In Review: The Week of August 17th

On the Blog

~ A roundup of books to fit all of your summer reading moods—from a page-turning action-adventure to the “Fast Car” of novels to a queer slice-of-life drama we’ve got something for almost every vibe.~#ALUbookclub: the inimitable Ursula Pflug on writing Seeds and Other Stories (Inanna Publications) her influences, and more: “[My dreams] underlined the idea that we may have alternate versions of ourselves living distinct lives—that’s an idea that has appeared in my work and I think I borrowed it as much from dreams as from literary movements such as Surrealism or feminist fantasy and science fiction.”~ Bahar Orang on her new book Where Things Touch (Book*hug Press): “I’ve come to believe that to really take seriously this idea that beauty lives inside intimacy, that beauty has everything to do with a politics of care […]”~ Five book picks for armchair travelling in the time of quarantine.

Around the Web

~ An anonymous lawyer has taken it upon themselves to correct all the The New York Times via Twitter.~ For Women in Translation Month, Words Without Borders recommends nine books by Black women writers.~ Cooking more during quarantine? A database of 5000 historical cookbooks is now online.

ICYMI (last week) 

Music at the Heart of Thinking

Poet James Lindsay interviews Fred Wah about his lifelong poetry project Music at the Heart of Thinking (Talonbooks).”As I grow older and continue writing I’ve encountered that ‘déjà vu’ I’m sure other writers have discovered. I frequently find myself treading the same river of words I did years ago. Why am I writing this? This is weirdly familiar. I think I wrote this before somewhere. So that’s a challenge for my modernist sensibility to “make it new.” But it also sometimes feels like a new disjunction. I’m excited by new conversations and listening to new voices.”