Lit Hub Daily: July 30, 2026 — Roger Celestin on writing about not being able to go home when “exiles belong to a world of smaller numbers.” | Lit Hub Craft Why “biblical notions of the wilderness” taught…
Finding Heroes of My Own in Three Unsung Women of America’s Great Outdoors — If someone asked you to name the world’s most common plotline you’d probably come up with something like this: a hero heeds a call to adventure—maybe to slay a dragon or protect their homeland—then…
Someone reverse-engineered why Nike's QS drops always crack in the same spot. The material science explanation actually makes sense.
Lit Hub Weekly: August 24 – 28, 2026 — “Jason was not just hounded out of academia, he was hounded out of existence.” Steven Thrasher on the killing Jason Arday. | Lit Hub Politics Long live Dolly Parton, American icon, giver of books.…
Shakespeare and Reality Televison Really Aren’t That Different — When the first massively popular reality TV shows hit the air in the early 2000s, I remember thinking in my naïveté: Surely this is just a passing fad. I was entering my teens and, like so many clo…
The Annotated Nightstand: What Serena Chopra is Reading Right Now — “Our tongues tie trying / to articulate the knot,” writes Serena Chopra in her simultaneously tender and exacting new collection A Catalog of Future Mercies. When she writes, later, “I pry this int…
For 50 Years the Major Oil Companies Have Known They’re Destroying the Planet — Near the end of the first century AD, in the highlands of northern Spain, the Roman governor, philosopher, and naturalist Pliny the Elder watched as mining cleaved a landscape. “What happens is far…
The ten sickest burns in Emily Wilson’s Odyssey review, ranked. — Emily Wilson, the classicist behind the buzziest Odyssey translation of my generation, has finally weighed in on the film adaptation of her favorite poem. And so dark was the shade that Wilson̵…
The Power of Being a Threshold Person: Liminality, Communitas, and the Anti-structures of Possibility — “All things are so very uncertain, and that’s exactly what makes me feel reassured,” one of the Moomins observes in Tove Jansson’s masterwork of philosophy disguised as a…
Life and Death in the American Suburbs — Kid life is fast. More is happening than the mind can hold. You are sitting in a daydream in a chair while outside the window a bird is whistling a tune you never hear. You get lost in your own tho…
Struggling Preston North End sack Heckingbottom — Preston North End sack Paul Heckingbottom after six defeats in seven league games left the Lilywhites second bottom of the Championship.
Here are the winners of this year’s Bram Stoker Awards. — The Horror Writers Association (HWA) has announced the recipients of the 2025 Bram Stoker Awards for Superior Achievement. Named in honor of Bram Stoker (Dracula) and awarded annually since 1988, t…
This Week in Literary History: O. Henry is Released from Prison — This first appeared in Lit Hub’s Literary History newsletter—sign up here. Famously, O. Henry (the pen name of William Sydney Porter), author of “The Gift of the Magi,” and one of the most celebrat…
Necessary Losses: The Life-Shaping Art of Letting Go — “We cannot deeply love anything without becoming vulnerable to loss. And we cannot become separate people, responsible people, connected people, reflective people without some losing and leav…
August’s Best Reviewed Fiction — Chang-Rae Lee’s A Tender Age, Téa Obreht’s Sunrise, and Paul Yoon’s Etna all feature among the best reviewed fiction titles of the month. Brought to you by Book Marks, Lit Hub’s h…
this guy turned his marginalia from 20 years of reading into a searchable database, so you can see what random thoughts people scribbled in the margins of their favorite books 📚✨
What’s in a Book’s Name? One Writer’s Journey to Finding the Perfect Title — For me, coming up with titles is always a team effort. Titling my first book, a quirky history of people who look for the Garden of Eden on Earth, had me stumped, until my friend the writer Josh Ga…
I've used Excel for decades, and Ctrl+Enter is still the most useful shortcut I know — This overlooked shortcut lets me update cells, preserve formatting, repair formulas, fill gaps, and edit multiple worksheets simultaneously.
10 Literary Science Fiction and Fantasy Novels That Offer Hope for the Future — During graduate school, I finished the novel that found me an agent—but when my agent submitted it to publishers, all twenty of them turned the manuscript down. Truthfully, it was closer to a colle…
Oliver Sacks on Memory, Originality, and Why Forgetting is Necessary for Creativity — “Memory is dialogic and arises not only from direct experience but from the intercourse of many minds.”
