And now, some links!

How do you feed the Olympic athletes? Step one: Buy 3 million bananas.

Celebrity book clubs are run by enthusiastic and voracious readers, but that doesn’t make them immune to publishers’ campaigning for their top titles.

“Everything I did on these friend dates was aggressive, pathetic, or insane.” Kelly Stout set out to make a new friend in an (1) month. (That timeline is way too short imo.)

Two humanitarian surgeons, with extensive experience of working in war zones, write about their time in Gaza, “None of [our experience] prepared us for what we saw in Gaza this spring.” This is a hard read, but a very important one. What’s happening in Gaza is straightforwardly genocide, and the US is eagerly supporting it.  I also recommend this piece by a former IDF soldier and scholar of genocide.

“If there’s one fundamental human impulse that the internet has indulged more than anything else, it’s our desire to be huge bitches.” Twenty years of Yelp.

The queerness of monsters.

“When he asks how much we paid for this vacation, he is unable to best the low price that Ramona has given us. This makes me feel like we are in an armored truck of value, impervious to the rest of the world’s scams.” Traveling via Costco.

A big chunk of undersea cable disappeared. Did Russia take it?

“Some of my past times, including Combs’s stalking me at the Vibe office, had to be redacted. I blacked them out in order to keep the lights on.” A really, really stellar piece from Danyel Smith on her own experiences with Diddy.

Oh my God this piece about The Gods Must Be Crazy and its apartheid legacy, oh my God.

Mo Ryan begs her fellow white women not to let what happened to Nicole Beharie on Sleepy Hollow (I’ll die mad about it) happen to Kamala Harris.

“[J.D. Vance is] still really only good at one thing: advancing by slavishly attaching himself to people richer and more powerful than himself, casting them aside when they become inconvenient.” lol

Wake up, babe, new UNESCO World Heritage sites just dropped.

“People don’t just bring their aspirations to the city. They also come with their wounds. The city is a segregator of wounds.” On Sinéad O’Connor.

“Your child does not need a comms strategy.” Linda Holmes does not support AI-written fan mail.

The journalist for this piece deserves a Peabody. What happens when writers break up? I loved this piece so much. I have forced it upon everyone I’ve ever met. They’ll never stop hearing about it. NEVER.

CALL ME BASIC, but this interview with the Supermarket Sweep gays made me feel tender towards the world.

What are we to make of White Women for Kamala and similar events?

Locked cases may prevent products from being stolen from retailers like Target and CVS, but they’re also preventing products from being, like, sold.

Rose Eveleth is doing a terrific new podcast about sex testing in sports, and she writes about the ethical challenges of writing about athletes’ bodies.

What Tim Walz has is tonic masculinity.

Lydia Polgreen on the Cass Report. This piece is so good.

KLAXON KLAXON WE HAVE NEW EURIPIDES CONTENT.

Why do the family members of crime victims show up for events like CrimeCon?

“There is no playbook for a President Kamala Harris because presidential politics has never imagined a Kamala Harris.”

“How sports gambling came to be such a hulking, clanging presence in our life is the ultimate sports media story—which is funny, in a ghoulish sort of way, given there’s not a lot of sports media left to tell it.”

“Believing you have no part in it is as naive as believing that touching a hot stove won’t get you burnt.” Morgan Jerkins can’t turn away from the tradwives.

“Over a twelve-year period from 1989 to 2001, virtually none of the winners of any high-value prizes were legit.” This story about the McDonald’s Monopoly game is Wild.

The news media is—again—utterly failing to meet the moment.

A prominent advocate for accessibility in gaming appears… never to have existed?

Buy physical media, friends! You won’t regret it!

The post I own a lot of DVDs now: A links round-up appeared first on Reading the End.

I continue to derive so much comfort from reading, and to that end I’ve got some links. I also recommend the brand new television show Abbott Elementary and the quite old television show Star Trek: The Next Generation, as they are making me feel better. I just finished Xiran Jay Zhao’s Iron Widow and loved it, so that’s another rec for you if you’re in the mood for a story about a girl burning shit down. And now, on to the links!

ABBOTT ELEMENTARY. … This show is great. Here are some things about it and its greatness. (link) Plus an interview with Janelle James, who plays the principal. (link)

Lauren Michele Jackson considers appropriation, AAVE, and the artist formerly known as Awkwafina. (link)

“How can we make men care? Does a fear of being disgraced have to be part of the incentive?” This is an interesting article with the really depressing, though unsurprising, punchline that abusers will only think critically about the harm they’ve caused if they can do so while still controlling the possibility of facing consequences; and not often then. (link)

The Crisis Text Line turned out to be an extremely typical tech bro company. Compassionate care for people struggling with suicidal ideation is incompatible with its ethos. (link)

Pregnancy apps are rife with misinformation and propaganda. (link)

I loved this curated list of Black food cookbooks that focus on plant-based recipes. (link)

Norman Mailer hasn’t been canceled — but the uproar about Random House pulling a planned book of his essays says a lot about the state of cancel culture discourse. (link)

“This is not the end. It is a change.” Tiya Miles advises looking to Black history to understand and ameliorate our current fears. (link)

Toril Moi reminds writers not to write for readers who hate them. Write for the people who want to hear what you have to say. (Great reminder in the age of Twitter.) (link)

Morgan Jerkins thinks it’s long past time for Jessie Redmon Fauset to have a literary renaissance. (I am very easily swayed by people being like “everyone should know such-and-such writer from long ago!”) (link)

This piece about the artist Piranesi makes an excellent companion to Susanna Clarke’s latest novel Piranesi. (link)

You’re Going To Italy In A Novel By A Non-Italian Writer! Are You Going To Have A Good Time? (link)

This is a beautiful piece about love, queer love, platonic love, and how queer literature can help us to escape the trap of believing that love only looks one way. (link)

Caretakers are being left to fail. Any conversation about the so-called Great Resignation has to take this into account. (link)

Delighted to learn that Patricia Lockwood was influenced by Emily of New Moon, which I also love. (link)

Take care, and take care of each other, and also Happy Mardi Gras.

