the damage of British imperialism.

“People like Jeff Bezos, the Amazon founder who has gone all in on The Rings of Power, have more wealth than they could possibly use in a single lifetime, and in many respects more power than any king could ever have dreamed of; the rest of us face rising rents, inflation, and a gig economy that affords few protections when we get sick or injured.” On the new crop of fantasy TV shows.

Chinelo Okparanto considers the ethics and aesthetics of writing across racial identities.

Sarah Weinman reflects on Serial and all that it did and didn’t do.

Tips and tricks to run a good book club.

It’s always a cause for celebration when Lamar Giles has a new book out! He has a new book out AND he’s writing about social horror, yay!

Scaachi Coul is terrific as ever on the downfall of the Wife Guy. Linda Holmes on audience entitlement re: same.

This is superb TikTok journalism and I think Kady Ruth Ashcraft for doing it.

“The Very Online never leave: they hate it here but they’re never anywhere else.” On the digital afterlife of my beloved Constantine Cavafy.

So-called “secret menus” that go viral on TikTok are making the lives of fast food workers hell.

Hell of a kicker on this piece about how India’s movie industry has been affected by the rise of Hindu nationalism.

Maori polar explorers!

Happy weekend, friends!

The post It’s Scary How Many Links There Are: A Links Round-Up appeared first on Reading the End.

All of this to say, please be gentle with yourself if you’re having a hard time right now. Here are some links!

Gabrielle Bellot writes about her long affection for Ms. Marvel and what Kamala Khan’s struggles have meant for her as an adult. (link)

What does it mean to write trauma well? (link)

“From the use of solitary confinement, which amounts to torture, to the punitive charges for phone calls, every aspect of the American system, major or minor, seems to be motivated not by the desire to prevent crime or to rehabilitate prisoners, but by the impulse to inflict spectacular, exemplary pain for the satisfaction of a general public that derives a furtive pleasure from its proximity to suffering.” Hari Kunzru on mass incarceration. (link)

Mara Wilson discusses The Narrative and the reasons Britney Spears never had a chance. (link) Also: Britney Spears is not in control of her image, and she never has been. (link)

Another excellent piece in Stitch’s series on fandom for Teen Vogue! (link)

Not seeing herself in the world of Lord of the Rings, Namina Forna decided to create her own. (link)

Arcadia is a perfect play, and that is the end of the matter. (link)

Variety reported on the sets of Joss Whedon’s shows and what the atmosphere was like. (Not good at all.) (link)

“The love-hate relationship with the musical form that made Dolly possible is a reflection of the push-pull of Southern culture for non-Southerners. They may hate country music but they have a ceaseless appetite for its white escapism — sonic, visual, and embodied.” Tressie McMillan Cottom on Dolly Parton. (link)

On the rightwing attack on trans women and girls in sports. (link)

“She was a shiny button.” Kelly Marie Tran deserves better and always did. But she’s succeeding in spite of the haters. (link)

I caught up on WandaVision and I liked it a lot! Except for that I was/am very mad that Monica Rambeau didn’t have more to do, considering that she’s the most beautiful human in the whole world. Here are some links about that:

• The puzzle box format that TV viewers have come to expect does a disservice to the emotional storytelling in WandaVision. (link)
• “WandaVision was always telling us what type of show it was. There was no greater mystery to figure out, no big puzzle that really even needed to be solved. All we had to do was sit back and tune in.” Carly Lane on the finale. (link)
• “Once we have found our way past so much grief, after so many spent and destructive illusions, what do we want? Who else can we try to be?” (link)

Having a bionic arm isn’t all it’s cracked up to be; or, a very useful article that all Stucky fanfic writers should take into account going forward. (link)

“White feminism has always been exclusionary.” Koa Beck discusses the archival records that show the history of white (and cis, and straight) feminists excluding all other voices. (link)

I only care what Black women have to say about the Oprah interview, so here’s a few:

• The hostility and trolling that Meghan Markle has faced is a pure example of misogynoir, and we shouldn’t look away. (link)
• “[Oprah is] something of an emissary, a reactive translator of emotion, a master weaver, pulling disparate revelations into a collective portrait that colonizes the mind.” (link)
• “I’ve rarely heard white friends discuss their parallel experiences of first realizing their privilege.” Salamishah Tillet on Harry’s racial awakening. (link)

Phew, this is an article about cops who danced with protestors at a Black Lives Matter event and then stormed the capitol. (link) SORRY THE LAST LINK WAS SO SAD.

