summary Comedy: American Style is a tragedy. The title is the first irony. Fauset's 1933 novel follows Olivia Cary, a mother so consumed by the desire to pass as white that she destroys everyone around her — her daughter's future, her son's sense of worth, her family's coherence. Fauset was literary editor of The Crisis under W.E.B. Du Bois, the architect of the Harlem Renaissance's literary infrastructure, the editor who first published Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston,

summary Quake by Kitty Mrosovsky almost didn't survive. Written in the late 1980s, unpublished in her lifetime, composed after an HIV diagnosis — it is her last and most powerful work. The novel follows a woman named Olivia through an erotic odyssey, written without taboo, with the precision of a Flaubert translator and the hunger of someone who knows time is short. Mrosovsky was 48 when she died. That the book exists at all is the point. Big thank you to McNally for sending

Summary Influence: How to Exert It is a 1916 self-help classic with a literary mystery at its center. The book was published under the name "Yoritomo-Tashi" — presented to readers as the wisdom of a great Japanese Shogun — but scholars have since established that "Yoritomo-Tashi" was actually a fictional persona created by a French woman named Berthe Blanchard, who used "B. Dangennes" as one of her pseudonyms. Whether the book's argument came from a 12th-century statesman or

Have you changed your media diet in a significant way that's been helpful? Comment if so <3

Their Eyes Were Watching God and Sarah Lawrence Good morning cuties, angels, and lovers. I am drinking "cowboy coffee," which is when you have one cup of grounds and hot water and let the grounds float to the bottom. I think cowboy coffee is a nice reminder that things can actually be really simple. On Friday, I gave a reading at Sarah Lawrence and answered a lot of questions about Hot Literati. They were wonderful hosts and I had an amazing time. This week we're starting boo

hello hello I'm reading my Bible and packing up my apartment for a big move. To where? That's not a secret I'll never tell :o I own one pair of jeans Leaving this space has me reminiscing on what it was like to move in. In my early 20s I made up for what I lacked in experience with audacity. The bed frame for example, was put together by a very kind Italian man as our first and last date. The mount that held the TV to the wall was a gift from an Australian man who I kept runn

And some thoughts on the World Wide Web Today I received my first real literary rejection, which was an email that said "I'll pass on this." I've had a very unconventional, internet forward career as a writer so far, but I'm currently shopping around a memoir titled The American Princess Diet , about some very particular instances in my life through the lens of food, media, sex, and God. I never expected to make any money from writing, which is one of the ways I stumbled into

Hope you guys enjoy! Comment your fav Dostoevsky book and don't forget to read and write today <3

There are many lonely little girls in the world; the same way there are lonely little boys and lonely little adults. Notebook, 19th Century Germany, vis Art Institute of Chicago We cope with this loneliness in different ways: drugs, sex, work, books, music, movies, pets, thinking, writing, dreaming, crying. As a lonely little girl who grew up to be a lonely little girl who grew to be a lonely little adult, none of these things ever made the feeling go away. I’ve experimented

Have you read Moby Dick, or do you plan to? Let us know in the comments, or pin this page to come back when you do<3