….Please read these links so I can stop babbling.

This one’s for my Mumsy! The Kew Botanical Gardens guy talks trees.

Imani Perry considers how the global use of the word “auntie” is colliding with the term’s complicated history in Black America.

How has spoiler/anti-spoiler culture affected the way we engage with art? I cannot answer this question because I have never once felt that I understood exactly what constitutes a spoiler to other people.

The new anti-trans executive order in Texas is leading to a mass exodus of child protection workers.

The literature of billionaires (both fiction and nonfiction) is, at its heart, deeply sinister.

Killing Eve chose cruelty in its finale.

Inside the contentious world of font sizes on music festival posters.

My favorite thing about this piece by a scream artist for the movies is her description of how the world of scream acting has changed in response to the explosion of different kinds of roles (and therefore different kinds of screams) for women.

On triplethood and its difference from twinness.

“I can’t shake a sense of foreboding when I consider a Zuckerbergian pornverse.” A visit to the Erotic Heritage Museum for a talk on digisexuality.

White supremacist groups, including domestic terrorist groups, actively prey on and recruit white boys through social media. Teaching kids the truth about our history can protect them.

“they killed someone” like what are you protestant

JK Rowling was not included on a list of 70 great British books. This is not censorship or being silenced.

Amy’s Kitchen assures consumers that it’s a positive brand making positive impacts. OR IS IT? (It is not; brands are terrible; have faith in nobody except for Tony of Tony’s Chocolonely; and not even him; but oh God if it turns out he’s bad I will be crushed.) Anyway, Jaya Saxena is terrific.

Somehow, there was a time before the internet. At least that is what Hari Kunzru claims.

A McSweeney’s quiz about having a toddler in this stage of the pandemic.

Emily St. James considers the parental apology fantasy.

Twitter has been a crucial lifeline for trans people. Will that disappear now that Elon Musk runs it?

With Pamela Paul’s departure as editor of the New York Times Book Review, the renowned book review venue is at a tipping point.

“Feminism, much like BDSM, doesn’t figure into the text of the Fifty Shades trilogy itself, nor does politics more broadly.” Happy tenth birthday, I guess, to Fifty Shades of Gray.

What’s going on at Netflix?

“Am I a book stylist? I am not. Or maybe I am, I don’t know. Would it be the worst thing in the world if I were?”

I’m obsessed with this story of a Grey’s Anatomy writer who just! made up all sorts of tragedies about herself! part one (cw made-up cancer) and part two (cw made-up abuse but also a bunch of real abuse)

Democrats keep getting it wrong on abortion.

Kim Cattrall is happy with her decision to never return to Sex and the City.

This is what a black hole sounds like.

These have been: LINKS.

The post LINKS: Some Links appeared first on Reading the End.

Suzanne Walker considers the disability narrative (such as it is) in the otherwise really fun show The Witcher.

No one knows anything, and everyone’s mad. Anne Helen Peterson continuing to bring truly excellent reporting on the human elements of the pandemic.

Ancient monks struggled with isolation, too.

Naomi Kritzer wrote the pandemic story five years ago, so now it’s a weird time for her.

Woody Allen’s memoir is in many ways exactly what you would expect. In other ways, Mark Harris is shocked at how incurious a worldview it espouses. I, a stone cold bitch who never liked Annie Hall in the first place, am not (but this is still an interesting read).

Please watch Run on HBO so you can talk to me about how great Merrit Wever is. She is so great. She is so so great. But read the link first, because the show does some morality stuff that not everyone would enjoy. I am kind of surprised I’m able to enjoy it! Such is the power of Merritt Wever.

Here’s why you’re having super vivid dreams lately, according to National Geographic.

Electric Literature talks to the anonymous folks behind the new Publishers Weakly Twitter account.

Last but not least, here are 30 queer YA books coming out this season, so you can place orders for them at Bookshop.org or with your library!

That’s not very many links, I know, but I admit I have been a scootch too dispirited to go on my accustomed vigorous link hunts. I reiterate my hope that you, my internet friends, are safe and well, and with that I will whisk myself off into the weekend where I hope to enjoy both cheese fries and books.

The post No One Knows Anything and Everyone’s Mad: A Links Round-Up appeared first on Reading the End.

These are just some motherfucking snails inside some motherfucking dollhouses.

Why casting Nagini as an Asian woman is so offensive.

