The Audacious Roundup
For the week of July 27th
AUDACIOUS BOOKCLUB HAPPENINGS
Our August bookclub selection is The Simp by Roshan Sethi. We will be in conversation with Roshan on August 26th at 8 pm EST/5 pm PST. Registration is open. If you missed our conversation with Mary H.K. Choi, you can watch it here.
For newcomers, there is a bookclub FAQ if you have questions about how it all works. And this is what we will be reading for the rest of the year. We’re partnering with the lovely people at Allstora for the Audacious Book Club. Now, you can sign up to have the monthly selections delivered to your doorstep each month! Otherwise, I’ve put together an Audacious Book Club storefront if you want to buy current or forthcoming book club titles.
THE NEWSLETTER WEEK IN REVIEW
PERSONAL & PROFESSIONAL NEWS
Debbie was interviewed by Oldster! She also wrote a brilliant essay about the importance of learning to think critically and developing one’s voice before ever thinking about using AI tools.
We were interviewed together for Byline.
Book and project links: Books I’ve Written, RGB Imprint Titles, Rebind: The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton; The Forgotten Occupation.
READING MATERIAL
Todd Blanche, the president’s nominee for attorney general, is having a hard time getting confirmed. Republicans are stymying Trump’s efforts to constantly get his own way. They are all still terrible.
Mitch McConnell is still missing. No one believed that weird AI image his people released. Is he dead? Seems pretty likely. Anyway, Kentucky governor Andy Beshear wants to know WTF is going on.
Oh, look at that! The feds are dropping charges against the man falsely accused of sabotaging the reflecting pool. A gang of idiots and buffoons.
TPS for Haitians and Syrians has ended and now, 300,000 Haitians are in danger of being deported back to a country where it is not yet safe for them to return.
The corrupt head of FIFA, Gianni Infantino, had a really macabre idea about selling a part of FIFA (an organization for sport) to private equity. The soccer world collectively lost their shit and now he is backtracking but ugh. This guy.
A gay man from Arizona has been deported to a third country where he and others are being detained in horrible conditions.
The father of a young man who committed a school shooting has been sentenced to fifteen years in prison.
Some of the students Howard University unenrolled have been reenrolled.
New ransom notes for Nancy Guthrie have been released. I feel for the Guthrie family and how this has all played out, and how Nancy Guthrie cannot yet be laid to rest because the body has not yet been found.
There are still no real answers about what happened to Nolan Wells, but new details are coming to light.
Thanks to a new law, NYC delivery workers have earned $104 million extra in tips. Huzzah!
The government-run grocery stores the Mamdani administration is opening will offer discounts on some items.
At least ten women have accused actor Jared Leto of sexual assault. There’s a new BBC documentary out that tells their story.
Ross Douthat is… taking his talents to 60 Minutes, a televisual news magazine.
What do we do about lookism?
A judge has approved the Anthropic settlement.
Some porn addicts tried to rescue the cam girls they once watched from a violent pimp.
WTF even was this weird, speculative piece about how maybe a novel was written by AI? What is happening?!
This year’s Booker Prize longlist is out.
Here is a scathing review of Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey written by Emily Wilson. She’s not wrong! It’s a great review. I also really enjoyed the movie, nonetheless. It did what it was supposed to do. What’s so odd is seeing people defend Christopher Nolan from this review like he’s some indie creator who is the most vulnerable of wee creatures. He’s the most famous filmmaker in the world. He gets to make movies with budgets in the hundreds of millions. He is a talented, straight white man who is almost universally beloved. He’s FINE!
Hanging out with some modern day Luddites in NYC!
Also, the pleasures of analog restaurants!
A conversation with Sam Smith. A conversation with Devyn Dalton, Matt Damon’s stunt double with amazing arms. A profile of Willow Smith.
Katie Porter has gone from Congress, to two failed campaigns, to book influencer? Girl, I guess!
I always enjoy an “unlikeable” narrator story, so here is one from Ottessa Moshfegh.
Actual book influencer and pop star Dua Lipa is curating a literary festival in London.
I do not understand what actually happened with this wild publishing story about an author getting a $2.5 million deal but then their agent suspects them of using AI so stops representing them and now, maybe, the film/tv and book deals have all been rescinded? None of this makes sense.
A profile of Johnny Knoxville who is still being Johnny Knoxville!
RIP Betye Saar, an extraordinary artist. Glen Hansard died in a motorcycle accident.
There was a lot of lesbian drama during the WNBA All Star Weekend. I want to know all the WNBA tea, all the time.
THE RUMPUS WEEK IN REVIEW
Essays:
A Map of Languages, Dead and Dying by Lori Yeghiayan Friedman
Comics:
Guru’d by Daniel Giachetti
Fiction:
Fat Lip by Julie Odell
Bird-Of-Paradise by Farihah Ahmed
Critical Analysis by Thomas Renjilian
Freckle by Samantha Zabell
Homecoming by Jason S. Park
Poetry:
Two Poems by Andrew Hemmert
Three Poems by Letitia Jiju
Interviews:
A Conversation with J Brooke by Jenny Boylan
A Conversation with Sophie Lewis by Abby Lacelle
A Conversation with Jules Wernersbach by Rachel León
A Conversation with Sofie Stambo by Hasanthika Sirisena
Criticism:
“This Dark Night: Emily Brontë, A Life” by Deborah Lutz by Emily Van Duyne
The One Who Loved Is Not the One Who Betrayed: On “Severance,” Identity, and The Shifting Selves of Love by Roohola Ramezani
Born to Run: The American Road Trip Myth & Lauren Groff’s “The Wind” by Darius Van Arman
Culture:
What is Freedom: Jason Reynolds by Jason Reynolds
What is Freedom: Joan as Police Woman by Joan As Police Woman
What is Freedom: Patricia Cronin by Patricia Cronin
What is Freedom: Imani Perry by Imani Perry
What is Freedom: Lynne Tillman by Lynne Tillman
A Month Without a Map by Elissa Altman
50 of the Best Book Covers of the Year (So Far) by Zachary Petit
El Alboroto:
Presentamos “El Alboroto” by Alejandra Márquez and Vasthi Jean-Michel
Penrose by Ave Barrera Garcia