This week in book-related infographics: “A History of Pen Names,” from Robinson Crusoe to Dr. Seuss to Toni Morrison.
A History of Pen Names
Tuesday New Release Day: Elkin; Febos; Cottom; Butler; Mehta; Buchanan; O’Connell
Out this week: Flâneuse by Lauren Elkin; Abandon Me by Melissa Febos; Lower Ed by Tressie McMillan Cottom; Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler; No Other World by Rahul Mehta; Harmless Like You by Rowan Hisayo Buchanan; and To Be a Machine by our own Mark O’Connell (who we interviewed recently). For more on these and other new titles, go read our most recent book preview.
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The Restraints of Language
Recommended Reading: Elisa Gabbert at Guernica on the relationship between ideas and language. “How can the name come after the concept if you need the name to understand the concept? This problem of circularity always made me resistant to the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis in its strong version, which states that our thoughts are bound by the restraints of our language.”
And Thus Completes Our Robert A. Caro Coverage
Even if you read and watch all of these pieces about Robert A. Caro, it’ll still amount to only a fraction of the time necessary to read one of his books. So here goes: a typical Sunday for Mr. Caro; not one but two fake Caro Twitter accounts (plus a real one); Mr. Caro stops by The Daily Show; and The Passage of Power gets reviewed by us, NPR, The New York Times, The New York Review of Books, and The Wall Street Journal.
Emo Allan Poe
Quoth Edgar Allan Poe or an emo band? Take this trickier-than-it-looks quiz, and decide for yourself.
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