The always-great Angelica Jade Bastien reviews the new The Little Mermaid.

At the close of the inaugural #EndOTWRacism campaign (but hopefully there are many more iterations to come!), Stitch reflects on what fandom needs.

“The music of a bygone time, a simpler, better era, when cars weren’t sold by direct-to-consumer, the internet barely existed, and prices were negotiable and opaque.” Inside the National Automobile Dealers Association, a weirdly powerful force in the Republican party.

Maureen Ryan’s book Burn It Down promises to be a barn, um, burner. Vanity Fair excerpted a chapter about the racist, sexist, bullying culture on Lost.

Here is the update on Caroline Calloway, because you know we all needed that.

True crime got worse.

“The operative factor is the training to recycle their traumas through violence.” Why it’s not surprising that the man who killed Jordan Neely was a marine.

“Dark romance novels don’t fear abusive men—if they did, the books would be wiped clean of their assault scenes. Their ultimate fear is of non-normative desire.”

Here is what is up with the embarrassing Hannah Gadsby exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum.

The downfall of Tom Sandoval.

Why are there so many gd Persephone retellings!!

The ghost of carbon monoxide stories (a folklore perspective).

Writing for robots: The SEO arms race and all the garbage it’s left us with.

If you missed the recent Anne Carson discourse, please feel to treat yourself.

And a lovely piece on a poet shelved directly next to Anne Carson on my bookshelves: my beloved CP Cavafy!

Tressie McMillan Cottom perfectly explains why I dropped out of Ted Lasso, the first season of which I loved beyond reason.

“A deteriorating rest stop on the road to nowhere.” Last Angelica Jade Bastien link, I swear! This one’s a review of The Flash.

“And these efforts do not include plans for training or mentorship or support long-term career trajectory for up-and-coming BIPOC who may be thrown in the deep-end on the job, and be expected from the start to do it well.” Black women are being erased from book publishing.

“How I treasure any artwork that preserves a silence or recognizes a limit!” Zadie Smith reviews Tár.

The dueling realities of Caroline Calloway and Natalie Beach.

Leave the deep ocean alone. Leave it alone. Leave it alone.

What is a bottle episode? Kathryn VanArendonk is now the authority on all things bottle episode, and she has a handy guide to understanding what is and isn’t one.

A guide to the many queer bookshops of the UK. (This is not useful to me but I want UK readers to be happy too.)

Happy 75th birthday to “The Lottery,” a perfect jewel of a short story. Writers reflect on what the story has meant to them.

Every time I’ve heard someone wonder why all animated movies don’t look as good as Spiderverse, I have thought, there is a reason for this. And surprise, I was right.

Happy 4th to those who celebrate, by which I mean I hope everyone’s able to have a chill quiet weekend!

The post Links, links, links! A Links Round-Up appeared first on Reading the End.

AT LAST it is Millions Book Preview O’Clock wooooo!

Brandon Taylor really really REALLY did not enjoy the new adaptation of Persuasion. I do not have a dog in this fight.

“One of [Elon Musk’s hobbies is that he sometimes likes to pretend that he will acquire public companies…. This is an expensive hobby!” Matt Levine explains what’s going on with Elon Musk and Twitter.

On Costco and the immigrant experience.

Ed Yong is, thank God, back once again to explain what we need to know about the BA.5 variant of horrible stupid COVID.

This article about the politics of English in India is fascinating and has definitely made me want to read the author’s whole book.

Thanks to Strange New Worlds, Star Trek feels like Star Trek again. This is not an argument I can personally weigh in on, as I am working my way through DS9 at the moment and have not yet gotten to the new shows. But it seems right.

“I don’t know how else to explain it, they just clean the way you clean in a kitchen.” The Bear gets Chicago wrong, but it gets restaurant kitchens so right.

This Vulture interview with the subtitlers for Stranger Things fails to capitalize d/Deaf appropriately, but it’s still a very interesting look behind the scenes at what goes into the art of subtitles.

