Letters of Note posted an incredible letter from a former slave, and Kottke rounded up some more info he and others uncovered about the letter writer.
The Story Behind the Letter
Looking for Cleopatra
Recommended Reading: This love letter to Shakespeare’s Cleopatra, “the only woman in the world.” Here’s a bonus infographic that compares Cleopatra to everyone’s favorite Khaleesi, Daenerys Targaryen.
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Amazon’s Top Book Lists
Amazon has churned out a number of top books lists this year. We’ve already mentioned the Editors’ Top 100 Books, but there’s also the Customers’ Top 100 Books, the Top 10 Literature and Fiction, the Top 10 Cookbooks, and the Top 10 Science Books.
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Fame and Adoration
No less a duo than George R.R. Martin and John Hodgman think their fans are wonderful “ninety percent of the time.” As if to bolster their case, the Tin House blog asked T.C. Boyle and company to recount their best experiences as fans.
A Legitimate Scandal
Every writer’s nightmare: plagiarism. If you tuned in to Melania Trump’s RNC speech, you may have noticed something familiar… Some of her lines were plagiarized from Michelle Obama’s 2008 DNC speech.
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“Media hype and unusual advertisements”
The Los Angeles Review of Books interviewed Xujun Eberlein, a “China-born and now Boston-based” short story writer, essayist and blogger about recent literary happenings in her native country. The first question they asked has to do with Finnegans Wake, which is selling surprisingly well in Chinese bookstores.
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Saddle Club
Without the influence of Black Beauty, current opinions of horses and preadolescent girls’ reading lists might have looked very different.
The Long Birthday
On this day 124 years ago Raymond Chandler, hardest of the hard-boiled, was born. To celebrate the father of Philip Marlowe see these letters Chandler wrote to some of his contemporaries, listen to Chandler’s interview with Ian Fleming, and enjoy a couple classic Chandlerisms. Most importantly, read “The Simple Art of Murder,” the greatest essay about the mystery novel ever written.
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