Morning Coffee (6/30/14)

How is it the last day of June already??

An important read: My Wife’s Abortion v. Your Free Speech

Re-reading feminist author Marion Zimmer Bradley in the wake of sexual assault allegations

Awesome: See the Text Messages That Led to Indiana's First Gay Marriage

How a Book Becomes the Book of the Summer

Sigh: Let’s Face It, There Probably Won’t Be Any "Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" Sequels

The Limited is doing a Scandal clothing line. Yes, that apparently means that The Limited still exists.

What’s your personal pop culture hell? (I agree with several things on this list.)

This Matisse cut-outs show sounds great.

Morning Coffee (6/27/14)

Happy Friday!

My friend Holly started an extremely important new Tumblr: Hiatus Beards

Okay, not exactly happy, but adorable: Prince Harry Recalls Princess Diana's Death, Cries in Brazil While Meeting With Local Kids

Eee, it's real! Here's the first still from the new season of The Killing.

Here's the promo for Hallmark Channel's Christmas in July week, which is pretty much proof that God loves us.

19 Dilemmas Every Book Lover Has Faced at Least Once

How to Tell If You're in a Dorothy Parker Story

The Onion, perfect as usual: Conversations Pretty Limited When Friend Not In Midst Of Crisis

27 Joys And Struggles Of Growing Up In An Italian-American Family

Women Listening To Men In Western Art History

Morning Coffee (6/26/14)

Will Maine have the first openly Gay Governor elected in the US?

Major Ruling Shields Privacy of Cellphones

There's a new Judy Blume novel coming next year!

Would you like to see pictures of the Queen visiting the Game of Thrones set? Of course.

Too true: 30 Things Only Antisocial People Understand

Awesome: Daniel Radcliffe sorts celebrities.

Every French Novel Ever

What Composer Is Your Soulmate? (My answer was Bach, which should surprise no one.)

Morning Coffee (6/25/14)

Oh, no, Eli Wallach has died. (Have we talked about how much I love The Holiday? Now I will tear up even more at his scenes, I'm sure.)

Joe Dorsey’s Big Fight: How An Unknown Boxer Knocked Out Segregation In Louisiana

The Kiss That Changed Video Games

Did you see that viral tweet about someone's mother asking to be addressed as "Doctor" in a deposition? Here's the story behind it, and it makes it even better.

Ooh: Box containing Christmas gifts from Royal Family to World War One soldiers discovered

People keep buying Emily Schultz's novel Joyland thinking it's Stephen King's. Here's what she's doing with the money. Awesome.

Why Nicholas Sparks Matters Now

The Onion, but, you know, basically true: Study: Average American Tries Getting Out Of 10,000 Things Each Year

Book Recommendation: Landline

Landline by Rainbow Rowell
(Goodreads, Amazon)

TV writer Georgie's marriage is in trouble - and then she accidentally happens upon a way to communicate with her husband in the past. Can she fix things? Should she fix things? Will she somehow mess up the timeline? I've loved all of Rainbow's books, but this one just might be my favorite so far. The characters - both Georgie and Neal as well as the supporting cast - immediately captured my interest and my heart, and I'm in awe of the way that Rainbow gets them to a satisfying ending without sacrificing any of the very real pain they (and the readers) feel along the way or implying that everything has magically turned to sunshine and rainbows. (Er, no pun intended.) And the writing is such that I kept having to put the book down - even as I wanted to race through it - to absorb certain perfect sentences. If you like stories about relationships or family or friends or self-discovery or writing or TV or Christmas, read this book.

Landline comes out two weeks from today, on July 8th, so preorder or put yourself on your library's hold list now!

(Disclaimer: I know Rainbow, but I would not lie to you - I loved this book.)

Morning Coffee (6/24/14)

John Green was on The Colbert Report and it was great.

Awesome: "One of the nice perks about being president is that anybody will hand you their baby. I get this baby fix 2 or 3 times a week."

Update: Into the Woods changes possibly less terrible than previously reported.

Oh good: Judge Upholds Policy Barring Unvaccinated Students During Illnesses

The Supreme Court doesn't understand software, and that's a problem

"David Glowacki, a theoretical chemist, was forcibly ejected from a performance of Handel’s Messiah last week when he attempted to crowd surf."

