What Caught My Eye Online #12

A secret bookshelf, new Sedaris, the NYPL, and more

Photo by Lukas Blazek on Unsplash

Even though I whined about January last week, it’s been an incredibly good reading month for me. I discovered a fantastic new-to-me author, enjoyed a couple of graphic memoirs, and crossed a title off my TBR that’d been on my list for years. I’m so excited to share everything I’ve read this month in Saturday’s post, but for now, here’s a look at what caught my eye online this week.

• Thanks to book-banning efforts in Texas, a high school teacher keeps a secret bookshelf of banned books for students to read. I love this quote from the article:

  • "Some of the books that I've read are books like Hood Feminism, The Poet X, Gabi, A Girl in Pieces," says one of the girls. She's a 17-year-old senior with round glasses and long braids. The books, she says, sparked her feminist consciousness. "I just see, especially in my community, a lot of women being talked down upon and those books [were] really nice to read."

• David Sedaris has a new essay in The New Yorker called “How to Eat a Tire in a Year” about his close friend, Dawn.

• Due to budget cuts, New York City’s public libraries have been forced to close on Sundays. CBS News looks at what those closures have meant for patrons. A local librarian said this:

  • "The library has something to give to everybody. And what the public needs to be doing right now, if they value that, is to be talking to their elected representatives and also to be an active library user," said Maryland Public Librarian Rachel Finston. "What we need is statistics proving that people use the library. If you go out and get a library card right now, you want a checkmark that tells people this library is valued. If you go out and check out a book, you are to add another hash mark that says 'Somebody is using this.'"

• In honor of Black History Month, Goodreads shared 100 Essential New Works of Fiction by Black Authors. The title is a bit misleading as the list contains books from the past decade, but it’s still helpful. Some of my favorite novels are listed, including Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi, Open Water by Caleb Azumah Nelson, Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward, and Bluebird, Bluebird by Attica Locke.

• Electric Literature posted an interesting book list called 8 Novels About Women’s Invisible Labor. One of the books on the list is Diary of a Void by Emi Yagi, a delightful Japanese novel about a woman who fakes a pregnancy to get out of routine office chores left for her by her male colleagues.

• I’ve been a fan of Japanese fiction since college when a professor put a self-assembled short story collection in my hands featuring several Japanese tales translated into English. Apparently, TikTok is fueling an interest in translated fiction in Britain. People might roll their eyes at #BookTok sometimes, but I love it when social media encourages people to read widely and diversely.

• One of my favorite 2022 reads was If I Survive You by Jonathan Escoffery. The Guardian sat down with Escoffery to discuss his work, being nominated for the Booker Prize, and what’s next.

• I’m not great at keeping up with weekly newsletters, but one I never miss is Here for It by R. Eric Thomas, author of Congratulations, The Best Is Over. Thomas is hilarious, and his newsletter makes me laugh each week. Your inbox will thank you for signing up.

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That’s it from me this week! What’s caught your eye lately?