“Gatsby has now laid down roots in my brain — even into my dreams. In a way, that’s not just true of me but of the entire culture.” - The New York Times
True, Scott “was a literary critic before he started writing about movies. But when most writing about poetry is done by poets and lifelong academics, many of whom seem to view other poets and academics as their primary audience, that still makes Scott an unusual and welcome presence.” - Slate
The great historian had published some fiction while a student at Princeton, but nothing since then. While doing research in Caro’s archives, however, journalist Chris Heath discovered the drafts of a mid-career novel Caro had worked on but never finished. Naturally, Heath talked with Caro about it. - Smithsonian Magazine
Shadow Ticket, due out in October, will be the American novelist’s 10th book. Like his previous two, Inherent Vice (2009) and Bleeding Edge (2013), this new work is a noir novel about a private eye. - The Guardian
"Sexual jealousy is an emotion that was once thought to be so universal, such a commonplace experience of a person in love, that no one would think it needed explaining." But we "did not anticipate a world in which jealousy within a relationship would evolve into something that could be analogized to consumer rivalry." - Hedgehog Review
Today the wealth gap is just as significant as it was in Gatsby’s time, but now everyone has a phone. No matter our background, we can observe decadent lifestyles via celebrities and influencers. Social media allows us all to understand Gatsby’s very particular form of envy and social climbing. - The Guardian
Bryan Burroughs: “For sheer cushiness, there’s a case to be made that there has never been a more palatial home for writers than Vanity Fair during Graydon Carter’s twenty-five-year run as editor. … If I share my part of its story accurately, you will probably hate me.” - The Yale Review
According to a new NPR/Ipsos poll, reading is something a majority of Americans enjoy, and want to get better at. But it's nowhere near a top priority. - NPR
“The American Library Association (ALA) and the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), whose members include museum and library workers nationwide, have sued over what the ALA called, in a release, ‘the Trump administration’s gutting of the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS).’” - Publishers Weekly
“72% of demands to censor books were initiated by pressure groups, government entities and elected officials, board members and administrators, reported the American Library Association (ALA). Just 16% of ban attempts were made by parents, while 5% were brought forward by individual library users.” - The Guardian
The college essay is a deeply unfair way to select students for top colleges, one that is much more biased against the poor than standardized tests. It wrongly encourages students to cast themselves as victims, to exaggerate the adversity they’ve faced, and to turn genuinely upsetting experiences into the focal point of their self-understanding. - Yascha Mounk
“I see all that being as a measure of: ‘If we fly under the radar, we’ll be safe,’” they said. “But it’s sad because who gets left behind – for staff members of color, who are visibly queer, who are disabled, we don’t get to turn off that part of ourselves.” - The Guardian
The list also includes “Memorializing the Holocaust,” Janet Jacobs’s examination of depictions of women in the Holocaust, and “How to Be Anti-Racist” by Ibram X. Kendi. Also listed are “The Making of Black Lives Matter,” by Christopher J. Lebron; “How Racism Takes Place,” by George Lipsitz,,, - The New York Times
