Monday Hangovers

• Links posts will happen here regularly again (maybe once or twice a week?), because tumblr works for some kinds of things but not all.
• Laura Miller gives high praise to Mat Johnson's Pym: "Pym departs from its 19th-century inspiration in more than just the way it repurposes motifs of blackness and whiteness: Unlike "The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket," it is hilarious. (Much of this is due to Garth, who deserves a bust in the comic sidekick's hall of fame.)" Library hold request = done.
• Justine on why she loves bad reviews, including this priceless one: "Magic or Madness is like a bad Australian episode of Charmed." A review of one of my earliest (thankfully scarce) short stories included the phrase "strangely humorless" to describe some puns (scarce thankfully). I still kind of wish "strangely humorless" was short enough for a personalized license plate.
• Nora Jemisin on why sometimes the writer's job is to break the reader's heart. 
• One of the best things I've read lately is Kristin Livdahl's novella from Aqueduct Press's Conversation Pieces series, A Brood of Foxes. Her husband Alan may be biased, but I agree with everything he has to say in his post about it: "There are a lot of gestures in the fantasy field lately toward having an imaginary world mimic contemporary concerns–but in A Brood of Foxes, the shape of the narrative changes to reflect the very human cost of these concerns. There are no quick fixes or any lame “journey of the hero(ine)” knock-offs while paying lip service to some kind of transgressive ideal. No boss battles!" It is gorgeous and strange and lives up to the series' title.
• The Official Anne of Green Gables, The Movie Drinking Game. (Via someone on twitter, but I can't remember who. Maybe @lizzieskurnick? That seems plausible.)
• The abandoned houses of supervillains, pieces of dark Russian history. (Via @writershouses, I'm almost certain.)
• Ricky Jay's Criterion Collection Top 10, found because Sara Ryan recommended F for Fake, which I've somehow never seen. Will be remedying tout de suite, as it is instant watch. See also: Errol Morris and Ricky Jay in conversation about lying: part one and part two.
• One of my high school nicknames was Apocalypse Barbie.