Review by George Yatchisin Think of Rachel Bloom’s memoir I Want to Be Where the Normal People Are as a bathroom book. It’s written in zippy chapters—some lists, some mini-screenplays,…
Category: Author’s Choice Spotlight
Blue Swan Black Swan: The Trakl Diaries by Stephanie Dickinson
Review by Walter Cummins The Austrian poet Georg Trakl endured a short, distressed life (1887-1914) before he overdosed on cocaine in a psychiatric hospital in Krakow, sent there after a…
Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future by Elizabeth Kolbert
Review by Walter Cummins Has climate change reached a tipping point? Is it too late, or do we still have an opportunity to redeem the planet? Some optimists, citing previous…
Having and Being Had by Eula Biss
Review by George Yatchisin Eula Biss wants me to be better and I’m not sure I’m up for that. When I refer to the quick several page essays that build…
The Hearing Trumpet by Leonora Carrington
Review by Jinny Webber “Reading The Hearing Trumpet liberates us from the miserable reality of our days,” wrote Luis Buñuel after the 1976 publication of Leonora Carrington’s novel, recently re-released…
My Life with Women: The Consolation of Jazz, Vols. 1 & 2 by Thomas Kennedy
Review by Linda Lappin Thomas E. Kennedy, author of The Copenhagen Quartet, is often considered a “writer’s writer,” one whose name may be known only to a particular niche of…
Kleptopia: How Dirty Money is Conquering the World by Tom Burgis
Review by Brian Tanguay Kleptocracy is nothing new. Dictators and tyrants like the Shah of Iran, Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe, Ferdinand Marcos in the Philippines, and Vladimir Putin in Russia,…
The Gospel According to H.L. Hix by H.L. Hix
Review by Walter Cummins First, came the gospel writer cluster of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Now, two thousand years later, the world has another “according to” version, in this…
The Presidents vs. The Press by Harold Holzer
Review by Elizabeth Starkey In The Presidents vs. The Press: The Endless Battle Between the White House and the Media from the Founding Fathers to the Fake News, Harold Holzer,…