What Caught My Eye Online #14

Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash

Happy Valentine’s Day! I’m into this holiday solely because of the color scheme. I love the pinks and reds of the decor, candy wrappers, and cards. I also love the recent focus on Galentine’s Day, a.k.a. celebrating female friendship. Love looks many different ways, and I’m more thankful than ever for my girlfriends.

Enjoy this week’s finds!

• Here’s a sentence I never thought I’d write: let’s start things off with goblin butts. A headline from The New Republic reads, “Florida’s War on Books Enters ‘Goblin Butts Are Sexual’ Territory.” This idea is laughable, but the growing influence Moms for Liberty have over libraries is alarming.

• Khaled Hosseini, author of The Kite Runner, spoke with The Guardian about American book bans. The Kite Runner is a wonderful book that’s frequently challenged in school libraries. Hosseini says, “It’s vital living in a democracy that students are exposed to ideas, are allowed to think critically and can hear voices that aren’t their own. They should learn they will share the world with people who don’t look like them and sound like them. Books are a wonderful conduit for that.”

• Yesterday was a big day for book releases. Lit Hub highlights some of the new titles.

• Book Marks, which is part of Lit Hub, is like the Rotten Tomatoes for book reviews. I look forward to their Friday email in which they highlight the best reviewed books of the week.

• Last week, a colleague and I were talking about how we’d like to see Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel Klara and the Sun made into a movie or series. Our wish is coming true, and Amy Adams is involved.

• My favorite podcast is The Popcast with Knox and Jamie, a hilarious pop culture podcast I’ve loved for the past five years. Knox and Jamie are smart, funny, and seem like truly wonderful people. Their latest episode, Weird Listener Beige Flags, gives you a taste of how zany and comical the show can be. (I also love their other podcast, Faith Adjacent.)

• I’m a big fan of writer Maggie Smith. She’s releasing her first picture book, which she talks about with Publishers Weekly. Smith says her next book is going to be “a collection of essays on creativity and writing.” Yes, please!

• I always enjoy reading about complicated families, so I was excited to see this list from Electric Literature called 9 Thrillers About Complicated Sibling Dynamics. Sibling relationships can be fascinating.

• Have you ever wondered, “Can I turn this food into soup?” You sure can!

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May your soup bowls runneth over this week, friends. Thanks for reading!