Hi and welcome to this week’s Lez Liberty Lit!
“They” (singular) is the word of the year.
These 100 books defined the last decade.
“Learning a Native language is not only about knowledge or authenticity; it extends a symbol of a thriving and unique culture to the rising generation. It’s the cadence of survival. And if it goes silent, a great tradition is broken,” writes Nick Martin at the New Republic on what’s lost as Native languages vanish.
Well, DO we have minds of our own?
McNally Jackson’s employees have unionized.
Illuminated manuscripts can be an escape.
Can writing be too sentimental?
At the New Yorker, Hilton Als writes on Joan Didion’s early novels:
“I don’t think it’s necessary to read chronologically through the Library of America volume—which, in addition to the novels, includes Didion’s seminal essay collections “Slouching Towards Bethlehem” (1968) and “The White Album” (1979). Almost any page of this invaluable book will take you somewhere emotionally and offer a paramount lesson in the power of Didion’s voice. Some readers came to Didion later in her career—through her National Book Award-winning memoir, “The Year of Magical Thinking” (2005), about the death of her husband, the writer John Gregory Dunne, for instance, or “Blue Nights” (2011), about the death of her daughter—and it’s interesting to go back and explore the origins of the impulse that drives those memoirs. “
Read Electric Literature’s best novels of 2019, and also its best nonfiction books and best short-story collections. Read these unmissable poetry books from 2019. Read Page Turner’s best books of 2019. Read Lit Hub’s always ultimate best of list. Read PEN America’s longlists. Read 20 of the most anticipated debates of 2020.
That New Yorker article on minds is my JAM, thank you for that
I wish so many of these weren’t blocked in the UK
BOOO ON CENSORSHIP
You’re determined to use that at every available opportunity aren’t you @snowfell ;)