March 28, 2017

“In an interview, Gyasi said she made sure to keep each chapter around 25 or 30 pages—and that she was never really tempted to break this rule—but there’s no such economy in The Nix’s logorrheic prose, which coils and spins at least three or four distinct novels into one singular story.” Tuesday’s Rooster match sees Judge Aaron Bady choose between debut novels Homegoing and The Nix. / The Tournament of Books

A rough estimate of how many books you will read before you die, depending on your reading appetite. / Lithub

In “The Rough N Rowdy,” a “forgotten” West Virginia coal town fights itself for a thousand bucks. / Washington Post

An Icelandic hospital administers a record number of epidurals nine months after the Iceland-England soccer match. / GOAL

“The public sphere needs to be protected from President Trump. It also needs to be protected from the equal and opposite reaction to him, which can be nearly as destructive.” Very good op-ed by Masha Gessen about the secrets and exaggerations people want to believe about the White House when the dismal truth is right in front of our eyes. / New York Times

A short, wordless documentary on how to make a dugout canoe using traditional hand tools and techniques. / Vimeo

Congress set to vote to allow web providers to sell your browsing history to the highest bidder. / The Verge

“Great job, Wet Bag Of Cigarette Butts That Thinks It’s Judge Holden. You really cracked the fuckin’ whip, there.” In case you feel like hating on Trump/Bannon/Ryan a little more today, this is the story for you. / The Concourse

What the weekend’s protests around Russia mean for Putin: a tremendous threat, especially from the young. / The Atlantic

An examination of more than 1,300 journalist killings helps identify countries at risk of total meltdown. / The Monkey Cage

“A court system without lawyers is not merely unjust—it is also inefficient and wasteful.” Opinion: Los Angeles needs to follow New York City’s example and provide attorneys to immigrants facing deportation. / Los Angeles Times

Because sometimes you just want to watch an armadillo dig a hole for four minutes. / YouTube

Indigenous San people of Africa draft code of ethics they hope will balance relationship with foreign researchers. / Science

Just like that, the Oakland Raiders are gone, abandoning fans just as the team is regaining relevance. / The Ringer

How the faux-intellectual National Review created the ideological breeding ground for Trumpism. / Slate

“My suspicion is that Ikea causes fights through its sheer enormity. You yell at your partner just to assert your existence in the face of so much flat-packed furniture. There’s a scene in Sartre’s Nausea where the protagonist realizes that every leaf on a chestnut tree is as real as him. His mind buckles as he comprehends his insignificance compared to all those leaves. Will looking at approximately 200,000 scented votive candles similarly tear my mind asunder?” A dispatch from the world’s largest Ikea, in Burbank, Calif. / Curbed

EPA chief gets conservative ire over his hesitation to challenge court decision verifying climate science. / Politico