NPR’s Book Concierge for 2022

Brittle Paper‘s list of 100 Notable African Books of 2022.

The Guardian‘s Best Books of 2022.

Paste‘s Best Fantasy Books of 2022.

Kirkus has a bunch of subject-specific lists of best books of 2022.

The Globe and Mail‘s Best Books of 2022.

Laura Miller’s best of 2022. Dan Kois’s best of 2022. (both from Slate)

Shelf Awareness: Best Books of 2022

Chicago Tribune‘s Best 10 Books of 2022

New Scientist‘s best nonfiction of 2022

Washington Post‘s 10 Best Books of 2022

New York Times‘s Best 10 Books of 2022

Foreign Affairs’ Best Books of 2022

Time‘s 100 Must-Read Books of 2022

Barnes and Nobles’ Best Books of 2022

Chicago Public Library’s Best Books of 2022

Vulture’s Best Books of 2022

I am absolutely delighted about Goncharov (1973), and I think you will be too. It is, however, another illustration of how much fandom loves to invest emotions in white characters and whiteness.

“Don’t you want to be able to retire?” How home-reno shows are making us think we want and need home changes we don’t like.

What will writers do without Twitter?

Thank heaven someone has done an oral history of the 12-foot Home Depot skeletons. God bless this Vice article, and God bless the 12-foot Home Depot skeletons. They’re so stupid. I love them so much.

Aubrey Gordon has a new book out and is a national treasure!

An all-spoilers review of what makes Andor so great.

Usually I love the “this industry is completely unregulated!” exposes but this one on hospice is even more of a goddamn bummer travesty than these pieces usually are. Also like… this article takes some turns. You think it’s just “this industry is completely unregulated!” and then some time goes by and there’s a WHOLE ASS SCHEME with a LAWYER IN A WIG DISGUISE and shit. (Seriously, holy shit, I cannot overstate how insane this article is.)

“As the queer content of many of Donatello’s sculptures has been the subject of intense scholarly debate, it would have been intellectually rigorous for the catalogue to address these debates more directly. Instead, silence was observed in deference to the Catholic Church.”

Kavita Das has a new book about writing on social issues, and here she is in a roundtable on the subject with Gaiutra Bahadur and the wonderful Gabrielle Bellot.

The US absolutely owes it to our Afghan allies to adjust the status of refugees now in the US to allow them to stay. Otherwise, they’ll be deported back to Afghanistan. If you take nothing else away from this links round-up, please call your elected officials about this!

Emancipation (the movie!) hadn’t been on my radar until this week, and Valerie Complex has a typically thoughtful review of the movie in itself and the place of Black trauma in cinema.

Always nice to read a story about how romance novels gave someone joy in hard times!

Wesley Morris talks about the crisis of the type of movies that build movie stars.

“Ironically, this is the most personal piece of writing I have ever published.” Isabel Kaplan’s boyfriend (a writer) broke up with her because she’s a writer.

Twitter is awful and being terminally online is awful and everything is awful.

“Our ambulances are simply the entrance to a broken pipeline.” An EMS worker in New York City weighs in on Eric Adams’s shitty new proposal to institutionalize more mentally ill people so that the rest of the New York public won’t have to look at them anymore.

America doesn’t have a polarization problem; it has a white supremacy problem.

Gretchen McCulloch has helpfully standardized how we spell the abbreviated version of the word “usual.” Thanks, Gretchen McCulloch!

Iron Horse asked seven poets about their revision process, and here’s the result.

Have a wonderful weekend! Good luck with your TBR lists! I regret nothing!

The post ‘Tis the Season for Best Books Lists: A Links Round-Up appeared first on Reading the End.

It never seems to be the right time to talk about racism among white teachers. (link)

Young people with long COVID are struggling to get support, necessary treatments, and even the belief of their nearest and dearest. (link)

Emerald Faith recommends some classics of Black queer literature. (link)

Two journalists did a podcast about a hoax letter that led to anti-Muslim policies. It explores how journalism can go terribly wrong when it’s overly deferential to those in power. The response of British journalism has been… not good. (link)

“There’s no easy block option in real life.” Larisha Paul on Megan Thee Stallion and the misogynoir underpinning the online and offline harm done to her. (link)

Have we been thinking about burnout all wrong? Does it make more sense to consider it as a trauma response? (link)