Ron Charles considers whether we still need Banned Books Week, and reaches no real conclusion.

Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, a writer I adore, talks about Howard Zinn and why it matters that his work was essentially and fundamentally collaborative.

I can’t wait to read Rebecca Traister’s latest book, Good and Mad. Here’s everything she was reading while she wrote it.

I typically click straight out of articles that bewail how easy it is to “cancel” somebody, but Wesley Morris has a lot of interesting, thoughtful things to say about art and morality. He also, in my opinion, missed some nuance — as people who complain about cancellation culture often do. Vulture put on a terrific round-table of responses from critics, including another forever-fave of mine, Angelica Jade Bastien. Their conversation helped me to understand something I believe but have been struggling to articulate about artistic disagreement.

What your favorite Shakespeare play says about you.

Roxane Gay reflects on the Kavanaugh hearing and harassers who claim themselves as the victims.

How to tell a good made-up language from a bad one.

Reese Witherspoon peddles a version of Southern femininity that isn’t available to everyone.

Here is a (very spoilery) superb appreciation of Practical Magic, my favorite Halloween movie.

Happy weekend!

The post Snails in Dollhouses: 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.

Anyway, here’s a quick run-down on the Stanford Prison Experiment and its many problems. I’m so excited this is in the news. Be mad about it. Tell your friends.

This article has a bad headline, but it’s spot-on about the way our literary canon perpetually asks everyone, women included, to care deeply about the sexual frustration of men who hate us.

Kekla Magoon on heroism and community. PS y’all should read The Rock and the River and How It Went Down because they’re extraordinary.

This deep-dive into Sherlock conspiracy fandom is absolutely weird and fascinating.

“Come on in; the water is sickeningly warm.” Rebecca Traister on Bill Clinton’s indignation about being asked to discuss his behavior towards Monica Lewinsky in the context of #MeToo.

Coming of age stories for girls in movies are overwhelmingly white (and wealthy).

Ellen Oh has some thoughts on writing while white and how to receive criticism.

Who gets to talk? Rabih Alameddine on purveyors of comforting myths.

The trouble with researching a historical novel is knowing when to stop, and what details to pare away.

Fighting fake reviews — in literature, in the restaurant world, on YouTube — has never been trickier.

I finally took a deep dive into that sex cult that one of the actresses from Smallville was in, and gosh, what an experience. Cults are WILD. Content note for abuse.

Here’s what you need to know about the world’s scariest scary film, Hereditary — whether you want to see it or not! See also: How to participate in horror movies when you are scared of horror, an article that is written by a totally separate human than me but it might as well be an excerpt from my autobiography.

Women use true crime as emotional catharsis and danger practice. (Not me though. I don’t fuck with true crime. No indeed.)

Have a wonderful weekend, internet friends!

The post Down with the Stanford Prison Experiment: A Links Round-Up appeared first on Reading the End.

Emily Asher Perrin’s Tor.com piece on identifying with uncool characters spoke to my nerdy, rule-abiding heart.

Akwaeke Emezi talks about finding a path to a truer identity, through Nigerian spiritual beliefs and Western surgeries.

This interview with Jia Tolentino reminds me of so many reasons why I dig her. If you’re not familiar with her work, familiarize yourself! She’s got a book coming out!

Gabrielle Bellot writes brilliantly and eloquently on the colonial thinking that produces remarks about shithole countries, and how every country has “a grandeur in spirit worth fighting for.”

A defense of Book Five Capslock Harry.

Millennial culture is this Twitter thread. (Major spoilers for Star Wars: The Last Jedi contained herein.)

Amal El-Mohtar is taking over for NK Jemisin writing an SFF column for the New York Times Book Review. Two excellent reviewers for an excellent column! What a world!

Some elements of the trailer for The Shape of Water made me suspicious, and I decided not to see it. Elsa Sjunneson-Henry (who did see it) explores the film’s failures of disability representation. (One amazingly easy improvement would have been to cast a disabled actress in the main role.)

On good guys and bad guys and how old-time stories didn’t really have them.

“While men weren’t looking, women built a genre that tackles love, sex, pleasure, class, money, feminism, masculinity, and equality.” Romance novels! (With lots of my fave romance authors being quoted, so hooray for that too.)

Mimi Mondal offers a brief history of South Asian science fiction and fantasy.

