“Its central question is whether one should approach the wholesale massacre of the innocents with indifference or with hypocrisy, and its conceit is that this is a relevant or fascinating distinction.” This absolute pan of Malcolm Gladwell’s new book is very good. (link)

Leni Riefenstahl and L. Ron Hubbard were gonna make a movie together, because frankly why not. (link)

Germany has acknowledged its genocidal actions in Namibia in the early 20th century and committed to sending money that they are definitely not calling reparations. Is it enough? (link)

“As Dick Snyder was later to say: ‘A publisher has an obligation to believe in the first amendment but not to publish everything that’s sent to him.’” Publishing faces a dilemma when higher-ups make junior staff work on books that directly oppose those staff members’ freedom and identity. (link)

I loved this interview with Zakiya Dalila Harris, author of the new novel The Other Black Girl. (link) Also very much loved this breakdown of how she wrote her book’s twist ending (but spoilers, of course!) (link)

The worst insult in Mean Girls is lesbian. (This movie really did not hold up.) (link)

“They didn’t get on unemployment because they’re lazy. They got on unemployment because they were fired.” Restaurant workers aren’t refusing to go back to work because they like unemployment benefits so much; they’re just refusing to go back to shit jobs that pay like shit and treat them like shit. (link)

“Teigen’s reputation-damaging tweets all share a certain essential DNA. They are all tweets mocking girls and femmes whom the pop culture of the late ’00s and early ’10s had made it clear were fair game for mockery.” The rise and fall of Chrissy Teigen. (link)

Apropos of the above, a celebrity publicist explains how to craft a perfect (or as perfect as possible) public apology. (link)

Another feminist revisits The Beauty Myth in the light of Naomi’s Wolf turn to anti-vaccine propaganda. (link)

The Hot Zone is apparently totally unreliable and carries a racist legacy that continues to affect us to this day THIS VERY DAY? I did not know! It was always kind of vaguely on my TBR list but I have stricken it from the list. (link)

I will always share a cult article. This one’s about a woman who escaped from a cult led by her mother, leaving behind her three children. The pain of this escape and her prior life has never fully left her. (link)

AND ANOTHER ONE: Amanda Montell is interviewed about her new book, Cultish, which I cannot WAIT to read. (link)

Rachel Lindsay speaks about her decision to step away from the Bachelor franchise. (I love Rachel Lindsay.) (link)

Happy weekend, my friends! Don’t join any cults! Including do not sign up for reality dating shows!

The post So the Year’s Almost Halfway Done: A Links Round-Up appeared first on Reading the End.

This article on fanfiction’s rebranding in the past few years is excellent, and features Naomi Novik saying many intelligent things.

What it’s like for women who flee North Korea.

The librarians who track down the books their patrons only sort of remember.

Since I began this links round-up, we’ve fortunately moved on from some of the recent Netflix nonsense, and we are now talking about To All the Boys We’ve Loved Before, which is wonderful. But here’s Linda Holmes going deep on the flaws of Netflix’s everyone-knew-it-was-gonna-be-awful Insatiable; and Smart Bitches Trashy Books on Kristan Higgins’s latest. You should also check out this terrific piece where Samantha Puc talks to some fat activists about Insatiable and the harm it does.

The third report on Black Speculative Fiction has come out. LD Lewis has a postmortem.

The Netflix adaptation of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society is pretty delightful. Maggie Fremont watches it while attempting to make her own potato peel pie.

On language and education as tools of imperialism.

You can have as many problematic faves as you want; just be prepared that some people won’t agree with you. (See also: me on Twitter bitching about Kylo Ren.)

SURPRISE the men interviewed in the New York Times‘s By the Book mention male authors almost four times as often as they mention female authors. Women are close to gender balanced. (This is not a surprise.)

And to close with someone trying to rebrand for bad bad jerkface purposes: Louie CK staged a surprise and unwelcome (to the women present) comeback. “The world can live without the comedic stylings of Louie CK,” says Rebecca Traister. Jaya Saxena asks why these men are so convinced we need them back. Roxane Gay considers sexual assault and redemption.

Happy weekend! I wish you joyous cocktails with friends if your heart desires them, or peaceful reading beneath a weighted blanket if that’s your pleasure. I decline to admit which one of those I will be doing.

The post Rebranding, for Good and Evil: A Links Round-Up appeared first on Reading the End.