Recommended Reading: Walter Kirn’s “Confessions of an Ex-Mormon,” which has my vote for the best long form article on American religions since Lawrence Wright’s profile of Paul Haggis and the Church of Scientology.
On “America’s most misunderstood religion”
To Thine Own Self Be True
New writers need to trust themselves, Marilynne Robinson advises in an interview with Thessaly La Force for VICE. "The idea that you might do something radically brilliant—that assumption is very empowering and it has given the world a lot of really interesting things to look at," she said.
It’s Not TV, It’s Jonathan Franzen.
To celebrate the official HBO adaptation of Jonathan Franzen's The Corrections, The New Yorker has compiled a list of "Franzen Facts."
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Academic Activism
“In a bewildering new trend, it is young rationalist bloggers in Bangladesh who have emerged as the primary target of Islamic extremists.” K. Anis Ahmed writes about the brutal murders of bloggers at the front of the secular movement who have demanded punishment for those committing genocide. Pair with an essay from Hasan Altaf about how celebrating literature can be a form a protest.
The Tortoise and the Tae-Bo Routine
“As they were actual animals, rather than anthropomorphized personality traits intended to teach moral lessons, the Dog’s words were just a bunch of barking. The Goat bolted across the road, ending up on the ridge behind the Baker place. The Goat’s owner then called Animal Control, even though the Dog’s owner knew about the pot plants in the former’s greenhouse, which he had always been cool about, though that may change real soon.” Aesop's lesser fables.
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Scrappy Little Nobody
Anna Kendrick (Into the Woods, Pitch Perfect) is releasing a collection of essays, Scrappy Little Nobody, this November. If it’s anything like her Twitter, I’m sure we’ll be laughing. For fans of Kendrick, check out our own Sonya Chung’s review of Up in the Air.
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One After the Other
It’s been seventeen years since Judy Blume published a book for adult readers. Her latest, In the Unlikely Event, brings that streak to an end. In the Times, Caroline Leavitt reviews her new book, which depicts a small town in the fifties reeling in the wake of three consecutive plane crashes. FYI, our own Lydia Kiesling wrote an essay on Blume’s book Forever.
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“Lissa” by Michael Bourne
Tin House magazine has posted a short story, "Lissa," by our own Michael Bourne as part of its regular online Flash Fridays feature. Also be sure to catch his Year In Reading entry that posted earlier today.