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Lit Hub Daily

October 27, 2025

TODAY: In 1932, Sylvia Plath is born. On her birthday, 30 years later, she writes the poem “Ariel.”

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You probably remember FarmVille, but do you remember the wannabe pop star whose FarmVille-inspired Ponzi scheme managed to pocket $250 million? | Lit Hub Biography

Cundill Prize-finalist Sophia Rosenfeld recommends essential books for understanding choice by Lorraine Daston, Alain Corbin, Sarah Igo and more. | Lit Hub Reading Lists

Nikki Van De Car considers the kobold, an unclassifiable household creature of fantasy: “They don’t like whistling and will throw handfuls of small rocks at you if you do so absentmindedly.” | Lit Hub History

“But now, instead, there would be tea for the people streaming in to pay their respects.” Ann Tashi Slater on the rituals of her grandmother‘s Tibetan Buddhist funeral. | Lit Hub Memoir

On Richard Carrington, the 19th-century scientist who made the connection between solar storms and life on Earth. | Lit Hub Science

Celebrate 20 years of The Silver Spoon with a Pizza Margherita recipe fit for a queen. | Lit Hub Food

“I’m back at it—on my phone in the night, scrolling through our local Buy Nothing group, where many ‘gifts’ are on offer...” Read from Catherine Newman’s new novel, Wreck. | Lit Hub Fiction

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Thanks to a novelist, a playwright, and some resourcefulness, the mystery of Jim Sanborn’s sculpture Kryptos has (accidentally) been solved. | Wired

“The scenario was incoherent. Yet it could not have happened differently on this earth. If it could have it would have.” Joy Williams on the last days of Gene Hackman. | Harper’s

What can be done about the literacy crisis? Johanna Winant and Dan Sinykin weigh in: “Give them Hamlet. Give them My Antonía. Give them Sense and Sensibility. Give them Song of Solomon. Give them these books—unabridged!—time to read them, and space to confront difficulties.” | Slate

Surekha Davies examines the history of positioning humans as monsters. | Aeon

How Jan Kerouac’s Baby Driver details “the kind of hardscrabble life her father contrived for literary reasons.” | The Paris Review

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