How J. Robert Oppenheimer used one of his favorite books, the Bhagavad Gita, to make the most consequential decision of the 20th century. | Lit Hub History
Truman Capote became the “it” author of his generation after publishing In Cold Blood. That wasn’t necessarily a good thing. | Lit Hub Biography
C.K. Chau considers the importance of place in Pride and Prejudice: “We, along with the Netherfield players, join the story by moving into it.” | Lit Hub Criticism
“I remain fascinated by Casablanca, not so much because of the stories about love it may tell, but because of the many stories the film does not, cannot, or simply was not ready to tell.” Tabea Alexa Linhard on the refugee stories that begin where Casablanca ends. | Lit Hub Film & TV
Tessa Hadley’s After the Funeral, David Lipsky’s The Parrot and the Igloo, and Nicole Flattery’s Nothing Special all feature among the Best Reviewed Books of the Week. | Book Marks
“I found myself haunted by the war, yet again.” John Milas on writing a horror novel about wartime. | CrimeReads
Jaren Marcel Pollen on the lessons of Milan Kundera’s work. | The New Republic
In which Kyle Chayka attempts to replace himself with a robot. | The New Yorker
“The great theologian of our America, I propose, is the novelist Thomas Pynchon.” Alan Jacobs on Pynchon’s teleology of the human. | Hedgehog Review
Joshua Fagan considers the scientific socialism of H.G. Wells. | Jacobin
Julie Irigaray revisits Sylvia Plath’s “The Applicant.” | The Poetry Foundation
“For me, writing and erasing myself are one and the same; a sentence succeeds because it conjures up something other than me.” Hernan Diaz on the adaptation of his novel Trust. | The Guardian
The Napkin Project, rebooted: Read ten (very) short works of fiction, written on cocktail napkins, by Emily St. John Mandel, Danielle Evans, and more. | Esquire
Take a line-by-line look at the art of translation. | The New York Times
Stephen King gives advice on division of labor, dealing with in-laws, and librarian burn-out. | Slate
Was Cormac McCarthy a true “Texas novelist”? Texan writers weigh in. | Austin American-Statesman
“Whereas some people have a passion for sex, my mentor has a passion for otters.” Read a new work of flash fiction from Patrick Cottrell, from the latest issue of BOMB. | BOMB
“‘It looks really overwhelming in there,’ she says, peering into the crowd.” A chaotic 48 hours with Colleen Hoover. | TIME
Rachel Gutman-Wei considers the decline of penmanship. | The Atlantic
Jonathan Taylor looks back at the early years of Reading Rainbow. | LA Times
Livia Gershon explores the complicated history of pointy hats. | JSTOR Daily
