Footnotes, March 2020: Book links from around the web

At The Reading List, we’re trainspotters when it comes to interesting book links, and here are a number that caught our eye over past several weeks.

Not to brag, but our Facebook post about SA author Kopano Matlwa being lauded by billionaire Bill Gates had 800+ shares in a day or so. Tjekkit! And well done, Kopano!
Pwaangulongii Dauod remembers the late Binyavanga Wainaina in Granta. Read this.
Elsewhere, Ben Williams remembers Harry Garuba and Shaun Johnson, who, like Binyavanga, departed too soon.
Clive Cussler also died. Eish.
We all might die, too. Here’s a fine excerpt from Connie Willis‘ acclaimed spec-fic novel, Doomsday Book, in which a time traveller gets stuck in medieval Europe and watches the Black Death wipe everyone out.

There’s a book called Shit is Fucked Up and Bullshit – do you need to know anything else?

Someone’s rabbiting on about the death of the novel again.
You don’t know enough about George Orwell‘s first wife, Eileen Blair. She influenced the way you think about the world. She also lived in godawful circumstances with Orwell. Get educated.