Yevgeny Roizman, a prominent Russian museum director, has been detained for speaking out against the invasion of Ukraine, the Art Newspaper reports.

Roizman is not just the director and founder of the Nevyansk Icon Museum in Yekaterinburg, but also a former mayor and parliament member.

He was the last of the opposition to be arrested for speaking out against the invasion. His referred to Russia’s actions in Ukraine as an “invasion” and a “war,” as opposed to a “special military operation,” which is a crime in Russia, according to Vladimir Putin’s new censorship law. Most Russian dissenters have been arrested using this new law.

The New York Times reported that officials held out so long on arresting Roizman because of his great popularity in Yekaterinburg, one of Russia’s largest cities.

With an upcoming gubernatorial race in the offing, Roizman’s sentencing could potentially destabilize the region. His arrest has been met with masses of protestors outside his museum and the court.

I am a baker of pies and a believer in pleasures, but also the kind of killjoy who can’t take a rom-com in the spirit it’s intended. Hence my fraught relationship with Heartburn by Nora Ephron. I remember—from 1983, the year the book was published—it being marketed as a “hilarious” comedy about a woman cooking her way out of a broken heart at the end of a marriage. Heartburn was a cultural sensation in the suburbs of my youth, such that I recall my mother cackling over the film adaptation and criticizing Meryl Streep’s looks—not pretty enough! The story was said to be inspired by Ephron’s divorce from Carl Bernstein and has always been considered a delicious revenge plot by a spurned woman upon a cheating man.

Ephron had a dazzling career as a trailblazer for women in journalism, and she wrote many of the greatest movies of all time, including When Harry Met Sally. She was a master, so my cavils over Heartburn‘s myths about romance will be brief: I don’t think a woman who stays in a bad relationship is just a starry-eyed believer in true love, as the heroine, Rachel Samstat, is presented to be. Nor do I think that men are just dogs—which is the book’s explanation for her husband, Mark Feldman’s, behavior—or that the happiest ending is finding a new relationship. But Ephron, in Heartburn, wasn’t looking to soul-search—this was her revenge novel. At one point, Rachel, who is a food columnist, admits to her therapist that she tells stories about her life in order to “control” the narrative. Ephron, writing Heartburn, was controlling the narrative of her divorce while showing off her wit, and she did it wonderfully. The one-liners never cease, as when Rachel says that Mark celebrates the political dysfunction of Washington, D.C., because if the city worked, “something might actually be accomplished and then we’d really be in bad shape” and adds, “This is a very clever way of being cynical, but never mind.”

Even if your child is back in the classroom, it’s important that they have a dedicated space at home for working and storing supplies. This back-to-school season, consider giving them their very own age-appropriate desk. When it comes to kids’ desks, a top priority is comfort: Students shouldn’t find themselves hunched over or struggling to reach the floor. (Unsurprisingly the standing desk revolution has reached this market, and we’ve included some examples of these in our roundup as well.) Importantly, desks should also feel secure—no wobbling allowed!—and should be able to support a goodly number of books. They should also be safe, and many of our picks feature rounded edges and other adaptations to avoid pinched skin. Finally, desks should be a breeze to clean. You certainly want your kids to use them often, but a work space that is spick and span makes for a clear mind and clean homework. Check out our favorite kids’ desks below.

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The Headlines

A TEN-FIGURE SALE. Clear your schedule, ready your paddle, and line up a pile of cash (or a fulsome line of credit): The treasure-filled collection of the late Microsoft cofounder Paul G. Allen is coming to Christie’s in New York in November with a valuation north of $1 billion, ARTnews reports. The proceeds will go to charity, as Allen—who died in 2018 —had planned. The lot lineup has not yet been announced, but it will include more than 150 works from artists including Botticelli and Cézanne, whose La Montagne Sainte-Victoire (1888–90) is arriving with an estimate above $100 million. (The exact timing of the auction has not yet been announced.) If all goes according to plan, the haul will set a new all-time record for a single-collection auction.

GOO GONE. Following cases of climate activists gluing themselves to the frames of artworks in the U.K. and Italy, the movement has now reached Germany, with actions this week at the Gemäldegalerie in Dresden (a Raphael), the Staedel Museum in Frankfurt (Poussin), and the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin (Cranach the Elder), the Associated Press reports. An organization that advocates for cultural institutions in the country, the German Cultural Council, slammed the protests. “As much as I can understand the despair of the climate activists, I say clearly that the act of gluing themselves to the frames of famous works of art is clearly wrong,” Olaf Zimmermann, its managing director, told the AP. “The risk of damaging the artworks is very high.” 

The Digest

There’s grumpy fans all over the gaff in the Premier League this weekend! Leicester City head to Chelsea under pressure, while David Moyes tries to inspire optimism among the fanbase.

Marcus, Andy, Pete and Jim also discuss the Champions League draw and sweat over the future of Callum Wilson. Well, Marcus does.