Why have we given up on the pandemic? Ed Yong, our trustiest pandemic journalist, has some answers. (link)

American journalism claimed to be facing a racial reckoning after the events of Summer 2020. What ever came of that? Hanaa’ Tameez investigates. (link)

In praise of the humble video essay. (link)

Any time Rachel Cordasco has thoughts on SFF in translation, they’re worth reading. (link)

The music of Sesame Street could never have been what it was without one man: Joe Raposo. (link)

Some bros entering the online knitting space feel they have been treated unfairly by the knitting community. (link)

What happens when novelists take to Substack? (link) And what makes writers leave? (link)

Ryan from The O.C. just really really does not like cryptocurrency. I can’t overstate how charming this article is. (link)

What do linguists think of LOL? (link)

The #MeToo movement has failed in Sweden, with more women being prosecuted for talking about their abuse than men prosecuted for doing the abuse. (link)

“We’re still supposed to somehow root for the few good apples while ignoring the bad.” David Dennis Jr. examines the new Batman’s portrayal of police and policing. (link)

Tech whistleblowers are begging for us to hear them. (link)

The creator of the Netflix TV show The Babysitters Club discusses its unexpected cancellation. (link)

“Run you might get away. But you probably won’t.” Wesley Morris explores Jane Campion’s unprovoked snottiness toward the Williams sisters. (link)

Here’s how the costume designers for The Gilded Age, 1883, and Vienna Blood design the outfits their actors wear. (link)

Turning Red is a glorious, funny, emotional celebration of boy band fandom. I LOVED IT and I hope y’all did/will too. (link)

Orchestras need HR departments. (link)

I cannot fucking wait to read Dead Collections. It’s about a trans vampire archivist. And now I learn it’s also about fandom? I mean!! (link)

Drunk parents explain Paw Patrol to sober childless people. (link)

That’s it for the links! Paw Patrol is terrible! Be well this weekend!

The post I Forgot to Add a Title to This Post: A Links Round-Up appeared first on Reading the End.

First and most importantly: The Millions Book Preview! (link)

Serial killers are in decline, hooray! (link)

“Despite the joys of his irreverence, however, it is all too easy to sink in the morass of sexism, if not outright misogyny, muddying the plots of Vonnegut’s novels.” On the writers adored by men of Tinder. (link)

The surreal, chaotic, extremely online culture of quarantine. (link)

Here’s what we lose as publishers combine into a giant scary publishing conglomerate (of evil). (link)

Finding friendship through fandom, a very relevant story in These Times. (link)

“No one gets into anime for clout.” Stitch on the backlash to Megan Thee Stallion enjoying anime. (link)

Schitt’s Creek is a wonderful warm glorious show and this is a good appreciation of its central relationship. (link)

Wonder Woman Number Two is not good. (link)

Disney won’t stop changing protagonists of color into animals. Can we not? (link)

Native Twitter loves Baby Yoda and here’s why. (link)

Want your book published? It helps to be white — just like 85% of acquiring editors. (link)

“Every day, I thank God that Tolkien did not live long enough to share his opinions on Twitter, unlike, say, other wildly popular and previously beloved fantasy authors of our era.” On rewatching Lord of the Rings at Christmas. (link)

Alyssa Cole won’t apologize for putting politics in her romance novels (& she shouldn’t because they’re amazing). (link)

An interview with the intimacy coordinator for Bridgerton. (link)

Remember American Dirt? A controversy that happened in 2020 and people were like “oh no cancel culture”? Well, it remained a bestseller even after All That Mess, but here’s a postmortem on why it all went down that way. (link)

Don’t forget about progressives in red states. (link)

TV characters aren’t wearing masks consistently. It is not the best. (link)

Also not the best: the ongoing romanticization of the British monarchy. We hate monarchies! Remember? We hates it! Strange women lying about in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government! (link)

There’s still an age gap problem in roles for actresses, and we are beyond tired of talking about it. (link)

“He promised that he would be with them. But, like a lazy coward, Trump went home to watch the show on TV.” Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor goes deep on the convergence between white supremacists and the Republican party. (link)

The Color Purple is a masterpiece, not least for the way it gives a voice to survivors of trauma. (link)

“It has always sucked to compare yourself to the prettiest girl in school, but it sucks a lot more to feel like everybody else in the entire world is the prettiest girl in school.” On the faux-body positivity of Instagram. (link)

Wesley Morris is predictably fabulous writing about The Great Gatsby. (link)

I am very excited to read Aya de Leon’s sex worker heist novels. I have the first one checked out right now. Here’s how she became a writer. (link)

These have been SOME LINKS. I hope you enjoyed them! I hope that your workplace has given you the federal holiday of Martin Luther King Day off. Please have a very blessed weekend in which you get lots and lots of rest. I’m sorry we all have lived to see such times.