Pop culture is reevaluating Tracy Flick. Not me, though, I was always horrified that people acted like she was the villain of that movie. Like, wtf.

Ravynn Stringfield was not nourished by academia, but by the presence of Black women in the world of comics.

In case you’ve missed the wild and wacky world of Funny Girl‘s recasting, here is an explainer of what is going on.

In this thread, Alexis Hall answers every question Carrie Bradshaw asks in the original Sex and the City.

“People don’t die for no reason; Aquarians just occasionally get reckless on the freeway. Simple.” A story about doing astrology.

Here are some extra-good books by indigenous authors this year.

The head of the New York Antiquities Theft Task Force has some surprisingly insightful things to say about how to be a good person. Also lots of good, juicy art theft details.

Speaking of Interesting Jobs, I’m obsessed with movie sound design, and this article on Foley artists FED MY SOUL.

David Treuer’s Austrian father viewed America as a land of rescue and safety; for his Ojibwe mother, it was a land of injustice.

Rolling Stone reported on bot activity in favor of the Snyder cut (and what Zack Snyder had to do with it). Gita Jackson responds, noting that despite higher-than-usual bot activity, fandom is QUITE capable of being terrible organically (and, in this case, they were).

When your coauthor is an AI.

Happy Friday, friends! In case you didn’t click that last link, I will leave you with a piece of AI-generated writing; may it blossom weirdly in your souls. “The moon was truly mother-of-pearl, the white of the sea, rubbed smooth by the groins of drowned brides.”

The post Really the Millions Book Preview This Time: A Links Round-Up appeared first on Reading the End.

First and most importantly: The Millions Book Preview! (link)

Serial killers are in decline, hooray! (link)

“Despite the joys of his irreverence, however, it is all too easy to sink in the morass of sexism, if not outright misogyny, muddying the plots of Vonnegut’s novels.” On the writers adored by men of Tinder. (link)

The surreal, chaotic, extremely online culture of quarantine. (link)

Here’s what we lose as publishers combine into a giant scary publishing conglomerate (of evil). (link)

Finding friendship through fandom, a very relevant story in These Times. (link)

“No one gets into anime for clout.” Stitch on the backlash to Megan Thee Stallion enjoying anime. (link)

Schitt’s Creek is a wonderful warm glorious show and this is a good appreciation of its central relationship. (link)

Wonder Woman Number Two is not good. (link)

Disney won’t stop changing protagonists of color into animals. Can we not? (link)

Native Twitter loves Baby Yoda and here’s why. (link)

Want your book published? It helps to be white — just like 85% of acquiring editors. (link)

“Every day, I thank God that Tolkien did not live long enough to share his opinions on Twitter, unlike, say, other wildly popular and previously beloved fantasy authors of our era.” On rewatching Lord of the Rings at Christmas. (link)

Alyssa Cole won’t apologize for putting politics in her romance novels (& she shouldn’t because they’re amazing). (link)

An interview with the intimacy coordinator for Bridgerton. (link)

Remember American Dirt? A controversy that happened in 2020 and people were like “oh no cancel culture”? Well, it remained a bestseller even after All That Mess, but here’s a postmortem on why it all went down that way. (link)

Don’t forget about progressives in red states. (link)

TV characters aren’t wearing masks consistently. It is not the best. (link)

Also not the best: the ongoing romanticization of the British monarchy. We hate monarchies! Remember? We hates it! Strange women lying about in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government! (link)

There’s still an age gap problem in roles for actresses, and we are beyond tired of talking about it. (link)

“He promised that he would be with them. But, like a lazy coward, Trump went home to watch the show on TV.” Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor goes deep on the convergence between white supremacists and the Republican party. (link)

The Color Purple is a masterpiece, not least for the way it gives a voice to survivors of trauma. (link)