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As the new school year kicks off — or is already in progress in many places — it’s worth taking a look at the states which have enacted laws that ban books. This guide is not comprehensive, but gives an overview of the legislation currently on the books that will impact how teachers and librarians select and share reading material in classrooms and libraries.

Before diving it, it is worth noting these are all “red” states. It is a popular and unhelpful narrative to simply write off these laws because of where they are being enacted. In many of these states, there is significant disenfranchisement of voters in addition to laws which make voting harder than it needs to be; this ensures a certain political persuasion remains in power. These systemic barriers to voting are the same ones which need to be considered in arguments that the people who can’t get these books from libraries thanks to these laws can “just get them at the bookstore.” We are in the business of dismantling hurdles, not leaving them where they are.

Further, as we’ve seen through these censorship roundups over the past year+, it does not matter where or how book bans begin. They trickle through each and every state in varying degrees, and what you see here could become models for future legislation elsewhere. Finally, writing off certain states does not help in ending book bans. Everyone, regardless of political affiliation or state of residence, deserves the right to access books, reading material, and information they want to. Fighting fire with fire helps no one.

Note that this list is not comprehensive. I’ve pulled out some of the biggest laws in several states that are having an immediate impact and that will likely influence further legislation within and beyond their jurisdictions.

Book Ban Bills Currently Enacted Across the US

Florida

There is not a wrong time to read some great witchy YA books. That said, there is something particularly good about reading new witchy YA books as the seasons begin to shift toward shorter days and nights. Lighting a candle and cracking open the windows to dig into a story about people who have magic powers, who often have cute or terrifying familiars, and who want to change their worlds? Count me in. We’re lucky, too, in that YA continues to offer more and more witchy books that are representative of the world at large. These books are queerer and more colorful than they ever have been before.

Whether you’re new to witchy books or are looking to add some more great options to your TBR, let’s dive into some outstanding new books that have hit shelves this year. Don’t like especially scary books or want more sweet witch stories? Never fear. Those are well represented here, too.

Bonus: Tirzah highlighted a ton more YA witch books publishing this year, and I’ve not repeated any below. Twice the witchy goodness!

One of the things I love the most about Star Wars is that there are so many stories in the galaxy. There are so many characters, so many stories, and such a rich history available that the possibilities are endless (I’m of the opinion that you can never have too many SW books, shows, or movies). Which makes me wonder why some of the most obvious books/series haven’t been made into TV shows yet.

This list focuses on canon books, mainly to avoid confusion. I’d love a Mara Jade TV show, and I’ve heard the rumors about her in Mandalorian season 3 and the rumors about a possible Disney+ Heir to the Empire movie, but forgive me if I’m skeptical. That being said, I would watch the hell out of a TV series based on Legends. Yes, I’m being purposely vague and sweeping: I’d watch any and all of it.

I’m behind on my Star Wars book reading and even further behind on my Star Wars comics reading (so many books, not enough hours in the day, and throw in single parenting a 6-year-old, and you’ve got your answer as to why that is), but I’ve come up with a list of Star Wars books and series that deserve their own shows. It goes without saying that this is not an exhaustive list by any means, and it barely scratches the surface. Let’s take a look!

The world, to say the very least, has been very challenging lately. And that won’t be changed by a fast and/or easy fix at all. So, I’ve been making it a point to find joy wherever I can because, yay, serotonin boosts. One thing that has always brought me happiness is music and I often listen to it while working, writing, or just relaxing with a game. And I have quite the eclectic collection of mixes.

When I was recently listening to my Madonna mix, it struck me that romance novels would pair up quite nicely with some of her songs. Now, I know that this may take some convincing but if you’ll allow me to expand on this, I’m confident you’ll be pleasantly surprised with my thought process. Because, with it being too hot to go out and do much of anything, I’ve had a lot of time to think about this.

With the June release of her latest album Finally Enough Love, the release of a limited series based on A League of Their Own based off the movie that featured Madonna on the screen and soundtrack alike, and August 16th being her birthday, now seemed the perfect time for a list.

So, without further delay, I present for your consideration, Madonna songs and romance novels match-ups!

If you’re someone who, like me, is an Elder born in the 1900s, you probably remember the early days of self-publishing. For those of you who don’t, it was a dark time. People were throwing their LiveJournals into .epub format and calling it a memoir, there was little-to-no editing, and anyone who wanted to write a book could do so without any oversight or input from another person. I am the first to agree that publishing gatekeeping is awful. It prioritizes voices of people who already have a platform, and it has a tendency to royally screw people whose voices would bring a new perspective to the table. And yes, that was a royalties pun, thank you for noticing.

These days, the Wild West-style wilderness of self-publishing still exists, and rightfully so. But there is also a “middle” layer, made up of authors who have decided to strike out on their own but also produce a more finished product. Kindle Unlimited is an offering of Amazon. For $10/month, you can borrow up to 20 titles on a rotating basis. It’s effectively an ebook library with no wait lists that’s funded by — and only accessible to — users. There is a wide offering of titles and genres available, so since I’ve been devouring mysteries lately, I’ve collected some of the top-rated and best Kindle Unlimited mysteries available.