(Link Gems is a round-up of interesting articles and essays from around the web).

Enjoy!

•  A 13-Year-Old’s Slavery Analogy Raises Some Uncomfortable Truths in School
• Nairobi from dusk to dawn
• Yvonne Vera: I laugh even when the roof is falling.
• Where Parents Get Their Power: Evidence from The Brothers Karamazov
• In the Land of the Non-Reader
• Remembering Anthony Shadid in Beirut
• On Getting Paid: Literary Magazines and Remuneration
• Why scientists are boycotting a publisher
• Toni Morrison Talks About Fiction’s Depiction of Race (from 1997)
• the Tolkien fanboy fallacies – yes, Tolkien was a racist, sexist bore: deal with it
• The modern fix: Do self-help books really work?

• The famous Ethiopian author Sibhat Gebregziabher has passed away
• Said Ahmed: The unsung maestro of East African literature
• African Leaders and Free Lunches
• Open Letter from Syrian Author Khaled Khalifa
• Colm Tóibín: writers and their families
• YouTube Video:  Cuban Cars with Leonardo Padura
• Nigeria’s plastic bottle house