What’s the Point
Galileo’s Taste; Galileo’s Work; Galileo’s Life
Can Galileo’s literary preferences teach us about “the unusual and creative features of his physics?” John L. Heilbron thinks so.
The Bronte Adventures
13-year-old Charlotte Brontë and her brother Branwell wrote adventure books in 2-inch books they sewed themselves. The results are exactly as adorable as you imagine. (Pair with our own essay on the sisters' beginnings.)
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The Traumas We Carry
“If I’d stayed, I could have protected him. That’s what I believed. Maybe he believed that, too.” Over at Catapult, Chris J. Rice writes beautifully and harrowingly about finding her long-lost brother after decades.
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Measuring Detail Density
"Every story that works gets the level of description that it needs. Which isn’t to say that the level of description needed for every successful story is the same." Tobias Carroll surveys the wide variety of detail density in fiction for Electric Literature.
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The Revolution Will Not Have Same-Day Shipping
"If what a bookstore offers matters to you, then shop at a bookstore. If you feel that the experience of reading a book is valuable, then read the book. This is how we change the world: we grab hold of it. We change ourselves." April 30th is Independent Bookstore Day. Celebrate early with a revisit to this 2012 essay by Ann Patchett on the resilience of the indie bookstore. Here's an interview with Janet Geddis, founder of Avid Bookshop in Athens, GA, on deciding to become a bookseller.