Pittsburgh Review by George Yatchisin Ventura, California-based poet Marsha de la O knows of fire, force of destruction and engine of rebirth. Consider the poem “The Afterlife of Flames,” from…
Category: Author’s Choice Spotlight
Tremor: A Novel by Teju Cole
Random House Review by Walter Cummins I read Tremor as the story of all that is taking place in the activities and in the mind of Tunde, Teju Cole’s protagonist,…
The Boy with the Star Tattoo by Talia Carner
William Morrow Review by Walter Cummins Talia Carner personifies the turmoil of mid twentieth-century history in The Boy with the Star Tattoo by interweaving three narratives featuring individuals who struggle…
The Three Ages of Water: Prehistoric, Past, Imperiled Present, and a Hope for the Future by Peter Gleick
Public Affairs Water Always Wins: Thriving in an Age of Drought and Deluge by Erica Gies Chicago Press Water for All: Global Solutions for a Changing Climate by David Sedlak…
The Suicide Museum by Ariel Dorfman
Other Press Review by Brian Tanguay In what he refers to as a “sort of epilogue” to his colossal novel, The Suicide Museum, Ariel Dorfman thanks the Spanish author Javier…
The Vulnerables: A Novel by Sigrid Nunez
Riverhead Review by Walter Cummins While reading The Vulnerables, my eye kept being drawn to the subtitle, A Novel, in the header at the top of every page, as if…
A Splendid Intelligence: The Life of Elizabeth Hardwick by Cathy Curtis
Norton Review by Brian Tanguay “There is simply no accounting for her gifts. She was a unicorn, born among horses.” So wrote author and cultural critic William Deresiewicz in “The…
California Review of Books – 10 Best Books of 2023
The following list was decided after much consultation between California Review of Books co-editors David Starkey and Brian Tanguay and the journals’ most frequent reviewers, Walter Cummins and George Yatchisin.…
Blood Memory: The Tragic Decline and Improbable Resurrection of the American Buffalo by Dayton Duncan and Ken Burns
Knopf Review by David Starkey I’ve refrained from watching the new Ken Burns PBS documentary The American Buffalo to better assess its companion volume by Burns and Dayton Duncan, Blood…