The Slow Road North: How I Found Peace in an Improbable Country by Rosie Schaap

Mariner Review by Walter Cummins My own attempt at a geographic cure many years ago ended up as foolhardy, which is the common result for most who try. Canadian psychologist…

1974: A Personal History by Francine Prose

Harper Review by George Yatchisin Here’s why Francine Prose is a better writer than you or me—she can craft a sentence like, “Tony was very funny, though when you say…

Hugging My Father’s Ghost: A Memoir by Zack Rogow

Spuyten Duyvil Review by Jonas Lamb Bay-Area poet, playwright and translator Zack Rogow’s non-fiction debut playfully deploys an experimental form. Weaving together his father, Lee Rogow’s writings, imagined conversations between…

The Art of Dying: Writings, 2019-2022 by Peter Schjeldahl

Abrams Review by Walter Cummins Peter Schjeldahl ends his essay “The Art of Dying”—written when he was well aware of his terminal lung cancer—with a recognition that “Dying is my…

That Librarian: The Fight Against Book Banning in America by Amanda Jones

Bloomsbury Review by Brian Tanguay Amanda Jones was born and raised in the small, rural town of Watson in Livingston Parish in southern Louisiana, roughly twenty miles southeast of Baton…

And Then? And Then? What Else? by Daniel Handler aka Lemony Snicket

Liveright Review by George Yatchisin Given he has previously penned a series of four books called All the Wrong Questions, it’s not surprising author Daniel Handler (aka Lemony Snicket) would…

Byron’s Travels by Lord Byron, edited by Fiona Stafford

Everyman’s Library Review by David Starkey First of all, God bless Everyman’s Library. What other publisher lists among its new releases the novels and tales of Pushkin, the poetry of…

The Manicurist’s Daughter: A Memoir by Susan Lieu

Celadon Books Review by Brian Tanguay Several years after the fall of Saigon, Susan Lieu’s parents fled Vietnam to escape suffocating Communist rule. Leaving was an enormous risk filled with…

Soil: The Story of A Black Mother’s Garden by Camille T. Dungy

Simon & Schuster Review by Brian Tanguay Gardening and mindfulness cannot help but go hand in hand. The work of planting and tending a garden, whether in a suburban yard…

The World According to Joan Didion by Evelyn McDonnell

Harper One Review by George Yatchisin You know you’re in great authorial hands when on page two of this book Evelyn McDonnell insists about her subject Joan Didion, “Narrative was…