Literary Links

The 30 best nonfiction books of the last 30 years

The Los Angeles Times is compiling a series of “30 Best” lists in honor of this year’s celebration of the 30^th anniversary of its annual Festival of Books. Here are its top nonfiction titles.

The Age of Genre Bending, Blending, and Juxtaposing

Novelist and essayist Lincoln Michel argues that “the most consequential aesthetic trend in literature over the last 25 years has been ‘genre-bending fiction.’”

Why Tolkien thought “sub-creation” was the secret to great fantasy and science fiction

“According to Tolkien, fantasy requires a deep imagination known as ‘sub-creation.’ And the genre reflects a fundamental truth of being human.”

There is something about great fantasy that emboldens the spirit and gives fire to the fight. It is found not only in the words and plot but in its atemporality. It tells us that there is something universal to the human condition that ought to be celebrated. It is something as true for Anglo-Saxons in their snowy mead halls as it is for office drones changing their login passwords.

Jonny Thomson explains Tolkien’s philosophy of fantasy and why fantasy’s appeal is timeless.

Scientists Reveal What Happens in Your Brain When You Read

This article summarizes recent neuroscience findings about how the human brain functions during reading, as presented in the journal Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews.

Is the Next Great American Novel Being Published on Substack?

Peter C. Baker takes a look at Substack, one of the writing platforms developing in parallel with personal blogs: “Substack’s literary influence, if it ends up having any, might come less from the fiction that is published there and more from the platform’s role as a new hub for people interested in literature and its possibilities.”

“Unfilmable” Book Adaptations Are Having a Moment – Which Story Will Be Next?

now, with supposedly “unfilmable” books like Frank Herbert’s Dune and Liu Cixin’s 3 Body Problem having been recently adapted (to great critical success!), the industry is faced with more new and exciting questions about these works than ever before. What exactly makes a book “unfilmable” in the eyes of readers; how can a filmmaker overcome such challenges; and which books, if any, will be next?

The Professors Are Using ChatGPT, and Some Students Aren’t Happy About It

“Students call it hypocritical. A senior at Northeastern University demanded her tuition back. But instructors say generative A.I. tools make them better at their jobs.”

Most of the discussion I’ve seen about artificial intelligence in education involves educators’ lamentations about students’ efforts to avoid writing their own work. Here’s an article about a student who feels cheated by a professor’s use of AI to produce course materials.

Our narrative prison

“The three-act ‘hero’s journey’ has long been the most prominent kind of story. What other tales are there to tell?”

Eliane Glaser, a writer and radio producer, examines the basic plot structure of “almost every film and TV series, as well as a good many plays and novels” of today: 

We meet the protagonist in their ordinary world, plodding along, not living their best life. And then an inciting incident changes everything, making it impossible for the protagonist to carry on as normal. They are pulled into a new quest. . . . the protagonist’s quest is opposed by a powerful antagonist who frustrates the hero at every turn. At their lowest point, the protagonist realises their old mode of being is redundant, but the new one is too daunting. The story is resolved either in the protagonist’s favour or against them: they triumph or else fail tragically. The important thing is that their life philosophy has been turned upside down. When they return home, everything is the same, but everything is also completely transformed.

This pattern, in a nutshell, constitutes the hero’s journey, the monomyth, or the three-act structure. Glaser argues that continued adherence to this story structure prevents present-day writers from telling stories that might offer us different models of how to change the world we live in.

But while Glaser talks about “experimental fictions,” I don’t find any convincing alternative options in her argument. My problem with her approach lies in the last sentence of the description quoted above: “When they [story heroes] return home, everything is the same, but everything is also completely transformed.” She emphasizes the sameness of the resolution without taking into account the transformation that has occurred. 

Here’s where the importance of understanding life-story psychology comes into play. Real change in the world doesn’t begin at the institutional or societal level; it begins at the individual level, with people who have learned truths that they communicate to other people, who then pass the message on, and so forth. By emphasizing the sameness of the world and ignoring the change in the individual, Glaser misses the key importance of the power of storytelling.

What Should You Let Your Kids Read?

“Giving them some independence can help rekindle their love of books.”

As calls for book-banning spread across the U.S., Shirley Li, a staff writer for The Atlantic, notes “kids are reading less. A 2020 study revealed that the number of children reading for fun had hit its lowest point since 1984, and reading skills are on the decline across America.”

Li concludes, “Perhaps, in order for children to fall back in love with reading, adults have to get out of the way.”

How Taylor Jenkins Reid Became a Publishing Powerhouse

Although I don’t usually include articles about individual authors in Literary Links, I’ve made an exception here because this article is as much about the current state of publishing in the U.S. as it is about Taylor Jenkins Reid, author of hit novels including The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo.

© 2025 by Mary Daniels Brown