Princeton University Press Review by David Starkey I first saw one of the ISMs books in a museum bookstore—the Whitney’s, I think. Pale blue, beautifully made and about the size…
Category: Genres
Show Don’t Tell by Curtis Sittenfeld
Random House Review by Walter Cummins Variations of similar human tensions unite the twelve stories in this collection. In each, at least one character stands out as mastering one or…
The Strange Case of Jane O. by Karen Thompson Walker
Random House Review by Walter Cummins This case is indeed strange as it is revealed by through the voices of the two people at the center of the complication—Dr. Henry…
Make Your Own Job: How the Entrepreneurial Work Ethic Exhausted America by Erik Baker
Harvard University Press Review by Brian Tanguay I read Make Your Own Job after hearing Erik Baker, a lecturer on the History of Science at Harvard University, on a podcast…
I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman
Transit Books Review by Gabriel Tanguay Ortega I don’t like the amount of time I spend on social media, though it does turn me on to books I might never…
Mendell Station: A Novel by J. B. Hwang
Bloomsbury Review by Brian Tanguay Among the many things I liked about Mendell Station by J.B. Hwang is its realistic portrayal of working-class life. Delivering mail is a working-class occupation;…
Stranger Than Fiction: Lives of the Twentieth-Century Novel by Edwin Frank
Farrar, Straus and Giroux Review by Walter Cummins For many readers of Edwin Frank’s Stranger Than Fiction, an immediate satisfaction will be Frank’s close consideration of more than thirty novels…
A Case of Mice and Murder by Sally Smith
Bloomsbury Review by Brian Tanguay In A Case of Mice and Murder, Sally Smith introduces Sir Gabriel Ward KC, a King’s Counsel who lives and works in the Temple, fifteen…
Our Beautiful Boys by Sameer Pandya
Ballantine Review by George Yatchisin It’s no coincidence that the two main subjects of Sameer Pandya’s second novel Our Beautiful Boys are family and violence. Set in a vaguely Santa…
The Redesignation of Paradise by Denise Newman | Alibi Lullaby by Norma Cole
Kelsey Street | Omnidawn Review by Laura Mullen Two books by powerhouse Bay Area writers are reason to celebrate—offering welcome sites of refuge and refreshment. Poets Denise Newman and Norma…