TODAY: In 1873, U.S. Congress enacts the Comstock Act, making it illegal to send any “obscene, lewd, or lascivious” books through the mail.
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Colm Tóibín considers the short fiction of Mary Lavin: “She had spent her life describing others and finding strategies to create versions of herself on the page; it was not easy to categorize her.” | Lit Hub Criticism
“Life was like that, after all; my spirit soars in the moment of its oblivion; then down, down deep into the pillow...” F. Scott Fitzgerald on his fight with insomnia (and a mosquito). | Lit Hub Memoir
“Who are we as a species if we allow monarch butterflies, a living symbol of metamorphosis, to cease to exist?” Terry Tempest Williams on the plight of the monarch butterfly. | Lit Hub Nature
“You don’t end with a questioning tone. This is important. You have to end with an ambiguous lilt, the tone of which is impossible to indicate through punctuation on a page.” Read from Jordy Rosenberg’s new novel, Night Night Fawn. | Lit Hub Fiction
REPETITION: A NOVEL BY VIGDIS HJORTH
This newly translated novel explores the parts of childhood that chime through for decades. “Hjorth writes vividly of the narrator’s teenage confusion and pain, and her lifelong search for comfort. [Repetition] swells with emotion.” –Publishers Weekly
From the award-winning author of Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century comes an eerie novel about the horrors of modern life. In it, we follow a therapist who is caught in a never‑ending rain, stuck in a collapsing house, while she grieves the loss of her mother.
“The challenge is ultimately about resisting those authoritarians who, now empowered by the most advanced articulation of the Machine, aim to crush the merely human for the sake of absolute power and control.” Jay Tolson considers humanism in a post-humanist age. | The Hedgehog Review
The radical politics and queer brilliance of George Sand: “Her subversive adoption of the male writer’s uniform—from cigar and top hat to spats and riding coat—is brave and funny. It queers the notion of authority.” | The Guardian
SHE HAS 48 HOURS TO SELL HER DEAD MOTHER'S STASH. ONE PILL CAN GIVE YOU THE RIDE OF YOUR LIFE. ARE YOU COMING?
For fans of Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Miranda July comes a whip-smart, irresistible novel about a college senior who has 48 hours to sell her recently deceased mother’s surprise stash of rare pills, or suffer the consequences. Unashamedly brash, bold, and blistering, a playful and honest examination of sexuality and grief, and a sharp, searing love letter on how to release all that’s inside you.