“It has always sucked to compare yourself to the prettiest girl in school, but it sucks a lot more to feel like everybody else in the entire world is the prettiest girl in school.” On the faux-body positivity of Instagram. (link)

Wesley Morris is predictably fabulous writing about The Great Gatsby. (link)

I am very excited to read Aya de Leon’s sex worker heist novels. I have the first one checked out right now. Here’s how she became a writer. (link)

These have been SOME LINKS. I hope you enjoyed them! I hope that your workplace has given you the federal holiday of Martin Luther King Day off. Please have a very blessed weekend in which you get lots and lots of rest. I’m sorry we all have lived to see such times.

The post MILLIONS BOOK PREVIEW: A very belated links round-up appeared first on Reading the End.

Call off the dogs; the best tweet on Twitter has occurred and I am here to share it with you.

Fellas is it gay to tilt your rival’s chin up with the point of your sword

— Jared Pechaček (@vandroidhelsing) September 22, 2019

Here’s a pitch for the mall as the perfect place to get some reading done. I’m not sure I’m convinced but I am intrigued.

“Romance is ready to face its history. We deserve people who are interested in telling that story with us.” Jennifer Prokop on shitty romance thinkpieces.

I’ve seen a lot of convos about the finances of writing lately, and literary agent Kate McKean breaks down some of the mysteries about how publishing, advances, and agents work.

Is “cancel culture” a real thing? Spoilers, it is not.

Trudeau wore blackface as part of a Halloween costume; and it plays into a long history of Orientalism and racism.

Prisons disproportionately ban books dealing with race and civil rights issues from being sent to inmates, and the available appeal process is an inadequate counterbalance. PEN America reports their findings.

People of color have been consistently sidelined in the fight for environmental justice.

“We made a game that we thought was funny, about a goose.” An interview with the creators of Untitled Goose Game. I played the game with my toddler godson this week, as mentioned, and a of all, the game rules, but secondly, he is too much of an Order Muppet for this game! He kept trying to do kind, helpful things. THIS IS A GAME OF CHAOS, TODDLER GODSON.

“I started making notes like ‘drink cold cum in hell’ and ‘i’m glad that god killed you.’” Patricia Lockwood reviews John Updike. It is exactly what you might expect, i.e., perfection.

Abrams is starting a new imprint for queer graphic novels! Curated by Mariko Tamaki! Who wrote Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up with Me, the cutest sweetest queer graphic novel I maybe have ever read!

I hope that if your season is autumn, you are currently experiencing autumn. YOU DESERVE AUTUMN. WE ALL DO. Autumn, and a bad goose, and the correct punishment for presidential crimes. That’s the world I want for us, friends. I hope that world finds you.

The post The Best Tweet on Twitter: A Links Round-Up appeared first on Reading the End.

The second half of 2019 Millions Book Preview is here at this link. Let the glad songs of rejoicing resound throughout the land!

Here at this link is a deep dive into the cultural concept of Essex, a place I lived and was briefly incredibly happy.

Rich people are the worst: Brooklyn preschool edition.

“Many of the older feminist utopias sound like delightful fantasies until you learn the price of their equality.”

Do Muppets fuck? An investigation.

A child recovering from a terrible accident claimed to have seen angels and spent time in heaven — OR DID HE?

“Monsters rule over us, on behalf of monsters.” This Rebecca Solnit piece on Jeffrey Epstein is a bracing reminder to eat the rich.

How secrets spread (without anyone doing any big reveals).

The Illustrated Page has launched a queer SFF database, and she’s looking for recs to expand it! Stop by and help her out.

Who’s hosting the websites for hate groups? Gizmodo investigates. (The WordPress hosting company actually…took down the websites Gizmodo inquired about. Imagine that!)

I loved this review of Emily Nussbaum’s collected essays so much that I’m considering spending a RARE AND PRECIOUS nonfiction chit to read it.

Alexandra Minna Stern has written about the alt-right and the way they source their horrific claims.