Heh, this is perfect: The Convoluted Calculus of Rating Books

There's a quidditch documentary coming!

Discarded Descriptions of Women from My Contemporary Hard-Boiled Detective Novel

Morning Coffee (6/23/14)

Still breathlessly following the Whole Foods news: Locals look to get their products into new Whole Foods store in Nashua

My friend Alissa is starting a little free library in her neighborhood.

Ooh, they found some unknown Neruda poems!

The Queen is visiting the Game of Thrones studios. Awesome.

And the Duchess of Cambridge visited Bletchley Park, where her grandmother worked.

Whoa, there's a The Killing prequel novel coming out.

This Diagon Alley ice cream sounds amazing.

My Prestigious Literary Novel

Morning Coffee (6/20/14)

Happy Friday!

My friend Todd VanDerWerff is the new culture editor at Vox, and I can't wait to see what he does there.

Speaking of Todd, his news item on Taylor Swift's new kitten is delightful.

This is the funniest thing I have ever read. Just trust me.

Felipe VI is now King of Spain. Would you like to see some pictures? Of course you would.

James McAvoy for Prada is my happy place.

I am constantly trying to recapture this feeling: Why You Should Read Like a Teen Again

This slideshow of posh British actors is full of delightful information: Eddie Redmayne and Prince William were prefects at Eton together! Kit Harington is a descendant of Charles II!

I never met a Breton stripe I didn't covet.

Look, it's a 12-foot portrait of Prince William and Prince George made from Toblerone. The world is a magical place.

18 Things Only People Who Hate Camping Understand

I love everything about this: Flannery O'Connor on Ayn Rand: "She makes Mickey Spillane look like Dostoevsky."

Book Recommendations: Just One Day

Just One Day by Gayle Forman
(Goodreads, Amazon)

I'll say up front that Forman's Just One Day didn't quite recapture the magic of her previous duology, If I Stay and Where She Went. And that it took me a little while to get into this one. But it hooked me eventually - and perhaps weirdly, the part of the book that took place after the "one day" in Paris was much more interesting to me than the iconic day itself. The main character, Allyson, could be frustrating at times, but it was in a realistic way and wound up adding to the story overall. I like stories about kids who have trouble adapting to college (see also: Fangirl), and her struggles with trying to separate her own needs and desires from others' expectations of her felt very true (and familiar). I bought into her personal evolution more than the romance itself, but I think that was the point. Willem, the love interest, was fine, I guess - the next book tells his story, so hopefully I'll like him better then. Here, though, I found Allyson's friend Dee way more interesting. Also: this book DEFINITELY made me want to go back to Europe.

Morning Coffee (6/19/14)

(I feel like Thursday is "everything is terrible" day because I'm always worried about having enough happy links for Happy Friday. Oops!)

Isis breach of Iraq-Syria border merges two wars into one 'nightmarish reality'

Oh, but this is good: In Landmark Decision, U.S. Patent Office Cancels Trademark For Redskins Football Team

A difficult but important read: This Is How A Domestic Violence Victim Falls Through The Cracks “The question you’re asking me is what’s wrong with the courts,” [the sheriff] said. “I’m asking you, what’s wrong with the women?” Yeah.

I knew very little about this: The Most Discriminatory Law in the Land

"Could your Strong Female Character be seamlessly replaced with a floor lamp with some useful information written on it to help a male hero?"

I Am Not Your Manic Pixie Bookworm (By my British doppelganger Kaite Welsh!)

Juan Carlos is retaining his immunity. Interesting.

That thing going around about how many immigrants are on the U.S. World Cup team? False.

Did Disney, like, see Into the Woods before deciding they were going to make a movie and then changing it all? (At this point, I'm basically just here for Chris Pine doing "Agony.")

Morning Coffee (6/18/14)

I finally read The Goldfinch and I was pretty disappointed.

This set of NPR summer book recommendations is great: Book Your Trip

I'm getting a new phone soon and I won't lie: I'm super excited about finally having emoji.

