Time is running out! If you’re still dragging your feet on a Valentine’s card for your significant other, go check out these hilarious monstress valentines from Madeline Gobbo at The Toast. Her “Valentines for the Indifferent” from last year can still work, too.
Sweet Enough to Eat
Inflight Reading
A German airline has teamed up with a local press for a new campaign that allows each passenger to travel with an extra two pounds just for books. Pair with this Millions piece on the weight of moving books.
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Very, Very Direct
Ta-Nehisi Coates isn’t exactly sure why white people love his book so much. It is indisputable that they do love it, though; Coates’ Between the World and Me is a runaway bestseller and he is also the recipient of one of this year’s MacArthur Foundation “Genius grants.”
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Recommended Reading: Americca
Recommended Reading: Aimee Bender’s short story “Americca” from her newest collection, The Color Master.
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Glenn Greenwald to Write a Book
“Glenn Greenwald, the journalist who first reported on a trove of classified documents leaked by Edward J. Snowden, will write a book about National Security Agency surveillance,” reports Julie Bosman. But then, of course, the NSA probably knew about this already.
Reviewing Reviews
Our own Emily St. John Mandel guest judged Electric Literature’s Critical Hit Awards this month. She discussed what she looks for in a book review in an interview with Brian Hurley. “I prefer reviews that go beyond talking about literature, so that the book under review is considered in the context of the surrounding world,” she said. The winners are Andrew Winer’s review of The Kraus Project by Jonathan Franzen, Rachel Monroe’s review of The Contested Murder of Latasha Harlins by Brenda Stevenson, and our own review of Karen Green’s Bough Down by Suzanne Scanlon.
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The Bechdel Test Through History
Sometime Millions contributor Frank Kovarik takes a look at Alison Bechdel’s famous test for gender bias in movies and applies it to literary classics going back to Homer.
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