Books

• Transit, Rachel Cusk: following the excellent Outline, this was a little bit of a change of pace, and I’m not sure it was quite as excellent. I’m about halfway through the last book in the “trilogy”, Kudos, and it seems like a welcome return to form.
• The Learned Banqueters: Books 12-13.594b, Athenaeus of Naucratis, tr. Douglas Olson: Athenaeus is an amazing grab-bag of oddities, as always.
• We Have Always Lived in the Castle, Shirley Jackson: reversing what I did with The Haunting of Hill House, I decided to read the book first for this before watching the reputedly wildly loose film adaptation (which I haven’t gotten around to yet). The book is quite good, and if there’s a theme across Jackson it seems to be the delicate and sympathetic handling of social exclusion and isolation.
• How to Be an Antiracist, Ibram X. Kendi: really essential reading for everyone, this book is not just a rehearsal of received liberal wisdom on racism, but a well-argued work that in fact goes against the grain in several places and makes its own points well.
• The Halloween Tree, Ray Bradbury: saw this recommended as “Halloween reading”, and while it’s definitely that, it didn’t really grab me. Maybe better for children.
• Less, Andrew Sean Greer: starting out I was a little worried I’d get burned out on (let’s call it) “literary culture metafiction” by reading this at the same time as Rachel Cusk’s Outline Trilogy, but this was a truly enjoyable, funny, and humanistic novel.
• Ancient Greece: From Prehistoric to Hellenistic Times, Thomas R. Martin: a good survey work on Ancient Greek history.
• Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies, and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators, Ronan Farrow: honestly, if you followed the articles and news which this book is about, and just assume the worst about the news management and power structures that would want to suppress those stories, you’ll have a pretty good idea already of what’s in this book and can probably skip this.
• Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language, Gretchen McCulloch: an excellent non-prescriptivist layperson’s linguistics book for the digital age.

Articles

• The Shame of Mock Slave Auctions in Secondary Classics, Dani Bostick
• The beauty of Lodge 49, a working-class mirror image of HBO’s Succession, ‘Lodge 49’ Canceled After 2 Seasons at AMC, ‘Lodge 49’ Canceled By AMC After 2 Seasons, Will Be Shopped
• Farewell to the Legendary Truck-Destroying Bridge That Captivated a Nation
• Advice to a young scholar, Kensy Cooperrider
• How Do You Like We Now, Matt Levine
• Humanists own the fourth dimension, and we should take pride in it, Ted Underwood
• If we can’t call racism by its name, diversity will remain a meaningless buzzword, Priyamvada Gopal
• If Culture Sector Employers Want Equality, Post Salary and Benefits With Job Descriptions