The post Happy Mardi Gras, I guess: A Links Round-uP appeared first on Reading the End.

The first half of the year book preview is up at The Millions! And here’s the Lithub one, which I haven’t perused yet so I can’t speak to how solid or unsolid it is or isn’t.

This is a very good review of Marriage Story.

Women can write spy thrillers too! Goddammit.

ZORA Magazine has released a new canon of all Black women writers, and it’s pretty great. Let’s update all the high school syllabi.

Meghan Markle is my full and complete hero, and that’s what I’d just like to say about her and this whole royal family situation. And here’s Afua Hirsch on the decision and how easy it is for Black Britons to understand.

Harvey Weinstein believes he can shut up the people talking about the allegations against him, and avoid all consequences. The hell of it is that he might be right.

“My food is my story, and it’s complicated and imperfect, but it is just as worthy, and I am the right person to tell it.” Jenny Dorsey spent years feeling ashamed of her family’s Chinese food. Now she’s making a place for it at the table.

The RWA mess is somehow still happening??? But Chuck Tingle is here to help us with this new RWA website. It is very, very blessed.

Also if you don’t know what “the RWA mess” means, here’s a breakdown for you!

What are the Oscar-nominated white men of film angry about this year? Vulture has a helpful guide. They also have this very angry roundtable about what the Academy considers worth rewarding.

Here’s what happened with the attack helicopter story.

What have you been reading around the internet, friends? And what do you have planned for the weekend? Not that any weekend is a bad weekend to appreciate the radicalism of Martin Luther King, Jr., but this is a particularly great weekend to do that. Do some service! Combat racism!

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

Jerry Falwell Jr. runs Liberty University like a dictator.

I am SO obsessed with weird shit around writers’ estates and who controls the rights to a writer’s work and all that shit; I read this article about Harvard’s stranglehold on Dickinson scholarship and had to smoke a cigarette after because it was so good for me.

OH WAIT there’s MORE ESTATE DRAMA, this time about John Steinbeck. I live for this. I LIVE for it.

Over on Ask a Manager, a trans woman in tech talks about how her work experiences differed before and after her transition. As you’d expect, it’s infuriating and fascinating.

This list of “the hardest props I’ve ever made,” where prop masters talk about movie prop challenges they faced and overcame, is actually more like “the hardest props I’ve ever tracked down” — but it’s still very cool and interesting to read.

I have wanted to kick Malcolm Gladwell in the shins for YEARS for his sloppy citation practices, so I am glad The Atlantic has noticed that most/all of what he says is based on nonsense.

Here’s Keidra Chaney on how to be a fan without being coopted into serving corporate interests.

This jewel thief grandma is my hero.

Wow: A Virginia man is suing a reporter and a UVA professor for defamation because they talked about his family’s slaveowning past.

For years we’ve bought into the claim that our brains are already in motion on Doing an Action before we consciously decide to Do the Action. (I have never felt this conflicts with free will, but whatever.) Apparently, it may have fallen victim to the classic science mistake of inadequately distinguishing signal from noise.

The problem with brands that market themselves as progressive is that we’re all still spinning round and round the capitalist whirlpool. ThirdLove is a shitty place to work.

It is the 25th anniversary of Friends, and Rachel Handler made Rachel’s fucked up trifle and forced her family to eat it.

Here is the cutest, most heartwarming Little Free Library in the world.

Leah Price considers the much-vaunted “death of the book” over the ages. The happy news is that the book has never died yet, so its prospects are solid.

A penguin came to Random Penguin.

Tell me some links you’ve encountered around ye olde web this past fortnight! And have a wonderful weekend!

The post More Dudes Than Usual In My 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.

Roxane Gay on Confederate and why she doesn’t want it. I’m going to share this one quote because it’s really good:

It is curious that time and again, when people create alternate histories, they are largely replicating a history we already know, and intimately. They are replicating histories where whiteness thrives and people of color remain oppressed.

I’ll never not want to post links about Tom Stoppard and how great he is. And like, if his best work is behind him, that seems FINE because he is EIGHTY.

In addition to every other goddamn thing, Trump is dicking up the book industry for all of us.

A roundtable discussion of black SFF authors and the ways the industry shuts them out.

What is an independent bookseller’s responsibility to Hillbilly Elegy?

Bronx native Noelle Santos is opening a bookstore in the Bronx, which since 2016 hasn’t had any general interest bookstores in the entire borough. Noelle Santos is my hero.

The Frick (a museum I have never been in GASP GASP I know I always meant to go but so far I have not been) is working on a new project that would create lil books to go along with their artistic masterpieces. Hilary Mantel, among others, has signed on to participate.

I am usually crabby as hell about depictions of child protective services, but I think this NYTimes piece manages a critique of its practices in a way that doesn’t elide some of the problems child protective services caseworkers face.

Someone on the internet is a genius, part eleven thousand.

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