These are the first practical things that every 3D printer owner should make — Practical first prints that save time and money from day one include scrapers and spool clips for smoother builds.
The Grasshopper and the “Lusory Attitude” Essential for Playing the Game of Life — On a recent flight, I watched a mother across the aisle play peek-a-boo with her small son while next to me a grown man in a VR headset spent six hours ascending the levels of a video game. It…
Gnooks - Discover new Books — Discover new authors.
From Marquis de Sade to Grand Theft Auto, a Brief History of Depravity — The prisoner’s hand ached. He sat hunched over his desk in a cold tower of the Bastille jail in Paris, writing in tiny letters on a very long roll of paper—nearly 40 feet in total, made from smalle…
Beyond Cli-Fi: Why Every Story is a Climate Change Story — I started my second novel, The Emilys, with a single sentence: “What did I love about going to get the vaccine?” All I knew was that a mom was leaving her house before dawn. I knew she was so happy…
How to Be More Alive: Hermann Hesse on Wonder and the Proper Aim of Education — “While wandering down the path of wonder, I briefly escape the world of separation and enter the world of unity.”
Encountering the Ghost of Ted Hughes in His Childhood Home — During my tempestuous teenage years, I was attracted to the work of Sylvia Plath. I voraciously read her poems, as well as The Bell Jar and Paul Alexander’s 2003 biography, Rough Magic. Her work re…
Why Writing Feels So Hard (and How to Make it Easier) — Let’s be honest about something: the fact that writing is hard has nothing to do with how talented you are, how many ideas you have, or how much you want to have finished your novel. Writing …
A Bookstore Boom in a Time of Literacy Decline — I was standing in line at Chaucer’s Books, my local indie, when it occurred to me that the line was longer than usual. This has been happening regularly enough that I’ve stopped being s…
How 2 US, European Satellites Are Studying Hurricanes During El Niño - NASA — Last November, NASA and its European partners launched the Sentinel-6B satellite to improve hurricane forecasts, help protect infrastructure, and benefit
found a pair of beat-up air force ones at a flea market with the original receipt still in the box. 1987. wore them exactly once.
Small Moments, Big Changes | Aarushi Pramod B | TEDxChinmaya Vidyalaya Attukal Youth — Small moments often pass unnoticed, yet a word of encouragement, thoughtful advice or simple act of kindness can alter the course of a person’s life. This talk explores the ripple effect of…
The Independent Press Top 40 Bestsellers: Nonfiction — Here are this week’s Independent Press Top 40 Bestsellers for nonfiction, based on sales in hundreds of independent bookstores nationwide, generously provided by the American Booksellers Associatio…
In Businessweek: Marco Rubio is Trump's Emissary — Marco Rubio works hard for Donald Trump. He's both Secretary of State and National Security Advisor, and being a part of the cabinet means he's had to walk away from some previously held personal beliefs. The October issue of…
Does Xi Jinping Really Think China is Athens and the US is Sparta? And is Trump Getting Any of This? — At his recent meeting with the US President Donald Trump, the Chinese leader Xi Jinping asked: “Can China and the United States transcend the so-called ‘Thucydides Trap’ and for
How to Spot and How to Stop a Liar: Hannah Arendt on Deception, Self-Deception, and the Psychology of Defactualization — “No matter how large the tissue of falsehood that an experienced liar has to offer, it will never be large enough … to cover the immensity of factuality.”
W. H. Auden’s 1954 review of The Fellowship of the Ring. — Seventy-two years ago this week, the godfather of high fantasy, John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, published the first novel in a proposed three-volume epic “largely concerned with hobbits.” Th…
Todd Rundgren Says Taylor Swift "Ruined Music" — Look out! Here comes the cult-beloved rock legend Todd Rundgren, and he’s got takes! Rundgren has never been shy about sharing his opinions. In 2021, for instance, Rundgren said that he wasn’t attending his own Rock And Roll Hall…
A bookbinder started lettering spines backwards so they'd read correctly when the book was shelved. Now she can't stop seeing every other designer's choice as a silent scream.
