“In the morning, before we left, we presented my aunt with a gift from Indonesia, a package of luwak, one of four in Bon’s duffel. Civet coffee? she said, bemused. We were already savoring cups of coffee at her table, brewed in her coffee press from Arabica beans of her own supply.” An excerpt from Year in Reading alumnus Viet Thanh Nguyen’s forthcoming novel appears in the new issue of Ploughshares.
Commitments
Someone’s Gotta Do It
If you’ve ever wondered how all those celebrity chefs can churn out so many cookbooks year after year, you should check out Julia Moskin’s confessions from a former “food ghost.”
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Everything Flows
Have you seen this stunning map which shows “the delicate tracery of wind flowing over the US?” It’s positively hypnotic.
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“The year we killed our teacher”
What’s the only thing nicer than new fiction by Hilary Mantel? New fiction by Hilary Mantel that you can read for free. At the LRB, check out the entirety of her latest, “Kinsella in His Hole.”
Free Amazon Prime and Free Shipping for Students
Attention Students: Amazon is offering a free year of Amazon Prime, the service that gets frequent Amazon shoppers free two-day shipping, for a year with their new Amazon Student program.
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“The intersection of nature and man, and lovely”
In recent months we’ve had pieces about the homes belonging to Zora Neale Hurston and George Orwell, so in the spirit of that trend I encourage you to check out Nic Brown’s brief look at William Faulkner’s beloved Rowan Oak.