“While I’m glad we’ve had this chance to talk, because of time constraints I cannot answer these basic questions about race and how racism works.” Colson Whitehead considers new business cards. See our review of his Pulitzer-winning The Underground Railroad here.
Shots Fired
I Choose Love
Big Bang Theory star Mayim Bialik has picked Nicole Krauss’s History of Love for the October selection of Book of the Month. You could also check out her Year in Reading in The Millions.
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Laissez les Bons Livres Roulent
If you’re like me and you’re interested in all things Big Easy, you’ll be very excited by the offerings on the Times-Picayune’s “Summer Book List for New Orleans.”
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Good Movie News
This is exciting: Roxane Gay’s debut novel An Untamed State is headed for the screen. Gina Prince-Bythewood will direct and Gugu Mbatha-Raw will star in the film adaptation of Gay’s novel, which tells the story of a Haitian-American woman captured for ransom in front of her husband and child. Check out this Millions review of the book to get a better sense of just how great it is.
Nineteenth-Century Female Fiends
Erin Blakemore takes a look at a small publishing trend from the 1800s that followed female murderers and gave middle-class women a brief escape from Victorian values.
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Welcome to Book Town
“Book lore and book history and everything around them, to do with libraries or culture, I think it centers so much of civilization.” Atlas Obscura interviewed journalist Alex Johnson about his forthcoming title, Book Towns, which explores off-the-beaten-path towns bursting with bookshops.
Joan Didion: Model
Joan Didion: celebrated essayist and author, subject of upcoming crowd-funded documentary, style icon and model?