Some times Claudia Rankine didn’t say aloud that race was present in her interactions with white men, and some times that she did.

Remember all those rich people who pledged millions to rebuild Notre Dame? Yeah. Not so much.

Happy weekend! Are you doing the 24 in 48 Readathon? Cause I sure fucking am, and it’s not too late for you to sign up, too! The Reading the End Bookcast is sponsoring one of their prizes this year, even! Hooray!

The post THE MILLIONS BOOK PREVIEW: A Links Round-Up appeared first on Reading the End.

The internet is not a shared space of equality. It’s as segregated as the real world.

US vs UK book covers of 2018.

Years of poaching and loss of habitat have led to aggressive behavior in elephants. (An older article that was on Longform.org and was so fascinating I had to share.)

A line about limping in The Good Place last season really threw me, so I was glad to see this piece on disability in the afterlife.

CBS’s company culture is reflected in the rash of sexual harassment claims they face, but also in the stories they choose to tell.

“This is how all bad relationships should end. Just: Helicopter. Credits. No contact with civilians.” On Buffy’s break-up with Riley Finn. (This is, incidentally, how my relationship with George W. Bush ended. I cannot recommend it highly enough.)

These are Alyssa Cole’s best romances of 2018.

I am fascinated by this deep dive into glitter production. Please read it and then share your hypotheses about which industry buys the most glitter. Toothpaste is so far the best theory I’ve heard.

A black Jewish woman responds to Alice Walker’s anti-Semitism.

Here’s what it’s like to be a cable guy (while queer and female).

Jamilah King on the black lives lost at Jonestown — and the archivists who have dedicated their lives to making sure those lives are not forgotten.

The Tournament of Books shortlist has been announced!

“This concludes the last thing I’ll ever write about Kevin Spacey or Louis C.K., until they’re sentenced in courts of law, or I have to write their obituaries.” I mostly link to women writing about sexual harassers, but eh, I’ll make one exception because I love this kicker.

I was hoping Angelica Jade Bastien (one of my fave critics working right now) would tackle Surviving R Kelly, and she has! Aisha Harris has a thoughtful take on some of the reasons R Kelly has escaped consequences for his actions. And Morgan Jerkins explores the manipulation of teenage fans.

One of my favorite things about Ask a Manager is how she’s bringing together the advice community. Here’s an excellent roundtable of Ask a Manager, Dear Prudence, Captain Awkward, Care and Feeding, Dr. Nerdlove, and Ask a Clean Person, all talking about the world of giving advice.

Happy weekend! I got such a sweet hug this morning!

The post My godchild just gave me such a big hug: A Links Round-Up appeared first on Reading the End.

Ever wondered how the sausage of film and TV casting gets made? The Guardian has a superb article about Nina Gold, the queen of casting.

This is a pretty extraordinary excerpt of oral history done by Zora Neale Hurston, an interview with a survivor of a slave ship.

George Yancy writes about what it’s like to be black in academia.

Here’s a story about trying to report sexual harassment as a call center worker.

Alexis Okeowo writes about her home state of Alabama and the heritage it loves to celebrate and ignore. (cn: lynching)

Three women who are defying the whiteness of romance novels.

This new app sounds racist even by the standard of neighborhood apps.

How the US erases native people from the landscapes of National Parks.

An ode to Brooklyn Nine Nine, a show about which I no longer have to feel heartbroken because NBC saved the day.

“Why is a woman in power questioned on sight?” On Raymond Chandler and being a rare bookseller.

“This won’t sell” is the widest moat in the castle’s defenses. Rabih Alameddine writes about comforting myths and the literature sanctioned by empire (which is most of it).

I always thought it would be super cool to be a sound guy, and Vulture is here to, um, well not exactly back me up, but to talk about how sound guys make sex scenes and stuff for the movies.

Infinity War spoilers in this link, but yeah, Gamora’s plotline was the thing that convinced me I didn’t want to see Infinity War.

