Close Reading, and Other News

A sly French literacy campaign wins international plaudits. (Look again: that’s it right there!)
Writers mobilize to save Venice’s bookshops.
Sadly, Portland’s Murder by the Book is meeting an unkinder fate.
“When she went to New York [from Boston], she wasn’t thinking about the work she was going to do—she was thinking about the clothes she was going to wear.” Sylvia Plath’s month at Mademoiselle, an experience that would figure in The Bell Jar.
Well, this was clearly never going to bother anyone: “10 Talented Female Authors I Wouldn’t Kick Out of Bed for Writing About Crackers.” (He has a type.)