BuzzFeed's Jonah Peretti Goes Long

The 'Abigail' Bra and the 'Claudia' Dress: The Strange Trend of Giving Women's Names to Clothing

I can't decide how I feel about this: Move Over Avon Lady, the Tweens Are Here

Where your ideology says you should live

Which “Teen Wolf” Character Are You?

Morning Coffee (6/17/14)

In Extremists' Iraq Rise, America's Legacy

Computing Crime and Punishment

Jezebel, doing God's work: The Hottest Lists of Hot World Cup Players: A List

Hilarious: The Spoiler-Free 'Game Of Thrones' Twitter Translator

Meet Shelby Osborne, college football's first female defensive back

Diversity in Publishing: Next Steps in the Discussion

How Apple TV Might Disrupt Microsoft & Sony

Every English Novel Ever

Morning Coffee (6/16/14)

Boston has made the U.S. short list for the 2024 Olympics, which sounds like a terrible idea.

Hershey v. Hershey: Chocolate company sues state senator over campaign signs

Campaign to Crack Down on Fringe Sects in China Worries Mainstream Churches

Is this really how teens use Instagram? I guess some of them, anyway.

Fascinating: Mosque-Cathedral of Spain at Center of Debate Over its Religious History

One woman’s ghastly dollhouse dioramas turned crime scene investigation into a science.

The Fashionable Novels of the 19th Century

How to Respond to Criticism

Morning Coffee (6/13/14)

Happy Friday!

It's Friday the 13th and a full moon, and that's pretty rare.

I am extremely excited that they're finally publishing Margot Asquith's wartime diaries, and I have probably never sounded so much like my grandmother as at this moment.

And this new book on Jane Austen's country life also sounds interesting.

Grumpy Cat is starring in a Lifetime Christmas movie, which will include "cameos from other famous Internet memes." So. That's a thing.

Trust me when I say this long piece on Britney Spears, Las Vegas, and feminism is worth a read, even if you don't particularly care about Britney Spears.

Whoa: This Incredible Pen Lets You Write In Any Color You See

Harry Potter And The Forbidden Books

Nifty: Final Fantasy 14 is finally getting same-sex marriage

Western Art History: 500 Years of Women Ignoring Men

Morning Coffee (6/12/14)

Good news, local people: Whole Foods Nashua is opening on August 19th.

If you liked that piece on the history of Entertainment Weekly yesterday, make sure you check out the original proposal for the magazine.

And today in Everything Is Terrible: Oklahoma Tea Party Candidate Supports Stoning Gay People to Death

A Fight as U.S. Girls Face Genital Cutting Abroad

Who are Isis? A terror group too extreme even for al-Qaida

5 problems with throwing immigrants in separate, private prisons

Who Is Vincent Rue?

Okay, some things aren't terrible: Netflix is reviving The Magic School Bus!

Book Recommendation: We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

We Were Liars by E. Lockhart
Houghton Mifflin, 1999
(Goodreads, Amazon)

Ideally, I would like you to go read this book right now without reading another word about it.

No? Still here? Fine. I'll tell you a little, but really - a librarian friend who read an advance copy of this told me to go into it blind, and that was really good advice. But if you must know, We Were Liars is the story of a teenage member of a rich New England family - like own-their-own-island rich - who has had something terrible happen to her. And really, that's all I want to say about the plot. I will say that the book has interesting characters, a very distinctive voice, fascinating structure, and all the trappings of a rich people summer house novel, which is a subgenre I love. It's a perfect summer read, captivating and mysterious. Oh, and if you can, clear out an evening, because you're not going to want to put this down once you start.

Morning Coffee (6/11/14)

A bunch of MLB teams had a Taylor Swift singalong on Twitter and it's basically the best thing ever.

Some Canadian kids hacked into an ATM on their lunch hour - the bank had left the default password - and rather than stealing anything, they told the staff and had their tardiness back to school excused because they were "assisting BMO with security." That's adorable.

Whoa, the Frick is expanding.

Hey look, an actually good piece about The Fault in Our Stars and YA!

Aww, Eric Hill (creator of Spot the Dog) has died.

I really like the new Matt Nathanson song.

