Rebecca Donner—whose biography of Mildred Harnack, an American woman who became a spy and a central figure in the resistance against Hitler, just won the National Book Critics Circle Award—has sold I Am Sophie Scholl to Random House. According to the publisher, the new book “tells the inspiring story of the legendary German resistance member who was executed for treason at just 21 years old, and her anti-Nazi group the White Rose.”
Yesterday, Cheryl Strayed’s memoir Wild turned ten, and to celebrate, the author released a scene that was cut from the published version of the book. “As I scanned the document, I came upon scenes that, for one reason or another, I cut. I stopped scanning and started reading when I came upon one passage—which I’m including for you below—about what I did right before I began my hike, after I left Minneapolis and stopped off in Portland for a few days before flying to California and the PCT. It made my heart both race and sink to read it; to remember a younger, more reckless version of myself. It made me shudder to think…”
At the New York Times, Jennifer Szalai has published a thoughtful and rangy meditation on shame, focusing on Cathy O’Neil’s new book The Shame Machine: “O’Neil distinguishes between shame that ‘punches down’ and shame that ‘punches up.’ To punch down is to deride and shun people for things that O’Neil says are largely shaped by forces beyond their control; for her, these include addiction, obesity and poverty. To punch up is to hold the powerful to account for their deeds—’police chiefs, governors, CEOs.’”
Scientists are using the writings of Henry David Throreau to study how climate change has affected plant life at Walden Pond.
Meghan O’Rourke talks about her new book, The Invisible Kingdom: Reimagining Chronic Illness, on Good Morning America. “It’s my hope that the book can be part of a national conversation, as more and more people live with long Covid, to reform health care, so that it is delivering for the whole patient what a person with these complex illnesses really needs.”
On March 31, Forever magazine is throwing a launch party for its third issue, featuring readings by Rachel Bell, Ariana Reines, Christian Lorentzen, and Sean Thor Conroe at the Russian Samovar in New York City. Doors open at 7pm.
