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We’re Not Going Anywhere: The Millions Interviews Attica Locke
I do not believe white nationalists in Charlottesville get to define what America is. They are a very loud and very visible symptom of a big-ass problem, but they’re not the whole of what we are.
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The Masks We Wear: The Millions Interviews Edan Lepucki
It’s easy for me to be naked with people and talk about my body. I think the human body’s really funny.
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A Year in Reading: Janet Potter
Last night I dreamt about meeting Curtis Sittenfeld. As I recall, we were both in a small group conversing politely, but not directly to one another, and at one point I threw caution to the wind, grabbed her by the elbow, and said “I just have to tell you that I loooooved Eligible."
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A Killed B: The Millions Interviews Tana French
People who take for granted the shared culture aren’t as interesting because they don’t have any insight into it.
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Martin Seay’s ‘The Mirror Thief’ as Explained by Martin Seay
So when I recognized Martin Seay from across the room at a party a few weeks ago, I was just tipsy enough to go over and say, "I'm Janet, did you write The Mirror Thief?"
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Places That Fall Into Ruin: The Millions Interviews Geoff Dyer
I’m glad I’m capable of disappointment because that shows I still have high hopes for the world.
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Year in Reading Outro
Year in Reading reminds me of that cinematic device where the camera slowly backs away from the characters we’ve been following until it’s looking at them from outside their window, and then back farther still until you see into their neighbors’ windows as well, and farther still to show a whole building of occupied windows, and then a whole city, until you are looking at hundreds of little scenes in hundreds of little windows.
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A Year in Reading: Janet Potter
'Will no one plumb the depths of Steuben County during the Clinton years?' was never the cry of my heart.
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How to Title Every Book You Ever Write
Get out your favorite album. Rank the tracks in order of how much you like them. Take the fourth song. Print out the lyrics to that song and black out any that are well known. From the remaining lyrics, choose either the first or second half of a complete thought. Note: It must be meaningless out of context.
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Fish Out of Water: On Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan’s ‘The Royal We’
Underneath the frothy exterior is sharp look at the clash between modern women and the ways they are portrayed.
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Our Basest Instincts: On Jon Ronson’s ‘So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed’
If 21st-century technology has made public shaming easier, faster, and more random, it’s also made us all targets. This book makes it clear than anything you say or do can be held against you in a court of opinion, by people who don’t know anything about you, in perpetuity.
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The Joy of Crewnecks: Marie Kondo’s ‘The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up’
Marie Kondo has a method for cleaning and reorganizing your home that might be crazy and might be brilliant, but works either way.
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A Year in Reading: Janet Potter
I took Pulphead by John Jeremiah Sullivan on my summer vacation, and nothing will ever be the same.
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Getting to Know the Presidents, Part 2: From the Compromisers to the Beards
Rud Hayes is one of my favorite presidents, and not just because I can get lost for days in his eyes.
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You’re a Wizard, Julia: Getting to Know 20-Time Jeopardy! Champion Julia Collins
As Alex Trebek said during the introduction to her 21st game, “We have a wonderfully delightful, friendly champion in Julia Collins. Until she gets into a game, then she becomes relentless.”
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If No One Sees It, Is it Still Art? On Finding Vivian Maier
The documentary Finding Vivian Maier recently joined the burgeoning conversation about its titular subject, a reclusive Chicago nanny whose collection of street photography was discovered at a storage auction shortly before her death in the form of thousands of undeveloped rolls of film.
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Into the Sublime: On Geoff Dyer’s Another Great Day at Sea
A unique and compelling stylist, and a charming reporter, Dyer seems to have an absolute bang-up time on this assignment, and it’s a pleasure to go along with him.
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