This Week in Books Jane and Elizabeth Have a Cage Match

Because The Toast is the most excellent source of original content and writing on the Internet, they've naturally begun a new series of "Literary Ladies Cage Fights," with the first face-off between Elizabeth Benett and Jane Eyre. Round One is division into Harry Potter houses, because of course it is. FYI, the new Sleater-Kinney album makes a good soundtrack while you read it.

The National Book Critics Circle Awards finalists for 2014 were just announced, and the list is incredibly solid. Is is just me or was 2014 a fantastic year for writing? I'm especially happy to see Saeed Jones' Prelude to Bruise on the list, as well as a lot of books from independent publishers.

Everyone is apparently hosting gigantic book clubs now, and NPR's Morning Edition is the latest to jump on the bandwagon, although I can already say they are doing it better than so many others. The first selection was made by author and bookstore owner Ann Patchett, and she chose (National Book Critics Circle Awards finalist1) Deep Dark Down by Hector Tobar, a true account of the 2010 rescue of 33 Chilean miners. David Green hosted Patchett and Tobar in a discussion that included audience questions from Twitter, and it was a really nice treat on my morning commute. I definitely want to read the book now, and to find out what they'll be reading next.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has a short story available on the Medium. This requires no further explanation.

Finally, Rachel Kushner, author of the excellent novel The Flamethrowers, has an essay over at the London Review of Books on the Costa Concordia wreck. Not particularly "literary," or newsworthy, just a great essay from a great writer

#ReadWomen2014: Mallory Ortberg

I have been recommending Mallory Ortberg's writing sneakily for many months now, mostly tucked away in 'This Week in Books' posts. Anything excellent and literary and funny via The Toast is written by Mallory, and reading through her backlog of content is a very good way to spend an afternoon, or two, or ten. She is one of those writers of the Internet Age who demonstrates the value of a medium like Twitter and whose fantastic body of work is largely archived and available for free at any time. I've added The Toast to my RSS reader and my quality of life has increased significantly. 

For those who prefer their witty entertainments in book format, Mallory has a new book, out this week, that is the hard-copy version of her very popular 'Texts From Jane Eyre' series. She added tons of new content and includes texts from lots of literary characters, both fictional and non. I'm hopeful this is only the first of her many hilarious books.

This Week in Books Dickon is the First to Heroically Perish and Joan Didion Gets a Documentary

The Toast has delighted me even further with their Inevitable Fates of Beloved Children's Book Characters, of course. The Toast is my delight on a daily basis.

Joan Didion's nephew created a Kickstarter fund for a documentary on his famous and literary aunt. While someone who has made a career of writing very frankly about herself seems like an odd choice for a documentary (her life is quite literally an open book, or many open books), I love her and therefore am in favor of this.

Nothing else happened in books this week, or if it did, I didn't hear about it because I was really sick, huddled up in bed with Gilmore Girls.

This Week in Books Lena Dunham talks to Roxane Gay

It's been a huge week for Lena Dunham, whose book Not That Kind of Girl was published on Tuesday (I already finished it and enjoyed it). She also had a mild scandal regarding her book tour which is a much larger and more extraordinary event than most authors get to participate in, but I'd prefer to focus on the positive. She got a pretty overwhelmingly positive review in Time Magazine by Roxane Gay, and then Gay and Dunham had a convo for Vulture.

Speaking of Roxane Gay (when am I not?), The Toast announced this week a new vertical called The Butter that will be edited by Gay and include cultural criticism and personal essays, with a distinct focus on writers of color. If you haven't spent any time with The Toast before, I highly recommend it. They do some of the best writing for women on the Internet, and they are decidedly bookish.

I normally try to keep things light around here, but some weeks I just can't deal, and admittedly, this is one of the biggest news stories in the publishing world this week. Ed Champion is a misogynistic jerk in the publishing industry who last gained notoriety by attacking writer (and delight) Emily Gould on Twitter. When she responded in kind, he made some vaguely suicidal threats, so everyone left him alone. He resurfaced last weekend, this time attacking a new female author, Porochista Khakpour.  Don't go fight with him on Twitter (his account has been suspended anyway). Instead show your support by purchasing books by Gould and Khakpour and keep in mind that dumb garbage like this is why #readwomen2014 is so important.