The post MILLIONS BOOK PREVIEW: A very belated links round-up appeared first on Reading the End.

Just kidding! Those things are both incredible! So I’m kicking off this links round-up with Isaac Chotiner’s very magical interview with Bret Easton Ellis, as well as a review of the “old man yells at cloud” book Ellis has, apparently, written. Be blessed.

“It felt hidden, like I said a magic word and there was Prague.” An interview with Helen Oyeyemi.

The rise of publicly thirsty women.

Some thoughts on cultural appropriation, rules, and self-censorship, from Jeannette Ng.

An extremely normal and fine profile of Carmen Maria Machado. (I advise reading it in its entirety.)

How bad is EL James’s new book? SO BAD.

The medical establishment uses men as a baseline for almost everything — which has led to massive health inequities for women.

Katy Waldman found her own experiences in a book (not in a good way).

Celebrating Easter Sunday among the black congregations in Louisiana whose churches were burned by an arsonist this year: an exercise in generosity and forgiveness.

Nathan Robinson attended the Zizek/Peterson “debate” so we wouldn’t have to.

Wesley Morris grieves for the demise of the romantic comedy (and so do I).

Have an incredible weekend, friends! Mine is going to contain brambles and crawfish, so I will be the happiest camper the world has ever known. (Also a little bit of phone-banking but I’m trying not to think too much about that.)

The post Making Fun of Bret Easton Ellis: A Links Round-Up appeared first on Reading the End.

A list of things I would actually like men to explain to me. LOLSOB TO ALL OF THIS.

Charlie Jane Anders urges writers to play to their weaknesses.

Should corporations have a universal, unfettered right to censor the content their subsidiaries produce?

Jenni Monet now publishes a separate version of her news articles online, specifically for a native audience, after many occasions on which she feels native content in her work has been stifled or eliminated by editors.

A lot of writers title their books Horse Latitudes. An intrepid book reviewer read and reviewed them all.

This profile of Marlon James by one of my favorite critics, Jia Tolentino, is superb but does make me want to stay ten miles away from Marlon James’s books because I can’t spend my life reading rape scenes men wrote.

Wesley Morris asks why the Oscars keep falling for fantasies of racial reconciliation.

Publishing has a diversity problem. What’s it like to be a woman of color in a racist industry?

We’re in the Instagram age of book design (and I personally love it, and I’m not even on Instagram).

Gary Younge is having none of Liam Neeson and NOR AM I.

Happy Friday!

The post I FORGOT HOW TO ROUND THINGS UP: 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.

Anyway, not that anyone was sitting at home like “huh where is Jenny,” but that is where I have been. Undergoing changes and fretting about them. Not reading very much. I am not at my best, but also (ofc) feeling extremely guilty for not being at my best. Like who am I that I deserve to have days — entire weeks actually! — when I am not at my best? NOBODY, THAT’S WHO.

Oh, you know what’s a book I did read? I read a picture book about a girl who never makes mistakes. I loved it at once and it was #lifegoals but then, can you believe, as the book goes on, the girl makes an enormous, a genuinely mortifying mistake that would scar a real child for life; or if not that, then it would surely create in her a renewed desire to, from there on out, achieve perfection in all things. But in this NONSENSE PICTURE BOOK, do you know what happens? She resigns herself to making mistakes sometimes. HAH. The little girl in the picture book is WEAK and took the COMPLETELY WRONG LESSON away from her awful, humiliating error. What a terrible book.

Whatever. Here are some links.

On the whiteness of craft culture.

Extremist hate groups understood online platforms in a fundamental way long before the New York Times cottoned on, reports New York Times writer who doesn’t listen to black women on Twitter. (I’m being snarky, but this article makes some interesting points about how online platforms function, which is why I’m sharing it.)

Why judging the poor isn’t helping anybody.

