Get pumped: NPR’s Code Switch, your source for excellent conversations about race and American culture, will soon be a podcast! The first episode drops May 31st.

Sharing your favorite stories with your kids: An impossibly adorable story starring Luke Skylocker.

A seriously great black feminist roundtable in response to bell hooks’s response to Beyonce’s new music video; and a reminder why it’s awesome to live now and have all these amazing, smart, thoughtful voices available for us to listen to.

Sob! The Toast is closing! Where will I get my art history jokes now?

Tina Fey is kind of being a jerk about racism, but it’s not like you’re surprised. Zeba Blay on being a fan of feminist TV while black.

How writers will steal your life for their books.

The post Side-eyes for Tina Fey: A links round-up appeared first on Reading the End.

The controversial Professor Bhaer: An investigation in five parts at the Paris Review.

Bros writing about southern food (& why it should be more ladies), over at a website I newly love, The Bitter Southerner.

This piece by Kiese Laymon about Bill Cosby and minimum standards of human decency is so, so good.

The stories you have the right to write, and building a new canon.

“Yes We Need Diverse Books. But that doesn’t always mean that we want YOU to write them.” Ellen Oh on the hip new trend of diversity, and the important work of promoting books by diverse authors.

“I Met a Sex Monster”: The Toast recaps “La Belle Dame Sans Merci”

bell hooks chats to Emma Watson, and it’s as adorable as you are imagining. Maybe even adorabler.

Christy of A Good Stopping Point has converted her great-great-grandmother’s journals into a blog! Stop by and check it out!

Have a wonderful weekend, friends!

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What to do if you are white and straight and cis and male and not all the stories are about you anymore (Star Wars spoilers included herein).

“More as heroines than damsels”: How Disney gave their Princess dolls business to Hasbro.

Nichole Chung on microaggressions and the certainty that you are the only person who can make sure everyone at the table keeps having a nice time.

New York Magazine has been one of my favorite places for pop culture writing since time immemorial, but my God they have been crushing it in 2016. This piece by Sulagna Misra about how “internet boyfriends” get created is so m.f. good.

Mismatched communication styles and Hanlon’s Razor (I don’t necessarily agree with everything in this article, but I think it’s at least interesting).

Jenny, are you tired yet of reading about people escaping from cults? NO NEVER.

A detailed look at the publication process, and how it might be shortened for George R. R. Martin’s doorstopper The Winds of Winter.

Here’s something I just found out about this instant because the book I read about the Comoros was thirty years old because nobody writes about the Comoros: The United Arab Emirates bought a whole bunch of Comoran citizenships to bestow upon members of a stateless ethnic group living within their borders. Because this world makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.

The Telegraph has helpfully compiled an extensive article about how to do heists, but also, why you shouldn’t bother.

I ride hard for Paterson Joseph, as you’ll know if you were around me when David Tennant announced his departure from Doctor Who. I still think he’d be an amazing Doctor, NOT THAT Steven Moffat would ever remotely consider hiring him for that gig cause he’s a jerk. Anyway, Joseph is now doing a one-man show about Ignatius Sancho that sounds awesome. Way to goddamn go, Paterson Joseph.

The post I Read a Book about the Comoros and Didn’t Tell You: A Links Round-Up appeared first on Reading the End.

Did you miss my linguistics nerdery? Great news: Here’s an article about how language shapes our brains.

Jenny Zhang on being a writer of color and the Best American Poetry mess.

If you like Return of the Jedi but hate the Ewoks, you understand feminist criticism.

Remembering to use a trans person’s preferred pronouns is no harder than remembering to use a woman’s married name: An appeal for good manners.

A high fantasy novel without incestuous subtext.

Awesome Person Sofia Samatar interviews Awesome Person Sarah McCarry about monster girls.

I heave enormous sighs every time I read about the Stonewall movie: Learning about Stonewall was my way into intersectional feminism, way back in high school, and I want there to be an awesome movie about it. But want must be my master. Here’s the wonderful Meredith Talusan on trans erasure.

Also: Stonewall is apparently terrible. A real stinker.

I gazed blankly at the news that Ta-Nehisi Coates is going to write a run on Black Panther for Marvel, for like twenty seconds. It sounds like the kind of joke somebody would make to illustrate why Marvel is so much better than DC. BUT IT IS REAL.

Strunk and White, grammar cops.

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Are you familiar with the Kennewick Man? Spend some time on his Wikipedia page — it’s a fascinating story — and then read about why the scientists should feel like dicks now.

Awesome zookeepers awesomely doing Chris Pratt’s raptor-taming move.

Poetry coopted for Supernatural fanfic: An interview with poet Richard Siken that just fills me with joy for the utter weirdness of the world we live in.

A linguist explains how we convey sarcasm typographically. LANGUAGE FINDS A WAY.

Alyssa Rosenberg on how white supremacists in pop culture largely exist so that other white folks can defeat them. Heroically.

How royalties work on Kindle Unlimited vs. Oyster. (Also, Scribd? What about Scribd? Can we get some information on Scribd?)

Questions about slavery asked of a (white) tour guide at a plantation home.

ZOO (is a show I want to watch)!

The impact of sexist “jokes”:

The evidence, they said, showed that joking reinforces existing prejudice. If you joke about women and get away with it, those who are hostile to women will see this as social sanction for their views and behavior.

Enjoy your 4th of July weekend if you’re in America, and if not, have a very nice and regular weekend!