The post Quarantinaversary: A links round-up appeared first on Reading the End.

A brief history of Mexican comics. (link)

Hafez divination helps to get Nilo Tabrizy through quarantine. (link)

Black fans are holding K-pop accountable for racism and appropriation. (link)

Clueless remains our best Jane Austen adaptation. (link)

The independent bookstore industry must grapple with its racism and complicity in white supremacy. (link)

True crime is going to have to change. It can’t just be about and for white people. (link)

Do you think you have a book idea? Here’s the first question you need to ask yourself (and where to go from there). (link)

“Sensitivity readers … are a piecemeal fix in an industry that continues to push minority voices to the margins.” (link)

A psychologist rates Brendan Leonard’s stress coping strategies. I felt extremely come-atted from the very first one, but there’s a strategy on his list about to-do lists that broke into my house and punched me in the face, and frankly how dare it. (link)

Alaya Dawn Johnson grappled with the racist history of noir in order to write a noir world that centers Black experiences. (link)

The new Netflix show Indian Matchmaking glosses over the hard facts of caste among Indian families. (link)

How should we cope with the constant moral shifts in the people we admire? (link)

Chefs shouldn’t rule like kings. Collaboration and support, not abuse and single vision, should govern restaurant kitchens. (link)

I hope you will be able to have some peace and quiet this weekend, or some non-scary excitement if that’s what you desire! Remember that everyone is struggling, so you are not alone and do not need to feel guilty for not being at the top of your game.

The post Something’s Gotta Give: A Links Round-Up appeared first on Reading the End.

Nevertheless: The Millions Book Preview, July – December 2020 Edition. (link)

Hope Wabuke on the KKK joke. (link)

Isabel Wilkerson considers the persistent caste system and the old, broken-down house that is America. (link)

The Netflix Babysitters’ Club is the cutest sweetest show of all time and you should watch it immediately, and also you should read Constance Grady on why the books were such an enduring pleasure that you eventually got very sick of. (link)

“A carefully veiled invitation to use dehumanizing rhetoric under the bastion of ‘the free exchange of ideas.'” Gabrielle Bellot is so great in this response to the Harper’s letter. (link)

What’s brought us to the current situation of harassment and toxicity in the comics world? (link)

“What it signals is orthogonal to what it says.” Lili Loofbourow decries the refusal of those who condemn “cancel culture” to admit the realities that shape online interactions. (link)

“What is the value of a debate that considers some human lives mainly as rhetorical quandaries?” Hannah Giorgis is, as ever, brilliant. (link)

What does power look like in the age of social media? Or, how to have healthy parasocial relationships. (link)

If you are wondering why everyone has been making cake jokes this week, Jaya Saxena is here to help. (link)

It is never appropriate to be attracted to a David Tennant character, and yet. (link)

The situation with John Ortberg and Menlo Church has been … I want to say shocking, but the truth is it’s been tiresomely predictable. (link)

Two STEM scholars put together 10 simple rules for building an antiracist lab. (link)

Seriously, though: Am I even a human person if I am not thrilled and elated with the Millions book preview?

Anyway,
Jenny

The post I’m Weirdly Not That Into the Millions Book Preview: A Links Round-Up appeared first on Reading the End.