The grand jury prize at Sundance this year went to a YA adaptation, The Miseducation of Cameron Post. Woot!

A twitter thread about how to fight in a dress.

One of my 2018 goals is to read more SFF short fiction. Luckily, I have the writers at Lady Business backing me up, including this MASSIVE post of 2017 favorites. What a time to be alive.

Rebecca Traister is so sensible, even when she’s talking about Katie Roiphe who I find to be mostly nonsense.

This interview with the guy who gets Super Bowl halftime shows on the field in LITERALLY SIX MINUTES is really fascinating from a process perspective.

Have a wonderful weekend, friends, and if you’re a Mardi Gras celebrator, have a wonderful Mardi Gras!

The post Too Sleepy to Think of a Title for My 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.

The post KELLY MARIE TRAN: A Links Round-Up appeared first on Reading the End.

“White men’s rage is burning down the world”: Sady Doyle on the profile of the mass shooter.

Also, an older article but an evergreen reminder that a lot of these people do it for the glory. Use the shooter’s name sparingly, if at all, when discussing crimes like these.

At a different point along the toxic masculinity spectrum, some thoughts from Aja Romano on the worst of Rick and Morty fandom and the recent dust-ups over Szechuan sauce at McDonald’s.

On Shirley Jackson and the fetishization of lady murderers. (This article includes spoilers for We Have Always Lived in the Castle.)

Did I link this last time? Lani Sarem’s interview with Vulture? It’s gold. I said “oh SHIT” a couple of times while reading it. Spoilers, Lani Sarem is an enormous liar.

Here’s some really good internet discourse content for your delectation and delight.

Harvey Weinstein in case you missed it (you didn’t miss it) has been accused of a massive amount of sexual harassment going back decades. He has so far apologized for doing it, called his accusers liars, and threatened to sue the New York Times. Rebecca Traister responds. Jia Tolentino also.

I am now in love with D’Arcy Carden, who plays Janet on The Good Place. Read this interview only ONLY if you are caught up on The Good Place.

When should you talk to your children about fascism?

I don’t watch Younger, but I do work in publishing, so this fact-check of Younger’s depiction of publishing charmed me no end.

Have a great weekend!

The post Not My Cheeriest Ever Links Round-Up appeared first on Reading the End.

It’s not too late to ask me and Whiskey Jenny to pick out books for you to buy your loved ones this holiday season! Fill out our holiday gift guide form and you’ll received personalized gift recommendations on our December 14th podcast.

Rebecca Traister is a writer I’ve come to really respect, and her piece on blaming Trump on the people who fought the hardest against him is fantastic.

Also, here’s Rebecca Traister again and the equally fantastic Rembert Browne talking about moving forward with anger and/or optimism in the age of Trump.

What books were some of this year’s most awesomest writers thankful for? Buzzfeed has your list.

The state of Harry Potter fandom in the conflicted age of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.

And speaking of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Gavia Baker-Whitelaw has some thoughts about queer subtext in that movie and queer-coded villains.

The Merriam-Webster social media team speaks out about their on-point Twitter game.

Long story short, I always thought that Gilmore Girls was problematic and that the Gilmore girls were assholes (but I also love it!), so I’m really enjoying all the thinkpieces that have come out lately reading the revival for filth on those very points.

Also Maddie Myers is one of my fave critics these days, and she has good things to say about the Stars Hollow musical and what a jerk Lorelai is about it. (Lorelai Gilmore is a jerk, pass it on.)

On myths of racial determinism and books like Hillbilly Elegy.

Look up, please: Y’all, this is what I’m talking about. If you witness something like this happening, tell the person to stop. It will suck, but nobody else will do it if you don’t. Be that person.

A history of the concept of political correctness.

On the dearth of famous black writers in sci-fi.

The Atlantic has been doing Trump Time Capsules, but stopped when the election was over. Here’s what they have to say on the future of time capsules.

The post Fantastic Girls and Gilmore Beasts: A Links Round-Up appeared first on Reading the End.

NK Jemisin

Nicole Chung

Mira Jacob

Masha Gessen

Vann R. Newkirk II

Rebecca Traister

Rembert Browne

Nikole Hannah-Jones

Wesley Morris and Jenna Wortham

A whole bunch of writers of many genres

Stay safe, guys.

The post Post-Election Links Round-Up appeared first on Reading the End.