Unsurprisingly, George Saunders is kind of a chaotic reader. | Lit Hub
Read Émile Zola’s, T.S. Eliot’s, and George Orwell’s thoughts on cheese in Noëlle Janaczewska’s culinary and artistic history. | Lit Hub Food
Renee Alsarraf, a veterinary oncologist with metastatic cancer, reflects on facing her own mortality alongside her non-human patients. | Lit Hub Memoir
Laying down the bass line: Daniel Torday has some thoughts about what writers can learn from musicians. | Lit Hub Craft
George Saunders’s Liberation Day, Barbara Kingsolver’s Demon Copperhead, and Paul Newman’s The Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Man all feature among the Best Reviewed Books of the Week. | Book Marks
Which international thriller should you binge this weekend? | CrimeReads
“I boarded this ship as my own unlikable female narrator.” Imogen West-Knights reports from the eight-day Gone Girl-themed river cruise. | Slate
Nicole Chung offers strategies for writing when you feel stuck. | The Atlantic
Matthew James Seidel revisits John Wyndham’s 1953 novel: “ On the surface, The Kraken Wakes seems to have nothing to do with climate change.” | LARB
“Far from the oppressive ethos I once imagined, it represents the best of American vernacular.” Maud Newton on the inclusivity of “y’all.” | The New York Times Magazine
Hua Hsu praises the communal joy of Waffle Saturdays. | Bon Appétit
“Writing enabled Mantel to locate herself in a body that felt increasingly alien.” Jane Hu revisits the early work of Hilary Mantel. | The New Yorker
From Carmen Maria Machado’s In the Dream House to Anne Carson’s Float, ten feminist books that break form. | The Guardian
On the growing religious movement to ban LGBTQ books. | The New Republic
Barbara Kingsolver discusses “writing honestly and respectfully” about Appalachia and the opioid epidemic. | Oprah Daily
Ken Burns on good adaptations and the Great American Novel: “But what about O Pioneers! or My Ántonia? For that matter, what about Gabriel García Márquez?’” | The New York Times
Devoney Looser dives into the forgotten history of Jane and Anna Maria Porter, British sisters who pioneered the historical novel. | Smithsonian Magazine
If you’re grappling with literary rejection, don’t forget: the poem that launched Edna St. Vincent Millay’s career also lost her a poetry contest. | JSTOR Daily
Melissa Febos and Denise Kripper trade cultural recommendations, from Portrait of a Lady on Fire to Las malas. | Astra
What are the scariest books of all time? | Book Riot
“I’m trying to shift the conversation about abortion away from controlling women’s bodies and legislating women’s bodies.” Gabrielle Blair on her new book, Ejaculate Responsibly. | NPR