I never liked ironic detachment. Emily VanDer Werff goes in on why it fucking sucks and we should care about stuff. (link)

“You are not permitted to watch a police precinct erupt into flames under a canopy of fireworks and whisper to yourself, “good.”‘ Tochi Onyebuchi on the responsibility of Black writers in America. (link)

Michael Arceneaux makes the case against forgiveness. (link)

In order to fix our country, white women need to face a clear-eyed reckoning about the role we have historically played and continue to play in upholding white supremacy. (link)

Dear Holmes looks so fucking fun and I don’t even like Sherlock Holmes. (link)

Quarantine is a terrific time to rediscover The Westing Game, which is as cynical about capitalism as you are right now. (link)

“Someone at some point has to get down to the business of reading.” Lauren Michele Jackson on anti-racist reading lists. (link)

Angelica Jade Bastien is typically eloquent and brilliant on Michaela Coel’s new show, I May Destroy You. cw for sexual assault. (link)

What does K-pop owe to the Black Lives Matter movement? (link)

Here is a story about racism in NOW. (link)

White writers of crime fiction are complicit in the valorization of police in American culture. They can change how they write. (link)

Lauren Francis-Sharma hoped that quarantine would let her protect her children from American racism. It did not. (link)

A Letter From a Black Woman in Publishing on the Industry’s Cruel, Hypocritical Insistence That Words Matter, by Mariah Stovall (link)

Why we all turned on Glee. (link)

As we all wait breathlessly for the Millions second half of 2020 book preview, Lithub has used math to compile a list of the mathematically most anticipated books of summer. (link)

And now, the JK Rowling sucks links. Kacen Callender talks about staying alive for the Harry Potter books — and why JK Rowling’s transphobia is so deeply harmful. (link) Gabrielle Bellot writes about how JK Rowling betrayed the world and the readers she made. (link) Mallory Yu on why this is so personal. (link) Aja Romano on finding their nonbinary identity through Harry Potter, and realizing that had nothing to do with JK Rowling. (link) Emmet Asher-Perrin on saying goodbye. (link)

Do you think there’s any chance that JK Rowling being an asshole will save us from further Fantastic Beasts movies? The first one was Not good, and I heard the second one was even Not gooder. But maybe that will be the only two we have to suffer through.

The post Down with Forgiveness and Also Ironic Detachment: A Links Round-Up appeared first on Reading the End.

Emily Asher Perrin’s Tor.com piece on identifying with uncool characters spoke to my nerdy, rule-abiding heart.

Akwaeke Emezi talks about finding a path to a truer identity, through Nigerian spiritual beliefs and Western surgeries.

This interview with Jia Tolentino reminds me of so many reasons why I dig her. If you’re not familiar with her work, familiarize yourself! She’s got a book coming out!

Gabrielle Bellot writes brilliantly and eloquently on the colonial thinking that produces remarks about shithole countries, and how every country has “a grandeur in spirit worth fighting for.”

A defense of Book Five Capslock Harry.

Millennial culture is this Twitter thread. (Major spoilers for Star Wars: The Last Jedi contained herein.)

Amal El-Mohtar is taking over for NK Jemisin writing an SFF column for the New York Times Book Review. Two excellent reviewers for an excellent column! What a world!

Some elements of the trailer for The Shape of Water made me suspicious, and I decided not to see it. Elsa Sjunneson-Henry (who did see it) explores the film’s failures of disability representation. (One amazingly easy improvement would have been to cast a disabled actress in the main role.)

On good guys and bad guys and how old-time stories didn’t really have them.

“While men weren’t looking, women built a genre that tackles love, sex, pleasure, class, money, feminism, masculinity, and equality.” Romance novels! (With lots of my fave romance authors being quoted, so hooray for that too.)

Mimi Mondal offers a brief history of South Asian science fiction and fantasy.

The grand jury prize at Sundance this year went to a YA adaptation, The Miseducation of Cameron Post. Woot!

A twitter thread about how to fight in a dress.

One of my 2018 goals is to read more SFF short fiction. Luckily, I have the writers at Lady Business backing me up, including this MASSIVE post of 2017 favorites. What a time to be alive.

Rebecca Traister is so sensible, even when she’s talking about Katie Roiphe who I find to be mostly nonsense.

This interview with the guy who gets Super Bowl halftime shows on the field in LITERALLY SIX MINUTES is really fascinating from a process perspective.

Have a wonderful weekend, friends, and if you’re a Mardi Gras celebrator, have a wonderful Mardi Gras!

The post Too Sleepy to Think of a Title for My Links Round-Up appeared first on Reading the End.