Emma Southon is so great, and she has a new book out about murder in ancient Rome! Here is an excerpt! (link)

Social-emotional learning can help kids relate to each other better, without taking away from their academic competencies. (link)

What went wrong at Gimlet? (link)

Story karma! A lovely, useful concept from Emily VanDerWerff. (link)

Brandon Taylor considers whether we will ever, ever feel comfortable going to the movies again. (We will, I think.) (link)

“There is something backhanded about using authors’ personal statements as a Captcha tool for verifying the emotional resonance of their work.” Not all fiction is autofiction! It is rude to assume! (link)

In case you missed the Amanda Gorman translation controversy, here’s a round-up of responses and reactions to it! (link)

Philip Roth sounds like a real treat to be around. I am consumed with regret that I long ago decided never ever to read one of his books. (link)

Ignoring anti-Asian racism for the last 150 years has brought us to this place. (link)

All Arthuriana is fanfic. (link)

“The psychologist and tech commentator Sherry Turkle has observed that technological solutions often start out being regarded as ‘better than nothing’ only to supplant the alternatives and come to be treated as better than anything.'” On all those therapy apps. (link)

Was Naomi Wolf always terrible? Kinda! (link)

Lyz Lenz and Talia Levin discuss sustained internet harassment and how they have each learned to deal with it. (link)

Generational stereotypes are whitewashed and do not assist us in breaking down unjust systems. So let’s just not. (link)

Here’s how to make small talk, for those of us who have been quarantined so long we don’t remember how to interact with others. (link)

“What I know is that being Bich, and growing up as Bich in a mostly white town in the eighties, has felt like a test that I was constantly failing.” A heartbreaking, complicated essay about Beth Nguyen’s choice to change her name. (link)

Nobody’s doing well; everyone’s doing badly. (link)

Reading in the morning is Good. I can personally attest to this. I used to read every day on my commute, and if I missed it I became very cranky indeed. (link)

Disney keeps making movies where the Black characters spend most of the movie not being Black characters. W h y. (tw for a really heartbreaking set of anecdotes about the author’s son trying to find TV that represents him) (link)

Two of my favorite critics, Alex Brown and Angelica Jade Bastien, discuss why Them‘s overuse on brutality makes the show, overall, an artistic failure.

GOOD TALK, NOW HAVE A WEEKEND.

The post Everyone’s Doing Badly: A Links Round-Up appeared first on Reading the End.

What I learned in avalanche school, by Heidi Julavits. (link)

The “lunchbox moment” is a ubiquitous story for children of immigrants; Jaya Saxena explores the potential of its ubiquity to elide or flatten out food stories that don’t fit into this recognizable trope. (link)

Jess Krug posed as Black for years, until the whole house of cards collapsed last year. (link)

Surprising absolutely nobody, comedy has a white supremacy problem. (link)

I am truly extremely helped by these flashcards of the climate people on Biden’s climate team. (link)

Exciting news! You can enjoy a thing AND still critique it. Wow! (link)

“That’s the trouble with [Seth] Abramson’s interpretive threads. Pull on any one of them, and the whole tapestry unravels.” (link)

In the digital world, we encounter ghosts every day. (link)

Tessa Miller’s new memoir is frank about living with a chronic illness (Crohn’s disease) and avoids euphemism. (link)

“In answer to the question ‘whodunit?’, Clue says ‘who cares!'” I love Clue. (link)

“The shows certainly do gloss over the pain in the ass that is homeownership.” Roxane Gay on HGTV shows and what they say about our culture. (link)

Urban bobcats and coyotes are eating people’s pets! (link)

“This review is the product of empire.” On two new books about the British Empire. (link)

Historians of atrocities can be traumatized by the subjects they study, a genre of vicarious trauma that’s poorly understood. (link)

I don’t want to go to avalanche school! Not one little bit! Have a great weekend!

The post I do not want to go to avalanche school: A links round-up appeared first on Reading the End.

There is a new little Book David in the fight against the Book Goliath that is Amazon. Yay!

What can 594 translations of Jane Eyre tell us about the (greatest) novel (in the whole world)?

Here’s what’s happening with the Miss America pageant, much diminished from its former glory.

In defense of jargon.

“There’s one other thing a fictional treatment like The Morning Show can do that first-person accounts and journalism can’t: provide a shared text on a potentially borderline situation that gives every member of the public the exact same information.” This is a truly fascinating and thoughtful piece on fiction inspired by #MeToo.

Jane Austen’s fame is not waning in the slightest, but new readings and adaptations of her work must grapple with her books’ whiteness (and possibly imagine new versions of her story).

Redemption narratives in Star Wars lack all accountability, and that’s a failure of storytelling and also go to hell, The Rise of Skywalker.

“How very Capitol of us.” Bethany Morrow on the betrayed promise of Catching Fire.

Women of color experience extraordinary discrimination in the world of academia, while being expected to take on a disproportionate amount of service work.

Why can we never escape the allure of monarchy in fiction? Monarchy is NOT GOOD.

“Creativity has no place on these maps.” Some Swiss mapmakers are outsmarting their colleagues to include hidden pictures on their rigorously fact-checked maps.

Imagine being a mapmaker who successfully hides a marmoset! Imagine achieving that level of triumph and joy! Take that spirit of joy and kindness with you into the weekend, and best of luck to you all.

The post Fiction Is Honestly Kind of a Mixed Bag: A Links Round-Up appeared first on Reading the End.

….This links round-up has gotten a little conceptual. Please have some links.

I clicked on this article about African women writing epics thinking “this better be about Petina Gappah” AND LO.

WHYY recently underwent a cultural competency initiative. These were the results. Holy SHIT is journalism ever white. (This is a long read but, in my opinion, definitely worth it.)

Bitch Magazine is running a very cool series called The New Outdoors, focusing on underrepresented communities and their outdoors adventures (everything from yachting to sunscreen to firefighting). It’s superb.

A GOOSE ITEM. ANOTHER GOOSE ITEM.

Are feminist board books for babies really for babies? They are not. (Also a lot of kids’ books are stealth just for adults, and I want to put that out there.)

The Eve Babitz renaissance continues! I just read my first Eve Babitz book so I understand what people are on about. She IS pretty great.

What’s going on with the NBA and the Hong Kong protests?

Also, a YouTube cycling scandal. The man did not go through the correct levels to attain the fancy virtual bike that he is riding. I love it when outlets explain YouTube scandals to me. (The underlying scandal of all YouTube stories is the platform’s unwillingness to curb extremism or child pornography because they want the clicks.)

Here to infuriate Whiskey Jenny, the finalists for the National Book Award.

Alan Dershowitz’s insistence on his own victimhood continues.

Will time pause for this weekend? LET’S FIND OUT TOGETHER.

The post It Is, Once Again, Friday: A Links Round-Up appeared first on Reading the End.