A bounty of lists from the Oxford American: The ten best Southern novels of all time. (One of the respondents to the magazine’s poll, Ada Liana Bidiuc, said, “If a better book than The Moviegoer has been written, I’ll cut off my little toe.”) The five best works of Southern nonfiction. Lengthy “best of the rest” lists for novels and nonfiction. And an “underrated” list, one book from each person polled. . . . Arthur Krystal on why writers often aren’t and “don’t have to be” good conversationalists. . . . A job I would kill for: Blogging the archives of The New Yorker. . . . “A book cover that reaches startling levels of wrongness.” . . . Hilary Mantel discusses her new novel, which will be reviewed here sometime next month. . . . Personally, I don’t look for fiction to “accomplish” anything in an activist sense, but Mark Athitakis shares some interesting thoughts on the subject. . . . Other books that received multiple votes in the best-of-21st-century poll at The Millions. . . . Mark Sarvas is rightfully excited about The Ask, a new novel by Sam Lipsyte due out next March. Lipsyte’s Home Land is the rare novel that makes you laugh out loud — again and again.