• Upon its release fifty years ago this week, Jacqueline Susann’s Valley of the Dolls shot to the top of bestseller lists, marking a shift in the way books are published and presented to the public. (The Telegraph)

• Natasha Wimmer on Bolaño, novels by women, and the role of the translator: “By translating something you’re implicitly recommending it. I always think about that when I choose a project. I was just reading an interview with the translator Michael Hofmann, who translates from German, and he was saying that in his ideal world people would consider his name an imprimatur. I’m really not sure how many people look to the translator to see what to read next, but I do try to make coherent choices.” (Broadly)

• The unconventional author photo of Lapham’s Quarterly contributor Sven Birkerts. (The Awl)

• A tabloid takes a progressive stance in 1940s New York City: “‘PM is against people who push other people around,’ went the publication’s mission statement. ‘PM accepts no advertising. PM belongs to no political party. PM is absolutely free and uncensored. PM’s sole source of income is its readers—to whom it alone is responsible. PM is one newspaper that can and dares to tell the truth.’” (Hyperallergic)

• The sound designer of Mad Max: Fury Road on taking inspiration from Moby Dick: “We wanted to personify it as this giant, growling, breathing, roaring beast. It had to be grounded in reality, but we wanted it to be more than that, so we designed whale sounds to play underneath all those truck sounds to embody the real sounds and to personify it.” (KPCC)

• A 1920s illustrated exercise guide encourages women to “breathe better, have better deportment, and, above all, not gain weight.” (Slate)