Stained glass window, Denis and Saint Sebastian Church, Kruft, Germany. Photo: Reinhardhauke, Wikimedia Commons.

• Great news: we’re living in the most peaceful era* in human history!
• “To hell with Gatsby’s green light!” Why we should stop teaching novels to high school students.
• Shelley Jackson is, “weather permitting,” inscribing a story entirely in snow.
• One way to save a failing bookshop: beg people on Facebook to come spend money there.
• Forget Paris. Nantes, a city “situated in the estuary of the Loire,” is where it’s at.

*persistent, intractable religious hostilities notwithstanding