Anyone got fun weekend plans? Awesome links I missed?

The post The Widest Moat in the Castle’s Defenses: A Links Round-Up appeared first on Reading the End.

This is the story of a woman whose childhood was filled with disruptions and changes that she didn’t understand — until her mother summoned her to a hotel to tell her (finally) the truth.

Alyssa Cole talked to Vulture about writing a black princess heroine in her latest romance novel.

Robot love stories are always stories about consent (says the terrific Emily Asher-Perrin).

Claudia Rankine has written a play! How cool is that? AND WITH ME SO FAR AWAY FROM NEW YORK WHERE IT WILL EVENTUALLY BE ON THE STAGE.

More book designers and how they work! I will never tire of this genre of links, so I’m hoping that you like them too because otherwise you may find my link round-ups repetitive.

The romance diversity stats for 2017 are actually worse than the ones for 2016. People need to do the fork better. And this is before the news arrived that Crimson Romance is shutting its doors.

Rahawa Haile is typically brilliant on the subject of Black Panther, a movie I have now seen so consequently I can finally read all the awesome takes on it that people have been writing.

Octopuses might not even be all that great. That one octopus that escaped from the zoo might not even really have done it.

Why are TV detectives all so sad?

Nicole Chung writes about writing a memoir while grieving one of its central figures. I got choked up, friends.

Sherman Alexie’s flaws and failures were evident long before the sexual harassment claims came out (but white readers declined to see them).

Daniel Mallory Ortberg has come out as trans, and he’s been typically thoughtful and funny on the subject of his transition and his new book. An interview with Nicole Chung. Another interview with Heather Havrilesky.

A South African writer considers the question of whether people like Bari Weiss and Katie Roiphe are being censored. (They are not.) It is the best. THE BEST.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

The post Lili Loofbourow Changes the Game: A Links Round-Up appeared first on Reading the End.

Kelly Marie Tran in Buzzfeed. Kelly Marie Tran in EW. Kelly Marie Tran sorting Star Wars characters into Hogwarts houses, an activity she’s so pumped to do. And lest we forget, here’s John Boyega’s last-year enthusiasm for her, bless his heart.

Okay, good. We are all happy now, about Kelly Marie Tran. Now back to dismantling the patriarchy. (PS Kelly Marie Tran being in Star Wars is also dismantling the patriarchy, thanks Kelly Marie Tran, we owe you.)

“Many men will absorb the lessons of late 2017 to be not about the threat they’ve posed to women but about the threat that women pose to them.” Rebecca Traister on all this sexual assault business.

Love this interview with Roxane Gay.

Comedians have to get over themselves, says Drew Magary. And he attacks that awful trope of shitty, offensive comedians being truth-tellers, THANK CHRIST.

How Get Out inspired a UCLA course on horror and racism. Get Out is a movie I have seen, and it is very frightening and has lots of creepy, clever little Easter eggs for, like, critical race theory nerds. (I’m kidding.) (Sort of.)

The movie was better: AV Club has a round-up of movies that out-awesomed the books they were based on. I ardently cosign The Princess Bride in particular.

The New York Times published a puff piece about how nice and normal Nazis can be. This is only surprising to people who don’t realize how normal racism has always been.

A NOAH’S ARK REPLICA. I have nothing further to add. It is a REPLICA of Noah’s ARK that you can VISIT AND TOUR.

What would make Matt Lauer’s apology less infuriating?

20 Authors I Don’t Have to Read Because I Dated Men for Years. Bahahah this is gold and not just because she calls Kurt Vonnegut the manic pixie dream girl of American literature.

There was this mind-numbingly stupid article at Slate about how this one lady ended up marrying her boss so we better watch out lest the #MeToo moment GO TOO FAR. Here is a good response.

Happy weekend! Go watch the Star Wars trailer a dozen more times. You’ve earned it.

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