Judd Apatow, Comedy Nerd: A Lifelong Obsession in Stories and Pictures | Cameron Crowe, The Uncool: A Memoir

Random House | Avid Reader Review by George Yatchisin It would be impossible to write the story of late 20th century-early 21st century pop culture without considering the work of…

The Things We Never Say by Elizabeth Strout

Random House Review by Walter Cummins The title captures the central concern of Elizabeth Strout’s latest novel, which addresses with depth and complexity what a community of individuals is willing…

The Rise and Fall of the Artificial State by Jill Lepore

Liveright Review by Walter Cummins In her latest book, Jill Lepore presents her analysis of how we have reached the creation of the Artificial State where machines set the guidelines…

Endless Endings: The Many Forms of Death and What They Teach Us About Life by Ricard Solé, trans. by Eduardo Aparicio 

Princeton Review by Walter Cummins Endless Endings brings to mind lines from Hotspur’s dying speech in Henry IV, Part 1: “And time, that takes a survey of all the world, …

Madame Chrysanthème by Pierre Loti, trans. by Clémence Aubert

Espresso French Classics Review by Linda Lappin In 1890, the American writer Lafcadio Hearn stepped off a ship in Yokohama, ready to begin a new life in Japan as a…

The Kindness of Terrible People and Other Stories by Stephanie Dupal

Swan Abbey Review by Walter Cummins This is a collection of original and unusual stories, the characters richly developed as they face essential dilemmas. Some of these people exemplify the…

Sunrise by Téa Obreht

Random House Review by Walter Cummins Téa Obreht’s latest work, Sunrise, while offering seemingly self-contained narratives about events from several different time periods, can also be regarded as a novel…

The Slap and the Salamander by Chris Arthur

Serving House Review by Walter Cummins I had my first contact with Chris Arthur several decades ago when he submitted an essay to a quarterly I was editing. We, the…

The Frenchmen, or My Life in Theory by Emily Eakin

Penguin Review by Walter Cummins Emily Eakin’s life in theory began in the late 1980s when she was an eighteen-year-old sophomore at Harvard and fell “under the Frenchmen’s spell.” That’s…

Girl to Country: A Memoir by Amy Rigby

Southern Domestic Review by George Yatchisin Singer-songwriter Amy Rigby sets up the arc of her moving, charming, outsider-insider’s memoir Girl to Country poignantly in the prologue, when she considers what…