• News broke yesterday that author William Trevor passed away. Literary Hub has a wonderful roundup of audio and visual files of Trevor appearances and remembrances of Trevor by other authors.

• Sadly appropriate for our time: Umberto Eco's list of 14 common features of fascism. Here's number seven:

The obsession with a plot. “The followers must feel besieged. The easiest way to solve the plot is the appeal to xenophobia.”

• Barnes & Noble is opening a smaller concept store in New York. It has a large upscale restaurant and books that were "chosen by the store's staff." This is not a rare thing if you shop at independent bookstores, but it's new for Barnes & Noble. Hopefully they'll give their employees more agency in buying for their sections around the chain in the future. This is how you get a bookstore that's actually attuned to its surroundings, rather than airlifted in from a home office.

• This list of comedy cliches that must be retired is great advice for writers:

As a public service, here are the two boards from the Workaholics writer's room of comedy phrases that need to be retired, started season 2. pic.twitter.com/DHZqhqU5D5

— John Quaintance (@John_Quaintance) November 18, 2016