TODAY: In 1932, Folger Shakespeare Library opens in Washington, D.C.
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A.J. Jacobs traces the human affinity for wordplay, from anagrams as divine messages from the gods to the New York Times Spelling Bee game. | Lit Hub
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We should probably be grateful for that wayward asteroid that killed off the dinosaurs. | Lit Hub Paleontology
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Susan Straight considers the pleasures of polyphonic novels and learning from one of the best: Louise Erdrich. | Lit Hub Criticism
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New titles by Jennifer Egan, Emily St. John Mandel, Douglas Stuart, and Margo Jefferson feature among the Best Reviewed Books of the Month. | Book Marks
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Six thrillers that will fool even the most seasoned readers. | CrimeReads
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“For many of us from Bosnia, it is easy to recognize the symptoms of genocidal intent, which is what Russia is doing in Ukraine. It is terrifying.” Aleksandar Hemon on what’s different about the war in Ukraine. | The Nation
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Jon McGregor embarks on a bike tour of all the bookshops in the UK he can reach in a week. | The Guardian
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What does the “profound and amazing” joke at the end of Annie Hall mean? Sheila Heti, Nathan Goldman, and more investigate. | The Paris Review
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Torrey Peters, Meiko Kawakami, and more women writers share their workspaces. | Financial Times
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“My identity as a writer has come to its fullest form now that I am also an active translator.” Jhumpa Lahiri on her favorite objects. | WSJ Magazine
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“If you have language that pops, language that slashes, that’s what’s for me.” Helen Rosner talks to John Darnielle about songs, poetry, and (“more or less”) the secret to happiness. | The New Yorker
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“A good guest doesn’t pretend they live in someone else’s home, they acknowledge their status and appreciate their temporary dwelling.” Noah Baldino on the pleasures of reading like a guest. | Harriet
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Working with volunteers, two British independent publishers are delivering books to Ukrainian children on the border with Romania. | BBC
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“Some manuscripts survive the collapse of civilization, others do not; it seems unlikely that these survivals and disappearances precisely track merit.” B.D. McClay considers the lifespan of scholarship. | Gawker
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A reading list of work by Arab American writers, in honor of Arab American Heritage Month. | CLMP
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What are the best audiobooks of all time? | Esquire
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Ben Sandman considers Adrian Shirk’s Heaven Is a Place on Earth and the unexplored issue of rural gentrification. | The New Republic
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A researcher is working to locate books made with toxic materials, including arsenic, now housed in libraries and rare book collections. | National Geographic
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“Once I started asking other people about their daydreams, I began to realize that daydreams are like pain: impossible to compare across the bodies of dreamers.” Leslie Jamison on daydreaming. | Astra Magazine
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Don Winslow on the complicated ethics of depicting violence in fiction. | TIME
Also on Lit Hub:
A brief history of the Green New Deal so far • How Putin’s war will affect Russian literature in translation • Elon Musk and Twitter deserve each other • The burden of childhood code-switching • Joanna Kavenna on walking the Grande Randonnée • New poetry from Ukraine by Natalia Beltchenko • Pamela Erens on Middlemarch and the moral value of fiction • Bill Browder on exposing a Russian money laundering scheme • Julie Phillips considers the women who rewrote the motherhood plot • How Soon Wiley virtually strolled Seoul for novel research • A letter from Celia Paul to the artist Gwen John • Michelle Huneven’s notes from over a decade of restaurant criticism • The “uncanny despair” of the cruise ship narrative • On the liberating experience of reading bell hooks • Read the last poems of Les Murray • Taking a mother-daughter trip in the wake of an Alzheimer’s diagnosis • Sara Baume on realizing she stole the title of her new novel • When the disabled miners of the West Virginia Black Lung Association fought for justice • Why Danica Roem decided to run for office • What it’s like to be a blind writer writing for sighted readers • Biden’s economic recovery plan and the fate of American democracy • Toni Bentley on taking stage at the New York City ballet • Vaishnavi Patel on trying to capture oral storytelling in writing • Lillie Lainoff on representations of chronic illness • Read Robert M. Pirsig’s 1974 address to the Minneapolis College of Art and Design • How a gemology class helped Adriana Trigiani inhabit her novel