April 18, 2025, 1:48pm
Another toughie in the books. But if you’re reading this, you made it to Friday! This week, we at Lit Hub are grateful to say the same. We generally got by on the grace of podcasts, 90s nostalgia, and the earth’s funny sense of humor.
Several of us (Jessie Gaynor, Molly Odintz, McKayla Coyle) took heart from “If Books Could Kill.” This snarky series from Michael Hobbes and Peter Shamshiri explores the airport bestsellers “that have captured our hearts and ruined our minds.” Recent episodes go deep on memoirs by Steve Harvey and Josh Hawley.
And speaking of pods, James Folta recommends a political education project. “Fragile Juggernaut,” a Haymarket Original, presents the “odyssey of American labor as a historical narrative.” One happy byproduct of the binge is an introduction this Almanac Singers ballad in praise of the union leader, Harry Bridges. Which James now has stuck in his head.
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On the tactile front, some of us are delighting in nature’s little shocks. Emily Firetog marveled at how well her house plants did while she was out of town, and finds a lesson between the ferns. Sometimes green things “need to be ignored.”
Reporting from Wyoming, Dan Sheehan experienced his very first earthquake this week. Happily, neither he or the pup were too rattled by the 4.1.
Two of us celebrated unexpected wins. Jessie also stumbled upon a trivia night and won, care of a Millennial-tipped tie-breaker (“We had to identify a quote from Idiocracy.”)
But Drew Broussard may win the week’s prize for most Dickensian surprise. This Thursday, his household received a refurbished 19th century Steinway grand piano, care of the in-laws. Both he and his wife are moved by the object’s endurance. “The NEA is being gutted, everything is horrible, but this piano is more than a century old and it’s not going anywhere, and that’s beautiful, too.”
Not every nice thing offered pure adrenal joy, per se. Jonny Diamond was gutted-in-a-good-way by “the Gen X/Sliding Doors episode of Black Mirror,” now on Netflix.
And Emily Temple got a laugh from Delia Cai’s newsletter Deez Links, which just wrapped up its second season of Hate Read, a series of anonymous hate letters from readers. Though this series swings naughty—recent pieces include a “mythic judgey mom, the native New Yorker, [and] the Democratic Party”—letters are mostly delightful. And Emily says they make her “feel slightly less alone in the world. What’s nicer than that?”
For my part, a Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds concert slaked a certain thirst for bombast and doom. Now I too have a ballad stuck in my head—though it’s arguably more alarming than James’s.
If catharsis or melancholy aren’t your vibes at the moment, I recommend some absurdity. I’ve been re-watching HBO’s under-loved and short-lived South Side, and this madcap sketch show contains some perfectly unhinged comedic performances. Bump it up in the queue if you need a laugh.
In the meantime? We wish you a weekend of strange melodies, spring magic, and unexpected treats.