What did you think of Such a Fun Age?

Plus, a long-lost French poem, Patricia Highsmith's diaries, and Orwell's roses.

Dear book clubbers, Thanksgiving this year is expected to be tricky — supply chain issues are making all the groceries more expensive, and during the pandemic, travel remains fraught. Still, let's all take comfort in knowing that as bad as our Thanksgivings might get, they're not going to be as ghastly as the Thanksgiving dinner in Such a Fun Age. Come chat about it here! 🦃 🦃 🦃   And if you missed last month's event, now's your chance to catch up. You can watch our talk with Matrix author Lauren Groff on Facebook Live here, or look out for the audio in the Vox Conversations podcast feed in a few weeks. COMING UP NEXT Tuesday, November 30: Virtual live event with author Kiley Reid at 5 pm ET. You can RSVP here. Reader questions are encouraged! THE LATEST IN BOOKS AT VOX The National Book Awards were this week, and we read every last finalist. You can check out our thoughts on them all here, and then mosey on over to my recommendations for the 11 best books to come out this fall.   Meanwhile, Dina Gachman recommends a 1970s children's book that gently warns against a future in which the planet is overrun by trash. Sean Illing talks with war reporter Sebastian Junger about the paradoxes embedded in his new book Freedom. And Fabiola Cineas has done a fabulous deep dive into figuring out what happened to all those antiracist book clubs from last year. NOTABLE BOOKS COVERAGE AROUND THE WEB Here's some of the best writing about books and related subjects published across the internet in the past two weeks. A fragment from a long-lost medieval French poem miraculously surfaced, tucked into the binding of a different medieval book. The Guardian has the whole story. Also at the Guardian: In the face of climate change, Ben Okri calls on authors to write as though these are the last days. At the New York Times, Margaret Renkl recommends you do your holiday gift shopping at your local bookstore. At the Chicago Tribune, John Warner writes an ode to Graywolf Press, the Minneapolis-St. Paul-based indie publisher that keeps putting out hits. At Time magazine, librarians talk through their plans to fight back against the newly emboldened right-wing movement to ban books. The diaries of Patricia Highsmith (of Talented Mr. Ripley fame) have been published. At the New York Times, Dwight Garner dishes the dirt. In the New Yorker, Helen Rosner and Rebecca Solnit discuss Orwell, gardening, and the politics of pleasure. The Department of Justice is suing to block a planned merger between publishers Simon & Schuster and Penguin Random House. The filing is an excellent publishing explainer in and of itself, but you can also check out Vanity Fair's report to get an inside scoop.   Happy reading! Constance     This email was sent to edwardlorilla1986.paxforex@blogger.com. Manage your email preferences or unsubscribe. If you value Vox's unique explanatory journalism, support our work with a one-time or recurring contribution.   View our Privacy Notice and our Terms of Service.   Vox Media, 1201 Connecticut Ave. NW, Floor 11, Washington, DC 20036. Copyright © 2021. All rights reserved.