Jimmy Donaldson — better known to his hundreds of millions of online followers as MrBeast — has leveraged his vast social media audience to sell everything from Beast-branded burgers, snack packs and chocolate bars to water bottles, toys, basketballs and $65 hoodies. Now, he’s aiming to sell his followers an unlikely new product: a novel. … Read more
LITTLE BOSSES EVERYWHERE: How the Pyramid Scheme Shaped America, by Bridget Read So enduring is the image of America’s door-to-door salesman — beguiling, relentless — that it can be easy to forget that the junk he is selling is often less pernicious than the junk he’s being sold. Neighbors might resent his hawking microwaves and … Read more
THE DAZZLING PAGET SISTERS: The English Twins Who Captivated Literary Europe, by Ariane Bankes Move over, Véra. See ya, Zelda. Make way for Celia and Mamaine. The dazzling Paget sisters, as they’ve been rebranded by the U.S. edition of a book published in the United Kingdom as “The Quality of Love,” were identical twins, that … Read more
Alone as a child tucked in at night, Mary Annette Pember had visions. “Strings of lights, rather like phosphorescent snakes,” she writes, would float along the ceiling of her bedroom, turning and twisting in the dark. When she asked what the strange lights could be, her mother, an Ojibwe from northern Wisconsin, urged her not … Read more
From the outset, Black bookstores have been centers of not only cultural exchange and knowledge but also protest and liberation. When David Ruggles opened what is recognized as the first Black bookstore, in 1834, at 67 Lispenard Street in Lower Manhattan, he used his inventory of books, pamphlets and stationery — as well as the … Read more
Dear readers, Anyone who is bad at meditating will be familiar with the tension that obtains when you try to force serenity. Nothing could be more aggravating than being told to relax — especially when you’re issuing the order yourself. In lieu of attempting to clear my head through more direct means, I’ve been gravitating … Read more