Is Nonfiction in Crisis? These 14 Books Suggest Otherwise — The first official day of fall is this coming Tuesday, September 22, but if you’re reading this then by now you’ve probably seen a few “most anticipated for fall 2026” lists. There is so much great…
The Futility of Lava Lamps: What Random Really Means — Lava lamps are cool, but there are better ways to get random numbers.
5 headphones deals I want to see on sale during October Prime Day — In other words: I'm manifesting.
God, Sex, Porn, Art, and Aids: Revisiting the Culture Wars of the 1980s and 90s — Isaac Butler and Rosa Campbell are both historians and writers whose latest work focuses on the culture war of the 1980s and 1990s: Butler’s The Perfect Moment: God, Sex, Art and the Birth of Ameri…
When We Fight, We Win: Why I Am Suing Northwestern University—and the US Government — Yesterday, I filed a lawsuit against Northwestern University and—in his official capacity as Chairman of the US House of Representatives House Committee on Education and the Workforce—Michigan…
Where Love Goes When It Goes — This is an excerpt from Traversal. Where does love go when it goes? It is a common question, contrived in its commonness yet savagely sincere, bellowing in the bosom of every brokenhearted lover, r…
How to Bear Your Loneliness — “We are cheating ourselves when we run away from the ambiguity of loneliness.”
Barcelona’s Lamine Yamal says he has experienced racism ‘a thousand times’ — Spain's Lamine Yamal says most racism he has suffered has come from people unaware of their own comments or behaviour.
Apple Announces iOS 27 Release Date — At its event today unveiling the iPhone 18 Pro, AirPods 5, Apple Watch Series 12, and more, Apple announced that iOS 27 will be released later this month. iOS 27 has already been available as a developer beta since June and as a public beta…
Why NFL offenses are going under center more often in 2026 — Teams such as the Commanders, Eagles, Ravens, Chiefs, Giants and Raiders are going under center more -- and out of the shotgun less and less. Will this trend stick?
Marsh CEO Says Geopolitics Tops CEO Risks — Marsh CEO & President John Doyle says geopolitical tensions and their impact on trade and supply chains are among the biggest concerns facing corporate leaders, while emerging technology is adding to cyber threats. Doyle also tells…
AO’s Favorite Unusual Sites to Spend a Night — <h2>Why stay at any old hotel when you could stay here?</h2> <p>Where to stay is a pivotal part of any trip, sometimes just as important as the destination itself. The place you rest your head can dictate not just the quality of…
Lit Hub Daily: July 31, 2026 — July’s best book covers center stretched, blurred, and otherwise distorted images. | Lit Hub Design Books by Jamaica Kincaid, Samanta Schwebelin, Eimear McBride and more are arriving in paper…
Tolkien Reads from “The Hobbit” in Rare Archival Audio from His First Encounter with a Tape Recorder — “He was Gollum — as dark as darkness, except for two big round pale eyes.”
The path to resilience | Vinay Patil | TEDxRVCE — A 16-year-old boy walked into a 90-minute workshop believing he had failed. He walked out believing he could design his own life. That moment changed Vinay Patil too. What began as an unexpected workshop for a group of students…
Texas dismisses LB Ty'Anthony Smith for conduct detrimental to team — Texas coach Steve Sarkisian said Saturday that linebacker Ty'Anthony Smith was dismissed from the program for conduct detrimental to the team.
Best movie deal: Get a free Mars candy with purchase of tickets to Verity — Sweeten the deal when you visit a Regal theater.
Volatility Surges in First After-Hours Session on Korea Exchange — The first after-hours session on South Korea’s main stock exchange saw erratic and retail-dominated trading, in a sign of the challenges ahead as it seeks to attract more global investors.
When George Sand Hit the Town in Men’s Clothes — You’d be hard put to call it a feminist image exactly. In this illustration for a gossip column printed sometime in 1831-2, the writer George Sand is on the protective, even chivalrous arm of a man…
Unicorn Diversions, Robot Valets, and More: June’s Best Sci-Fi and Fantasy Books — In just a few weeks, the summer solstice marks the longest day of the year on June 21. To get you ready, here’s this month’s excellent SFF offerings. An actress joins a Time Travel Agency that’s al
The Only Three Distinctions Between People — It may be that consciousness evolved to sieve the relevant from the incomprehensible allness of all there is, to parse the world into concepts and find an organizing principle for the chaos of them…