
Pulitzer-Winning Critic to Publish Book About Reality TV
Welcome to Today in Books, where we report on literary headlines at the intersection of politics, culture, media, and more.
When TV Critics Stop Being Polite (and Start Getting Real)
When New Yorker TV critic Emily Nussbaum won the Pulitzer in 2016, the committee cited her “television reviews written with an affection that never blunts the shrewdness of her analysis or the easy authority of her writing.” That description holds as true for her Twitter commentary (one of the very few things I miss about the bird app) as for her book-length work, and it is super exciting that her next book will take on reality TV. Cue the Sun comes out in June, and man, I love to see a thoughtful critic take “lowbrow” entertainment seriously and approach it with highbrow analysis. Nussbaum does this better than anybody. Put it in my veins.
Spice Up Your Life
We’re Book Riot, of course we’re going to write a headline that mashes up 90s pop and Dune. With just under a month to go before Dune: Part Two hits the big screen, now would be a weird time to decide to read all the Dune books in order. But people do things, and if thousands of pages of sci-fi is how you wanna spend your February, Adrienne Westenfeld has got you covered. I’m curious: how often do you read the source material before seeing an adaptation?
Apocalypse Where?
You’ve seen one apocalypse, you’ve seen ‘em all. At least, that’s what I’m telling myself about the very sad 1/5 score I got on this quiz about the settings of well-known apocalypse novels.
Yes, Virginia, You Can Ban Book Bans.
A new bill introduced in the Virginia state senate would ban book bans by school boards. This literally hits close to home for me, as I’ve watched the school board just one county over (I live in Richmond, VA) imbue itself with the authority to remove books from school libraries, successfully ban 75 titles, and defeat a community-driven ballot initiative to transition to a board elected by citizens rather than appointed by politicians. May Senator Ghazala Hashmi and her colleagues’ efforts succeed. Call your reps, folks.
5 Great Books That Bring the Screen to the Page
As a bonus for paid subscribers, I’m featuring 5 more books about TV and movies to read while you wait for Cue the Sun.
Shit, Actually by Lindy West
Before she was a millennial feminist icon, Lindy West was the movie critic for a local Seattle publication. In this essay collection, she reaches back into that toolkit to revisit movies we love and examine why they hold up (or why we try to convince ourselves they do when they don’t). Do not fear: West isn’t out to ruin all of your problematic faves the way she ruined Love, Actually and broke in the internet in 2013. These pieces have as much affection and humor as they do incisive criticism. Bonus: it’s great on audio.
Wannabe by Aisha Harris
Cultural critic and co-host of NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour, Harris explores the media that shaped her identity and understanding of the world as a young Black woman. She grapples with what it means to like entertainment made by people whose politics/behavior/etc you don’t like and with the ways that the discourse around that question is now shaping pop culture. These essays are joyful, thoughtful, thought-provoking, and funny, and I eagerly await whatever Harris does next.
It’s Not TV by Felix Gillette and John Koblin
It’s hard to remember in this moment of streaming overload that prestige TV hasn’t always been a thing. Indeed, HBO basically invented it—and set off a full-blown revolution in how we think about what TV is—when they introduced the world to Tony Soprano in 1999. Gillette and Koblin unpack HBO’s 25 years of paradigm-shifting work to unpack both its influence on the industry and its changing position in a landscape that is now filled with businesses built on the model it pioneered.
End Credits by Patty Lin
Before she “broke up with Hollywood,” Patty Lin wrote for shows like Friends, Freaks and Geeks, and Breaking Bad. By all accounts, it looked like she had it made. But being one of the only women, and usually the only Asian person, in the room is exhausting, and ultimately, the juice wasn’t worth the squeeze. Here, Lin recounts the years of hard work it took to break into those rooms and the experiences in them that eventually broke her. What do you do when you get your big dream and it isn’t all it’s cracked up to be?
From Hollywood with Love by Scott Meslow
A nerdier writer would have subtitled this book about the rise/fall/rise of romantic comedies something like “A vindication of the rights of rom coms.” Meslow chronicles the invention and evolution of the genre in a series of love letters essays about the films that exemplify the form…and a few flops that tarnish its reputation. If you can’t pass up a rewatch of When Harry Met Sally or Crazy Rich Asians, this one’s for you.
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