At the London Review of Books, Geoff Dyer writes about the strange and sometimes undignified process of being diagnosed with one’s first stroke.

Elle magazine features 12 women authors recommending other womens’ books. Karen Russell recommends Robin Black; Ruth Ozeki recommends Karen Fower Joy’s We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves,” Edwidge Danticat recommends the novels of Tayari Jones, etc. In pointing out how men often go out of their way to avoid reading work by women, Jeanette Winterson says, “They [some men] excuse their boring behavior on the grounds of ‘quality’ and ‘universalism’. There is nothing universal about the male mind. Woman is not a sub-set of man.  Read Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own (1929). Ask yourself how much, really, has changed.”

Over at The Millions, Bill Morris talks about the difficulties and pleasures of the second novel.

Chris Ransick has a new post at his WordGarden: “It’s National Poetry Month, which is both awful and wonderful. Awful because every day of my life is Poetry Day, because I know no other way to be so alive and connected to the world.”

If you’re reading this, you have a computer. These tips are for new computers, but it’s never too late to take care of some basic chores before it inevitably breaks down.