Lit Hub Weekly: April 13 - 17, 2020

• Fairy tales and facts: Siri Hustvedt on how we read in a pandemic. | Lit Hub Literary Criticism
• “In art, as in life, there is nothing accidental.” Translator Richard Pevear on the stories of Chekhov. | Lit Hub On Translation
• “Plants helped to rid her of desire altogether; helped her to become less starved and more contemplative.” Damon Young on Colette’s life in the garden. | Lit Hub History
• Parul Sehgal on Chekhov’s early stories, Annalisa Quinn on Mark O’Connell’s apocalypse journey, and more of the Reviews You Need to Read This Week. | Book Marks
• Sara Sligar celebrates the new generation of California crime writers exploring the intersection of race, class, gender, and community. | CrimeReads
• “We were not as healthy as we thought we were.” Viet Thanh Nguyen on Covid-19 and the myth of American greatness. | The New York Times
• Why are some readers turning to Mrs. Dalloway as a quarantine read? | The New Yorker
• “I can solve nothing, I can save no one, but dammit, I can mail Patrick a copy of The Night Watchman.” Ann Patchett on running Parnassus Books in lockdown. | The Guardian
• Eight female novelists on what books are reassuring them right now. | Vogue
• “A person in my state of health should not have such miseries to bear”: Quarantine correspondence from John Keats. | Lapham’s Quarterly
• What fiction gets right—and wrong—about pandemics. | Mel Magazine
• Samantha Irby’s favorite books include titles by Gillian Flynn and Hanif Abdurraqib. | Vulture
• Italian writers are rushing to publish books about coronavirus. | The New York Times
• “Only The Secret Garden has held my attention. Only The Secret Garden takes place in a universe I recognize.” One writer on the book that’s getting her through the quarantine. | The Paris Review
• After Republican Senator Thom Tillis raised questions about the legality of the Internet Archive’s National Emergency Library, its founder Brewster Kahle defended the organization. | Publishers Weekly
• If you haven’t given up on homeschooling, here are the best and worst workbooks for kids. | The Washington Post
• “Has the virus started the Night of the Living Karens?” Jennifer Weiner on the seductive appeal of pandemic shaming. | The New York Times
• “How fragile and rare our ordered structures are, our fictions, and how precious.” Charles Yu on the illusions the pandemic has shattered. | The Atlantic
• “Think of all the things you hope will still be there in that castle of the future when we get across. Then do what you can, now, to ensure the future existence of those things.” Margaret Atwood on what to do now. | TIME
• Crowdfunding, layoffs, Zoom events: if there was ever an indie bookstore “renaissance,” the coronavirus has ensured that it is over. | New Republic

Also on Lit Hub:

Kay Ryan on the preposterous beauty of Gerard Manley Hopkins • J.M.G. Le Clézio on the common good (and other people’s books • A letter from Beirut, by Lina Mounzer • Why do we swim? Bonnie Tsui on what it means to confront the open water • Alexandra Chang on learning from Lucia Berlin • Poet Fred Shaw is going to miss New Orleans restaurant life • Cartoonist Tom Gauld refuses to take science seriously • Straight and silvery, big as buckshot, a thin knife of cool… and more of the best rain in literature • Mark Doty considers the question of homoeroticism in Walt Whitman’s poetry • Drag queen Crystal Rasmussen on the secret language of make-up • On the anniversary of the killing of Abraham Lincoln by the coward John Wilkes Booth • On Yogi Berra’s journey from rookie to ten-time championship winner • Phyllis Grant on what ballet does to your relationship with food • David Moloney offers a reading list of bad jobs in literature • “Last chance” tourism treats climate change as a spectacle, and destroys the very places people want to save • Kerri Arsenault on life in a pandemic spring • Pwaangulongii Dauod’s portrait of the drowsy, sunlit world of Kaduna City, a half-completed story • Amanda Leduc on creating accessibility in virtual literary spaces • Writing about dementia means confronting readers’ fears • With the Arhuaco on the sacred Magdalena River • Dimitry Elias Léger’s coronavirus diary reveals the importance of the World Healthy Organization • Jenny Odell and Wendy Liu discuss the radical power of liberating ourselves from usefulness • The most borrowed books in NYC during quarantine • Ru Freeman considers the relevance of the workshop • Rowan Hisayo Buchanan and T Kira Madden discuss craft, candles, and character • Ibtisam Barakat recommends books by five great Arab women writers • Ryan Ruby on the invisible militarization of daily life in America • Can you bring a tiny robot into an exclusive Austrian sanatorium? • On Mark Doty, Paul Lisicky, and the role of the self in memoir • Novelist Jessi Jezewska Stevens takes a virtual gallery tour with Michael Barron • The all-time great kids’ books by serious writers, from Hemingway to Woolf • Are basketball superstars more loyal to their teams, or sneaker companies? • Why has it always been so hard to treat the common cold? • Brief variations on the writer’s life • Round five of our personalized quarantine book recommendations, for your ongoing isolation reading

Best of Book Marks:

New on CrimeReads:

Darynda Jones celebrates ten great partnerships in crime series • Sheena Kamal looks at six social justice crime novels • Sarah Weinman introduces us to four women who edited crime fiction for decades and shaped a genre • Steven Wright on seven fictional con artists who swindled entire communities • Olivia Rutigliano rounds up all those classic detective series you’ve been meaning to read anyway • Grady Hendrix on 500 years of true crime • Mindy Mejia on financial crime in an infectious world • Molly Odintz on ten iconic series of the 1960s perfect for binge-reading • Megan Allen on crafting an animal rights thriller • This is the book that outsold Dracula in 1897 (it’s not very good)