The first in a short series about sharing, caring and not going it alone. Up first: Ruth Curry and Emily Gould learn how to turn a friendship into a business partnership. READ MORE

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In the latest installment of what is somehow the Internet's only cooking and book chat show, Emily Gould chats with author Sigrid Nunez about her new book, Sempre Susan: A Memoir of Susan Sontag, which is brand new, out this week, so get it right now, it's short and terrific! READ MORE

In the latest installment of what is somehow the Internet's only cooking and book chat show, Emily Gould chats with author Emma Rathbone about her new book, The Patterns of Paper Monsters as they bake cookies reminiscent of supermarket strawberry wafer cookies. READ MORE

In this episode of Cooking the Books: Doogie Horner, the author of Everything Explained Through Flowcharts, teaches Emily Gould how to make "Gettin' Laid Lemonade." And then they get wasted. Cooking the Books is directed by Valerie Temple and shot and edited by Andrew Gauthier. You can see all the Cooking the Books episodes here or even subscribe via iTunes. Previously: Marcy Dermansky literally reinvents pudding; Tao Lin makes raw salad; Jennifer Egan makes macaroons. Plus! Veggie Burgers Every Which Way.

Barbara Comyns is always being compared to writers X, Y or Z “on acid.” The acid part is a cop-out; her voice is clear and direct, even when describing surreal or hyperreal situations, and her crisp descriptions are not kaleidoscopic or druggy in the least. The comparisons to other writers, apt or not, are never a list of her formative influences; she didn’t have any. READ MORE

The final story in Elisa Albert’s debut collection How This Night Is Different is in the form of a letter to Philip Roth from “Elisa Albert.” In it, the author—or her alter-ego, or whatever—offers to bear the aging, famously childless author a son or daughter. It’s a joke, and it isn’t. It’s hilarious either way. And for (h/t Julie Klausner) Jewish Girls who have considered suicide when Zuckerman Unbound was enuf, reading it produces the uncanny sensation of having had the top of one’s head unscrewed and one’s brain contents poured directly onto a page, which one is somehow then reading. I mean, who hasn’t thought of offering herself up as a gestational surrogate to Philip Roth? (Um.) READ MORE