David Satter’s It Was a Long Time Ago and It Never Happened Anyway gets reviewed for The Daily Beast. The book is a “sweeping study of how the former Soviet Union’s bloody past continues to poison Russia’s present and threatens to strangle the country’s future.”
Imaginary Russia
Pioneering
Recommended Reading: Ruth Graham on the uncensored memoirs of Laura Ingalls Wilder.
Bigwig Book Collectors
Gary Shteyngart, Philip Pullman, James Wood, and three other literary bigwigs share their book-collecting habits.
The Alphabet of Silence
Recommended Reading/Listening: Maia Evrona’s translation and recitation of a poem by Abraham Sutzkever, who has been called one of the primary poets of the Holocaust. Gabriel Brownstein’s essay for The Millions on what it means to be a “Jewish writer” is a good complementary piece.
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East of Hollywood
Jennifer Lawrence is putting down Katniss's bow and arrow for another literary adaption. She will star as the malevolent Cathy Ames in a new adaptation of John Steinbeck's East of Eden. Gary Ross, who first teamed up with Lawrence for The Hunger Games, will direct. Pair with: Our essay on vile women in fiction, which features the infamous Cathy.
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“The First Step Into the Wide World”
This is from two years ago, but it's worth a listen if you missed it the first time: a moving Radiolab podcast on Alzheimer's, Düsseldorf, and the creative use of bus stops.
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Talking Seveneves
Recommended listening: David Naimon talks with Neal Stephenson about his new novel, Seveneves. Pair with Chris Barsanti's Millions review.
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“I was on the edge of crazy.”
Recommended Reading: the first two chapters of Roxane Gay’s novel, An Untamed State, which are available courtesy of Longreads.