A roundup of what the Pittsburgh Review of Book’s class is reading the first week of February 2026:
“How Not to Defeat Authoritarianism” from The Boston Review
“In an era of intense partisanship, nationalized elections, and low trust in elites and institutions, the electoral benefits of moderation are at best small and inconsistent, at worst counterproductive”
Chosen by Paul Beer
On Living Inside The Story: An Interview with Salar Abdoh from Guernica Magazine
“I guess it comes down to this, even at an individual level: might one prefer not to be seen at all if the only other option is to be perceived entirely out of focus and wrongly?”
Chosen by Kathryn Anne Langley
“The Nineteenth-Century Science of Fashion” from JSTOR Daily
“What colors best suit your complexion, scientifically speaking? As historian Charlotte Nicklas writes, that’s something that women in England and America started asking in the 1850s, thanks
largely to magazines that encouraged them to learn about a newly developed color theory.”
Chosen by Riona Duncan
“The Death of Book World” from The New Yorker
“From now on, the Post will no longer accommodate the admirably omnivorous avidity of its best readers. Visitors to its home page will no longer come across unforeseen book reviews, or really much writing about the arts at all.”
Chosen by Rahaf AlMubarak
“Never Again, Once Again” from The New York Review of Books
“By ‘unequivocally’ rejecting all analogies, it has erected a fence around the Holocaust that ensures that its moral lessons will be forgotten.”
Chosen by Suzy Liss
“The Garden of Earthly Delights” from The Paris Review Daily
“Something makes me feel we’re getting it wrong—that though endings are inevitable, the middle panel might be where we’re meant to linger. What if the mystery of play is that it may not
result in destruction?”
Chosen by Elias Fox
“ICE OUT MSP: Eric Brandt’s Typography of Protest” from Artforum
“You can put a sign in your yard and convey a point of view without speaking out or marching, but through the image and
message, you’re joining a bigger conversation.”
Chosen by Sofia Johnson
“History’s 10 Gayest Yearners, According to Us” from them
“There may be no more definitive queer statement on yearning than this quote from Baldwin’s Nothing Personal: ‘The longer I live, the more deeply I learn that love — whether we call it friendship or family or romance — is the work of mirroring and magnifying each other’s light.'”
Chosen by Asia Thompson
America Won’t Be Easily Forgiven—Even After Trump Is Gone from The New Republic
“When a nation breaks the world’s trust, forgiveness does not come quickly or easily. That’s a hard lesson that Americans, even the liberals and progressives who might absolve themselves of contributing to Trumpian misrule, will have to learn as we grapple with the damage Trump has done to our international
standing only a year into his second term.”
Chosen by Jennie Tian
