Flavorwire has compiled a list of the best literary criticism of the year, ranging from Rebecca Solnit on Lolita to Elena Ferrante on literary publicity. Also check out this year’s most notable Millions pieces, from our star-studded Year in Reading to a literary reader for Lent.
A Year of Promise
Just Right
The National Rifle Association is featuring a series of reimagined fairy tales on their website. The only difference? Way more guns. In the debut story, Hansel and Gretel don't bemoan their lack of food since they had been taught from birth to hunt with guns for sustenance. No, it's not yet April Fools' Day.
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Tuesday New Release Day: Wilson; Ackerman; Barry; Barkan; Krivak; Coe
Out this week: Perfect Little World by Kevin Wilson; Dark at the Crossing by Eliot Ackerman; Days Without End by Sebastian Barry; Mexico by Josh Barkan; The Signal Flame by Andrew Krivak; and Number 11 by Jonathan Coe. For more on these and other new titles, go read our most recent book preview.
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The King of Horror’s Poetry
"Perhaps this is why King favors prose—many of his novels and stories confront terror so enormous it transcends poetic language." In Poetry Foundation, an essay about Stephen King's little known literary habit: writing poetry. Pair with: our editor Lydia Kiesling on discovering America through King's novels.
Two Tools for your TBR Pile
One Goodreads vigilante has created a master list of authors notorious for responding immaturely or meanly to negative reviews of their work. Elsewhere, iDreamBooks, a new Rotten Tomatoes-type service, was launched. The site aggregates critics’ book reviews and shows you what to read next.
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An Intrepid Voyage
Emma Watson’s book club will now be reading Year in Reading alumna Maggie Nelson’s The Argonauts, which “rewards us with an expansive way of considering identity, caretaking, and freedom.”
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“If you must write prose or poems”
Stop the presses: Morrissey maybe, might, let's not hold our breaths yet but could possibly in fact be publishing a memoir. To be recited in front of the cemetery gates of your choosing.
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Scaring Men
Here are a couple Halloween-related essays from the good people at The Literary Hub: This fascinating literary history of witches by Jess Bergman, and this piece by Tobias Carroll on non-fiction writers crossing the supernatural line between fantasy and reality.
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