“My issue with how we read is as much an existential grievance as it is a labor dispute.” Elaine Castillo addresses the foundation of white supremacy in the literary world, making me VERY excited to read her book.

This is an absolutely bananas story about a criminology professor whose life, uh, takes a turn.

On authors who cross categories.

It’s hard to keep track of all the shit the Supreme Court is currently doing, but ONE of the things they’re doing is decimating the rights of Native nations.

Carmen Maria Machado discusses the Jumi Bello plagiarism thing and considers a better path forward for writers and writing programs.

Here’s why there’s a shortage of peer reviewers, tenure committee members, and journal editors.

How ASL is changing in the digital age.

Really excited to learn that the Department of Education cannot tell the people who owe it money for student loans how much they’ve paid off, how much is left to pay, and what the interest rate is. Super normal stuff.

The mutant metaphor: A new generation is falling in love with the X-Men via queer communities online.

Look, YES I am obsessed with reading about the new book about Go Ask Alice, but NO I am not going to read it probably because tbh I feel like I have gotten everything I need from the media coverage of the book. Anyway, here is Casey Cep.

“Nichelle Nichols gave us the future – what we make of it is up to us.”

I loved this interview with the actresses of Yellowjackets.

Mohsin Hamid’s latest novel was inspired by the growing tendency to sort everyone into buckets of like-me and not-like-me.

Biden’s commission on how to fix the Supreme Court has finished its work, and the report has some interesting and helpful ideas.

In case you’ve missed the updates on the S&S / Random Penguin merger, John Maher is doing yeoman’s work in live-tweeting the trial. You can also check out the New York Times explainer and the Vanity Fair explainer. Also, Amazon is playing a silent role in this trial.

Money diaries: How prison inmates make money and what they spend it on. (Surprise, it’s horrifying.)

Many stars of Twitch and other video services have had to learn how to live with stalkers and harassers.

It’s great that Beyonce and Lizzo changed their offensive lyrics; but why are we so stingy with second chances and benefits of the doubt when it comes to Black women artists?

The New York Times has a handy explainer of why restaurant prices are soaring.

The Good Little Pig and the trend of bathos in contemporary literature.

“Yuval Harari is what I call a ‘science populist.’… [His] errors are numerous and substantial.”

Tressie McMillan Cottom considers the beloved-by-conservatives TV show Yellowstone.

Happy Friday, friends!

The post I Am Very Excited to Read Elaine Castillo’s Book: A Links Round-Up appeared first on Reading the End.

Without further ado, some links:

“Blackness deserves a seat at the Seder.” (link)

Jay Edidin’s consistent fury with Professor X shines in this important work of journalism about X-Men sex ed. (link)

Gita Jackson (link), Mikki Kendall (link), Ijeoma Iluo (link), and Stitch (link) consider The Slap.

On a totally different note, Sara Novic considers CODA’s Oscar win and the movie’s mixed reception in the d/Deaf community. (link)

Jaya Saxena wonders if we need to keep telling Julia Child’s story. (link)

Two Twitter videos that made me very happy: one (link) and two (link)

A goblin historian explains “goblin mode.” (link)

I am terrified of TikTok, and I’m right to be. That is my final statement on the matter. (link)

Drew Magary is done with sympathetic villains. Bring on the straight-ahead monsters. (link)

“Bridgerton’s thinned notion of color consciousness only acknowledges racial difference in as much as it does not derail the story.” Kristen Warner considers the new season’s approach to representations of race. (link)

I will read literally any story about the drama that’s currently happening in some random niche online community. This week it’s herbalism! (link)

Serial killer expert Stéphane Bourgoin built his career on a scaffolding of lies. The internet found him out. (link)

Angelea Preston won the all-stars season of America’s Next Top Model, but her crown was unceremoniously stripped from her because of a brief stint doing sex work. She spoke to Bustle about her experiences.(link)

“But sometimes there is no proper way to go, there is no trick of perspective that makes everything clear.” Colin Dickey on cabins in the mountains, lateral thinking, and the COVID-19 pandemic. (link)

Charithra Chandran, who plays Edwina in the new season of Bridgerton, seems like an absolute delight in this Teen Vogue interview. (link)

Sean Campbell writes with sorrow and grace about the Black Lives Matter organization’s decision to use money from fundraising in summer 2020 to buy a $6 million dollar house. (link)

Deciding people’s worth based on the trauma they’ve survived is a broken, exploitative system, and the Mackenzie Fierceton story proves it. (link)

That’s all, folks! Have a tremendous weekend! I wish you all the best of luck in staying out of niche community internet drama, which is much more fun to read about than to participate in.

The post Yes, There Are Some Takes on the Slap Thing: A Links Round-Up appeared first on Reading the End.

“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.

In thrilling news, Dewey’s 24 Hour Readathon IS TOMORROW. Can you tell I’m excited? I am SO excited. I have an aunt coming into town, so I don’t know exactly how many hours I’ll end up being able to do, but I’m excited about whatever it turns out to be.

Molly Ringwald wrote a really fascinating piece about sexual harassment and her films with John Hughes.

Junot Diaz writes with extraordinary power and honesty about being raped as a child. Trigger warning for child sexual abuse, ofc.

After taking the top prize at Sundance yet somehow not being picked up by a distributor, The Miseducation of Cameron Post finally has a distributor and will be available to watch in the summer. Yay!

It’s okay to give up on books you aren’t enjoying. Let the switch flip in your brain, and set yourself free from the prison of books that aren’t a good fit for you. The mindset “Maybe I didn’t give up forever” is the one that has helped me a lot.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is incisive on the subject of NFL cheerleaders and the problem with the NFL setting itself up as the guardian of moral virtue.

How publishing is changing (and not) w/r/t race and gender.

Millicent Simmonds, one of the stars of the new film The Quiet Place, wrote a piece for Teen Vogue about becoming the deaf role model she never had.

Mikki Kendall on the two black men arrested at Starbucks for existing there. Black customers are inherently perceived as threatening, which is what leads to situations like this one. And last but not least, here’s a round table of some of my favorite writers talking about navigating public spaces while black. (If you’re not following all these people you should be! They’re great.)

How grad school applications can become performances of trauma for applicants from marginalized groups.

I can’t assess the accuracy of this piece about how East Asian narrative traditions differs from Western narrative traditions, but it’s a really interesting read. I want to keep this in mind when I’m reading books from China and Japan in the future.

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is the best show on TV but it does have a tonal dissonance problem in how it portrays the moral implications of various actions. Irene Yoon and Lili Loofbourow break it down.

On constructing a kinder future (in the stories we create and consume).

Not sure what’s been going on with FanCon? Clarkisha Kent has the depressing scoop. Rosie Knight and Jazmine Joyner have another very detailed breakdown of all the nitty-gritty details, at Women Write about Comics.

Skin care marketing is often just selling whiteness.

The post Starbucks and FanCon: A links round-up appeared first on Reading the End.