Perhaps the best piece of baseball writing ever put to paper (duly praised here), John Updike’s “Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu” about Ted Williams is being released in a slim, stylish volume from Library of America this week.
Hey, Hub Fans
From Text to Triage
“Megan Gething jumped in to action and tied a pair of shorts around her friend’s leg to slow blood loss, using a tip she learned from the young adult science fiction novels.” A 12-year-old Massachusetts girl used what she read about creating a tourniquet from The Hunger Games to rescue her friend, reports the AP (via Book Riot). Guess the best YA books really do stick with you.
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The Wrath of the Translator
The English Illiad, compared: a look at the translations of Robert Fagles, Anthony Verity, Stephen Mitchell, and more.
Depravity’s Rainbow
The #AuthorSexts trending topic had us rolling the other day, and now you can revisit some of the best submissions thanks to Electric Literature.
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Orbital Vacations
Looking for a place to burn those vacation days? How about outer space, or one of the other 44 places tapped by The New York Times?
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City on a Hill
As the lone mental hospital in The Magic Mountain referred to by its real name, the Hotel Schatzalp is a holy site for many Thomas Mann scholars and fans. At Page-Turner, Sally McGrane writes about the modern hotel, which employs a staff trained to deal with the occasional “literary fanatic.” (It also might be a good time to read Matthew Gallaway on Death in Venice.)
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Colson at the Casino
“We go to casinos to tell the everyday world that we will not submit.” NPR has an excerpt from Colson Whitehead’s new book, The Noble Hustle.
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