Middlesex author and Pulitzer Prize winner (and Year in Reading alum) Jeffrey Eugenides has a new story out in this week’s issue of The New Yorker. Titled “Find the Bad Guy,” it may well be the first New Yorker story to show a character playing Words with Friends. Sample quote: “She had her arms around me, and we were rocking, real soft-like, the way Meg did after we gave her that kitten, before it died, I mean, when it was just a warm and cuddly thing instead of like it had hoof and mouth, and went south on us.”
Find the Long Word
How to Get Out of a Sticky Situation
From a professional archivist: A solution to the classic problem of removing stubborn sticker glue off the back of your books.
Celtic Tiger’s Collapse
Gabriel O'Malley's "Letter From Dublin" for n+1 is an interesting primer on the current state of Ireland following the collapse of the Celtic Tiger.
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Frog and Toad Are Friends
"Millennials are so frequently hyped as the first digital generation that people tend to forget that we were raised first and foremost with books. TV and the Internet may have shaped our identities, but so did old-fashioned, printed stories." Everybody is tired of the word "millennial," but this piece makes some great points about Arnold Lobel's Frog and Toad series and how it taught children to understand and appreciate their individuality.
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Win Zak Smith’s Gravity’s Rainbow
The Quarterly Conversation is holding a contest for readers. They'll be giving away a hardcover copy of Zak Smith's illustrated Gravity's Rainbow.
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Not the Worst Thing
Step one: go read A. Igoni Barrett’s bravura confessional for The Millions. Step two: go check out this excerpt from his upcoming book in Guernica.