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To keep it extra positive, I’m doing a giveaway! My birthday was this week, and I’ve decided to celebrate it hobbit-style. One of my all-time favorite books, Eloise Jarvis McGraw’s Greensleeves, was recently put back into print by Nancy Pearl. It’s a dear of a book, as I raved here, and it taught me useful stuff when I was a dumb new adult, and I am offering it up to one lucky winner! The giveaway is open worldwide as I’ll be sending it via Book Depository. Just leave a note in the comments saying you want it, along with a way to contact you, and I will pick a winner on 15 May (next Friday).

This is a lovely article about the flaws and wonders of Anne of Green Gables, and about how we don’t have to choose between Anne and Emily. But I’m going to choose anyway and I choose Emily. Not because of feminism. I just love the Emily books more.

In praise of Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane.

Viola Davis will play Harriet Tubman in an upcoming HBO movie. Yes, thank you, I will watch that.

“Don’t keep finishing your sentences,” he said. “I’m not a bloody fool.”

Feminist romance novel recommendations from Maya Rodale, featuring several of my very favorite romance writers, as well as a book whose title I cannot stop reading as Asses in the Wind, no matter how many times I look at it.

The marvelous Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie on African literature, over at the Wall Street Journal.

The post A shortish links round-up for a rough fortnight (plus a birthday giveaway!) appeared first on Reading the End.

There are many reasons to feel grateful that I live in the times I live in, but here’s another one. Tom Stoppard has a new play at the National, and although reviews of it have accused it of being all ideas and no feelings, I still want to see it. And because of technology, I can. And that is pretty great.

Kelly Sue DeConnick and Matt Fraction, that widely-beloved power couple of the comics world, are coming for your televisions. I have just ceased to care about any of the Marvel TV shows, and I’ll be caring about this instead.

In other Matt Fraction-adjacent news, Jeff Lemire and Ramón Pérez are taking over Hawkeye after Fraction and Aja finish their run. Sniffle, sob, but — well okay! Their ideas about the series sound rather cool!

Do y’all know about how crazy I am about family corvidae? In case you are like “what, crows are not that good,” let me go ahead and prove you wrong.

Bahahaha.

You have most likely already forgotten about that dress that was maybe blue and black or maybe white and gold. But cast your mind back to those forgotten days, and then read this piece by Megan Garber about attention policing.

A version of the movie Foxcatcher that I would actually watch.

Y’alllllll, I love Eddie Redmayne, I truly do, but why is he playing a trans lady in The Danish Girl? It’s not that I don’t think he’ll be good. I know he’ll be good; he’s a good actor. But I am so tired of hearing “we cast who was best for the rule” as a defense. You know who else might be good for the role of a trans lady? AN ACTUAL TRANS LADY ACTOR I DUNNO JUST SPITBALLING HERE.

In which Kate Elliott reminds writers not to default to male.

A profession I did not know existed: Recording the dialogue used for crowd scenes in films.

Some of my favorite bloggers are launching the Book Blogger Buddy System, where you can go to acquire a blogging mentor or just ask questions about blogging.

Laura Miller is at Vulture to talk about fanfiction.

Alan Tudyk and Nathan Fillion are making a short-run show about two guys from a beloved canceled TV show, one of whom becomes Matt Damon famous, and the other of whom spends his life making the rounds at various conventions around the world. They got funded almost immediately because those dudes are the best.

An extremely touching article about finding a fat YA heroine in Eleanor and Park.

Happy Friday!!

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Secondly, I decided to do a links round-up post today, of bookish and nerdy and feminist stuff that interested me this week. I always love link round-ups, and this week I got jealous enough to make one of my own.

In honor of the release of Marvel’s weirdest movie yet, Guardians of the Galaxy, I give you two conflicting reads on sexism in that film, one from Alyssa Rosenberg (formerly of ThinkProgress, now writing for the Washington Post) and one from Clare, The Literary Omnivore.

The Los Angeles Times suggests some important things to keep in mind when you read Amazon’s statements about ebook pricing. The short version is that production costs are the smallest of the costs that go into making a book. The article doesn’t say this, but please also note that Amazon evidently thinks the work it puts into distributing the ebook is 85% as valuable as the work an author puts in to write it and an entire publishing house to make it. I have some feelings about that, Amazon.

This Roxane Gay post on Tumblr about shopping while black will infuriate but not surprise you.

The always wonderful Anne Helen Peterson makes the moral case for watching Outlander. Thanks, imaginary internet friend Anne Helen Peterson! I do not have Cinemax but I will totally watch it when it shows up on one of the streaming services I possess. Also, I bet five dollars that everyone will write off Outlander for being fluff, while Game of Thrones goes on to have as many seasons as it wants. Go ahead, bet me.

In case you’ve been on the fence about reading Mary Robinette Kowal, can I remind you that she puts the Doctor into her books? And then can I point you to her recent blog post about hiring an Antiguan and Barbudan writer, Joanne Hillhouse, to fix her Antiguan Creole English dialogue? Joanne Hillhouse writers about the experiences here. This just fills my heart with bunnies and rainbows.

Over at Tor.com, Ada Palmer inquires whether Thor (who as a Marvel property belongs to Disney) can now be considered a Disney princess.

Anne Thériault of The Toast sings the praises of Anne Boleyn and ranks Henry VIII’s wives in order from best to worst. I’m with her every step of the way, except that I’m giving last place to Catherine Parr, who evidently helped her second husband sexually assault a teenage Elizabeth I. Gross, Catherine Parr.

And last but not at all least, something stupendously cool for you to listen to: A sound map of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, by sound artist John Kannenberg.

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