Fascinating: The Trials of 'Entertainment Weekly': One Magazine's 24 Years of Corporate Torture

Oooh: Buckland Abbey Rembrandt self-portrait is genuine

Morning Coffee (6/10/14)

Why are countries still using the fake bomb detectors sold by a convicted British conman?

I love TV crazy walls.

Need some summer reading? The LA Times has you covered.

Interesting: Emily Yoffe did a Q&A on what it's like to write Dear Prudence.

Every Letter In The Alphabet Graphed By Its Frequency of Use

If Strangers Talked to Everybody like They Talk to Writers

G.R.R. Martin’s Redwall

Which Hogwarts Professor Are You?

Morning Coffee (6/9/14)

No, you do not have to be ashamed of reading young adult fiction

How Comments Shape Perceptions of Sites' Quality—and Affect Traffic

Running Coach Fired For Running Boston Marathon

They found some 3000-year-old pants.

Yay: ‘All-of-a-Kind Family’ Series Getting Reissued

Woman dials 999 over ice cream sprinkles row

From Metaphysics to Teen Wolf Meta: The Evolution of a Word

The Onion: Man Honestly Thinks He's Going to Get to Bed Early

Morning Coffee (6/6/14)

Happy Friday! 41 Hot Guys Whose Eyes Will Pierce Your Soul

The Muscle-Flexing, Mind-Blowing Book Girls Will Inherit The Earth

This interview with Julianna Margulies and Matthew Rhys is just delightful and now I want them to do something together.

Hallmark Channel is doing a Christmas in July programming event, because they love us.

Two Monks Invent The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood

The 15 Best French Fries in America

The Henry VIII Fertility Clinic

Investigation Of What Fell Off Nightstand Postponed Until Morning

Which Classic Hollywood Actress Are You? (Apparently I'm Grace Kelly. I'll take it.)

Morning Coffee (6/5/14)

The Senate has confirmed Keith Harper, the first Native American to be a U.S. Ambassador.

And the U.S. has appointed its first ambassador to Somalia since 1993.

I love New Yorker profiles, and reading one of someone I know is a really weird experience.

The Hairpin is starting a series on female killers with Erzsebet Bathory, and it's fascinating.

Crimean Vineyards of Last Czar Withstand Time and Tumult

"Here, money is weightless. Social connections, on the other hand, are commodified."

Author Cassandra Clare and audiobook narrator Jason Dohring interview each other and it's freaking adorable.

How to Wait Out Your Friend's Boyfriend

Morning Coffee (6/4/14)

Hunger Games salute banned by Thai military

The end of an era: Winston Churchill's last surviving child has died.

Amazon Is Not a Monopoly or a Monopsony

Perfect: Do Female-Named Hurricanes Need To Lean In?

The cover of My True Love Gave to Me is sooooooo adorable.

What if your phone-a-friend were Angela Merkel?

They've found the first film footage of Dylan Thomas.

Real-life pirates of Penzance attempt Guinness World Record (Sort of. Not actual pirates.)

Morning Coffee (6/3/14)

The Times has a horrifying, fascinating profile of Elliot Rodger.

Galway historian reveals truth behind 800 orphans in mass grave

How Not to Review Women's Writing

Wow: Who Killed Lois Duncan's Daughter?

In Defense of Schlock Music

Feminists Killed Home Ec. Now They Should Bring It Back — for Boys and Girls.

I don't... get why this is weird. And those hotel packages sound pretty cheap for an event, really.

How To Tell If You Are In A Jane Austen Novel

Morning Coffee (6/2/14)

Nigeria Prepares To Treat Rape, Sexual Trauma Of Kidnapped School Girls

White guy killer syndrome: Elliot Rodger’s deadly, privileged rage

Lessons From a Day Spent With the UCSB Shooter's Awful Friends

Important and powerful: On Twitter and Blame

Obama: US must change 'suck-it-up' culture on concussion and head injuries

Why Fox’s Kevin Reilly, the Man Who Canceled Pilot Season, Just Got Canceled Himself

Amazon Prime's forthcoming music streaming sounds interesting.

Perfect: 21 Things You Say In Work Emails, And What They Really Mean

Princess Charlene is having a baby! The Fug Girls totally called this.