Lit Hub Weekly: August 26 - 30, 2019

• In case you needed another reason to love Kurt Vonnegut: he really, really hated guns. | Lit Hub
• “Mr. Roosevelt is not greatly interested in the national game nor has he ever been.” On Teddy Roosevelt’s hatred of baseball. | Lit Hub
• Everything is fleeting (including your youth) so we’re celebrating the end of summer with this list of the 50 greatest coming-of-age stories of all time. | Lit Hub
• Parul Sehgal on Salman Rushdie’s latest, Helen Macdonald on a homing pigeon odyssey, Deborah Lipstadt on the memory of evil, and more of the Book Reviews You Need to Read This Week. | Book Marks
• Academia is brutal. Here aretwelve campus mysteries and research thrillers to cushion the back-to-school blow. | CrimeReads
• Maybe we can finally put the “audiobooks vs. physical books” argument to rest? It turns out, your brain can’t tell the difference between listening to a book and reading one. | Discover
• The Association of American Publishers, on behalf of seven major book publishers, is suing Audible for a new captions feature that transcribes the text of narrated readings, citing copyright infringement. | Geek
• On “the great book scare,” during which some would-be readers thought library books might carry and spread disease. (Probably not the root of America’s anti-intellectualism problem, though). | Smithsonian
• Katherine Kressman Taylor’s Address Unknown, a short 1938 book in epistolary form, was once credited with warning Americans about the horrors of Nazi Germany. | The Guardian
• Magdalena Edwards’ account of a harrowing experience working on a translation of Clarice Lispector with Benjamin Moser raises questions about—among other things—the nature of editor-translator relationships. | LARB, Women in Translation
• From Doris Lessing to Oyinkan Braithwaite: Read an African history of the Booker Prize. | Brittle Paper
• “Oh, I love telling a story: beginning, middle, end. But there’s delight in telling a moment: the world turned over by a sudden encounter of unacquainted thoughts.” Barbara Kingsolver on the joys of writing poetry. | The Washington Post
• “What an elegant way to explore, support small businesses and dignify hoarding!” Lauren Oster recommends collecting a single book—like, say, 1984. | The New York Times
• On Stalingrad, “Vasily Grossman’s lost epic,” long censored, ignored, and shunned—but long brilliant, too. | The New Republic
• “In a climate change story, nobody will win, but if we learn to tell it differently more of us can survive.” On the necessity of Ursula Le Guin’s “Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction” in the age of climate catastrophe. | The Outline
• Leah Schnelbach on what Stephen King’s IT can teach us about how to craft a compelling narrative. | Tor
• Margaret Atwood’s debut novel, The Edible Woman, was published 50 years ago. Here’s what happened when one intrepid fan went back and re-read it, and every novel she’s written since. | Chicago Review of Books
• “Glamour and heartbreak have one thing in common: they both wear off faster than you’d think.” Jennifer Croft bids goodbye to summer. | The Paris Review
• “Audience laughter. Freeze frame. Theme song plays. Roll credits.” On the (often sexy!) afterlife of Seinfeld in fanfiction. | Mel Magazine
• The Great American Road Trip novel shouldn’t just be a Beat Generation romp. What diverse paths should the genre go down next? | Citylab

Also on Lit Hub:

On the unruly virtues of the semicolon • Susan Harlan makes a compelling case for the end-of-summer joy of reading by a motel pool • Bryan Walsh on the terrifying possibilities of AI superintelligence • How Martin Scorsese straddled Hollywood and auteur filmmaking • Why are writers particularly drawn to tarot? • Vera Wasowski, larger than life in postwar Warsaw • Mary-Kay Wilmers on the language of book criticism • In praise of the high school English teacher: introducing a new column by Nick Ripatrazone. • What Germany can (and can’t) teach America about reparations and evil • Jumoke Verissimo on the politics of italics • Five new audiobooks to cushion the blow of summer’s end • Philippe Aronson on tracking down—and translating—his literary idol, Irving Rosenthal • On the unsolved mystery of Alexander the Great’s death • Too little, too late: on Purdue Pharma’s deafening silence in the face of the opioid crisis • On the dangerous temptations of political contempt • An open letter to Europe: Ilija Trojanow on the chasm between actions and its ideals • Bob Eckstein draws his way through the Writer’s Digest Annual Conference • Terrence Holt revisits Paul Starr’s classic, The Social Transformation of American Medicine • In praise of the sentence • On the amazing plasticity of the human brain • On the challenges of designing your grandfather’s book (when your grandfather is James Thurber) • Laura Cumming on her mother’s kidnapping as a child • Naja Marie Aidt on time, grief, and her late son, Carl Emil • 31 books of poetry in 31 days: taking the Sealey Challenge

Best of Book Marks:

To celebrate #WiT month, here’s a quartet of wondrous works by women in translation • Annie Spence talks Nora Ephron, Patrick Swayze, and getting it on in the stacks • Beirut Hellfire Society author Rawi Hage recommends five great books about Beirut • Women Talking, The Awakening, The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis, and more rapid-fire book recs from Catherine Lacey • A collection of short stories from Edwidge Danticat, a new satirical novel from Nell Zink, and an examination of evil all feature among the Best Reviewed Books of the Week

New on CrimeReads:

Olivia Rutigliano on five 19th century women who beat the odds to become some of the earliest female detectives • Luc Sante on Jean-Patrick Manchette’s Nada, a classic caper novel with a revolutionary message • J. L. Doucette had just finished her first mystery novel when a startling discovery changed her perspective on writing about violence • John Marrs recommends 7 techno-thrillers to read as our world crumbles • Danny Caine of The Raven Bookstore on Sara Paretsky, bookstore cats, and the art of the handsell • Crime and the City: Paul French guides us through the crime fiction of Madrid • L.A. Chandlar on New York City’s forgotten Art Deco treasures • Paul French takes a look at the long history of crime novels set in Buenos Aires • Radha Vatsal celebrates Hitchcock’s most iconic shots • Halley Sutton recommends five series to help you process all your feelings about Veronica Mars: Season 4 (warning: spoilers ahead!)