At the New York Times, Ibram X. Kendi explains what it means to be antiracist and offers a reading list to assist with that workl. “To build a nation of equal opportunity for everyone, we need to dismantle this spurious legacy of our common upbringing. One of the best ways to do this is by reading books,” he writes. “Not books that reinforce old ideas about who we think we are, what we think America is, what we think racism is. Instead, we need to read books that are difficult or unorthodox, that don’t go down easily. Books that force us to confront our self-serving beliefs and make us aware that ‘I’m not racist’ is a slogan of denial.”
Ashley Feinberg is joining Slate as a senior writer for politics, media, and technology.
At Literary Hub, Tobias Carroll reflects on “what gets lost (and found) in translating prose to comics.”
As publishers buy more and more works by writers who have gone “viral” online, Becca Schuh wonders if internet fame can translate into publishing success. “Virality, for some publishers, might indicate a built-in audience, which means that they can pass some of the responsibility for publicity to authors,” she explains. “Ultimately, the viral book industry is a new attempt at the oldest game in publishing—to predict what will make for a bestseller, with the least possible risk.”
Moby is canceling the rest of his book tour and has plans to “go away for a while,” Entertainment Weekly reports. “I am the one who released the book without showing it to the people I wrote about,” he wrote in a post on Instagram. “I’m the one who posted defensively and arrogantly. I’m the one who behaved inconsiderately and disrespectfully, both in 2019 and in 1999. There is obviously no one else to blame but me.”