This Week in Words – Aug 24

by Treehouse Editors

compiled by Rachel Bondurant

Crime novelist Elmore Leonard died this week at the age of 87. Here’s his obit in The New York Times.

Speaking of crime (if only a little), this article in The New Yorker caught my eye both as a former student of criminology and as a leftie. Fortunately for me and my left-handed brethren, the criminal theory is largely debunked. Also on the plus side, though we may have a hard time finding a pair of scissors or a spiral notebook we can use easily (not to mention keeping the ink from smearing on the page!), we could be president! Also, we’re very smart. Color me surprised.

Here Junot Diaz talks about his process and other assorted things, like male strippers and the zombie apocalypse.

I’m recommending you read something Roxane Gay recommended you read a few weeks ago for Electric Lit’s Recommended Reading series. If you think that’s a sentence, take a deep breath, hold it, and marvel at these sentences in Lindsay Hunter’s “Three Things You Should Know about Peggy Paula.” Just when I think I’ve made up my mind about the rules of the English language and how they mustn’t be broken, I find a story like this.