Michael Twitty, author of a new book about black heritage and black food in the South, speaks to Hannah Giorgis of The Ringer about his family and his research.

Daniel Heath Justice on the students he teaches and the question of whether they are special snowflakes who don’t live in the real world. And a pairing: Kiese Laymon on people he knew at Vassar and their power and privilege.

MUMSY DO NOT CLICK THIS NEXT LINK. I WANT TO TELL YOU THIS STORY MYSELF. Everyone else, definitely click this next link. Okay Mumsy it is all right, I have now told you this story. Click away.

Watching the YA community doggedly figure out why Angie Thomas’s The Hate U Give got bumped down to number two on the NYT Bestseller List by a book nobody had ever heard of was frankly magical. Here’s a YA literary agent breaking down why this story was so bonkers.

Speaking of scams, here’s an author who has lied about pretty much everything, including I SWEAR TO GOD making up an agent, building that fictional agent a website, and using a picture of Ian Somerhalder for that agent’s face. What is this world.

Wesley Morris on white supremacy in the pop culture of this summer.

“Jenny when will you stop linking to everything Ijeoma Iluo writes?” IDK friends but today is not that day. Here she is making me cry on the subject of talking to your kids about race early and often.

Have an amazing weekend! I will be inside my apartment all weekend trying to reconstruct my fractured ego.

The post A slightly glum update (and a links round-up) appeared first on Reading the End.

The always-marvelous Angelica Jade Bastien unpacks the debate about black American and British actors.

This isn’t new, but I hadn’t seen it before: An interactive self-care guide that is legit pretty great.

If you’ve read The Thief and The Queen of Attolia, may I direct your attention to this Tor.com appreciation of Eugenides? It contains significant spoilers for two eminently spoilable books, so don’t click if you haven’t read them.

Dude movie stars are getting too many muscles, says Vulture. I….do not disagree with this. Chris Evans’s arms in Civil War are pretty great tho.

This excerpt from the new book Hearththrobs is pretty fucking great. The goal of making me want to read Hearthrobs is achieved thereby.

Wesley Morris writes about Bill Maher with the perfect degree of contempt and world-weariness. Plus a hell of a kicker.

This Buzzfeed article on Trump-inspired rhetoric in schools made me really sad. Also squares with some stuff I’ve heard from teacher friends.

Since we’re interviewing Zan Romanoff for next week’s podcast, I am in the midst of a desultory deep dive into One Direction history. Here’s her explainer on the group.

Some thoughts on sex work and its decriminalization (a topic about which I am soon going to educate myself more thoroughly).

One time I asked my dear, good friend Julia to teach me how to be a Wikipedia editor, and she was all gung-ho for it. She was like “Okay, first of all, pick a username that doesn’t indicate in any way that you might be a woman, and also don’t let it be connected to any other username you’ve ever used for anything anywhere on the internet, no matter how long ago,” and I was like “ha ha never mind, this sounds awful.” I felt bad for disappointing her, but on the other hand, this article.

Have a wonderful weekend, my darlings! I will be reading up on One Direction, South African history, and the decriminalization of sex work.

The post Research Topics for the Weekend: 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.

In case you missed it, I wrote a fandom vocabulary primer for the Oxford Dictionaries blog.

The goddess Alexandra Petri (the woman who brought us Emo Kylo Ren) outlines the Great American Novel.

A history of Harry Potter fandom.

The Seattle Seahawks made a loud noise about the statement they were planning to make before their opening game, but what they said was a whole lot of nothing.

“Modern patriotism has become Kabuki citizenship”: Wesley Morris burns the house down, per usual, in this piece on Colin Kaepernick for the New York Times; as does Rembert Browne for NYMag. These Grantland alums, I’m telling you!

If you believe that a frown is a thing you do with your mouth, this article is going to mess you up.

GUESS WHAT KATE BISHOP COMIC

I know it’s sad when a marriage ends, but also, my first instinct was to be excited for whatever Sam Donsky and Anne Helen Peterson were going to have to say about it, and they did not disappoint. I am just so fascinated by celebrity narrative-crafting.

Kiese Laymon on what the American flag means to him.

It’s time to retire the Rom-Com Bitch, says Bim Adewunmi, with an admirably thorough analysis that includes MY BELOVED While You Were Sleeping.

The post I Am an Aunt: A Links Round-Up appeared first on Reading the End.