I live next door to a house that’s divided into apartments. Downstairs there’s a few people: a woman with a dog, a guy who smokes skunky weed. Upstairs is a couple with a kid: they…
A charmingly told coming of age tale, Emme Lund’s debut novel The Boy with a Bird in His Chest is a treat to read and bound to win over most readers. It follows Owen Tanner,…
An intriguing collection of interconnected stories, Sophie Ward’s debut book Love and Other Thought Experiments makes for a good introduction to the English actress-turned-author. Told primarily through the eyes of married couple Rachel and Eliza,…
Literature Review: Library of America volume of Jean Stafford
October 21, 2021
Sometimes it’s possible to have too much of a good thing. There’s the buffet one overeats at, leaving one with a terrible stomach ache. There’s the baseball game that runs to 19 innings and one…
Book Review: Beth Morgan’s "A Touch of Jen"
September 26, 2021
A roller coaster of a novel, Beth Morgan’s A Touch of Jen (published by Little, Brown) starts off in one direction, takes four or five sharp turns and winds up being something else completely from…
Book Review: "A Dream of A Woman" by Casey Plett
September 24, 2021
An absolutely powerful collection of stories, Casey Plett’s new book A Dream of A Woman follows people trying to hack in not always great situations, with addiction, love and lust, and with simply getting by…
A powerful and moving history, Sarah Schulman’s new book Let the Record Show follows the course of Act Up New York, an AIDS activist and advocacy group, from the late 1980s through the mid 1990s,…
Book Review: "Detransition, Baby" by Torrey Peters
April 12, 2021
A novel treading a line between messy and sanitized, Detrantition, Baby is an interesting read and a remarkable debut novel, but one that feels like it’s a bit of a step back for Torrey Peters….
A haunting new novel by Patricia Lockwood, No One Is Talking About This goes deep into themes about the internet, real life, where they bleed into each other and what really matters. It’s a powerful…