Yellowface by R. F. Kuang

Morrow Review by Brian Tanguay I can’t remember reading a work of fiction where bits of prose took me out of the story as often as happened while reading Yellowface…

The Wonder Paradox: Embracing the Weirdness of Existence and the Poetry of Our Lives by Jennifer Michael Hecht

Farrar, Straus & Giroux Review by George Yatchisin It’s not every self-helpish book that asks you to create your own poetry anthology, but The Wonder Paradox is sui generis. As…

A Place in the World by Frances Mayes

Crown Review by Linda Lappin In her new memoir,  A Place in the World: Finding the Meaning of Home,  Frances Mayes, now in her eighties, looks back on the houses,…

Blue Skies by T. C. Boyle

(Liveright) Review by David Starkey Even the grimmest climate change novels usually contain a glimmer of humor, and books like Lydia Millet’s The Children’s Bible contain passages that are downright…

True West: Sam Shepard’s Life, Work, and Times by Robert Greenfield

(Crown) Review by Brian Tanguay There are many ways to describe Sam Shepard, but the one word that immediately comes to mind for me is protean. Playwright. Actor. Director. Screenwriter.…

The Guest Lecture by Martin Riker

Black Cat Review by Walter Cummins In its opening section Martin Riker’s The Guest Lecture appears to be a critical study in disguise, a consideration of John Maynard Keynes based…

Bored in Arcane Cursive Under Lodgepole Bark by H. L. Hix

Middle Creek Review by Walter Cummins In yet another of life’s serendipitous coincidences I happened to read Mark Hillringhouse’s 1982 interview with Howard Moss, the New Yorker’s long-time poetry editor,…

The Third Reconstruction: America’s Struggle for Racial Justice in the Twenty-First Century by Peniel E. Joseph

(Basic Books) Review by Brian Tanguay Like many Americans, I saw the election of Barack Obama in 2008 as a long awaited turning point in race relations in this country.…

The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee: Native America from 1890 to the Present by David Treuer

Riverhead Books Essay by Brian Tanguay This past February marked the fiftieth anniversary of the armed standoff between the US Marshall Service, FBI, and members of the American Indian Movement…

General Release from the Beginning of the World by Donna Spruijt-Metz

Parlor Review by Catherine Abbey Hodges I can’t remember when I last read a book of poems that I’d call suspenseful. Donna Spruijt-Metz’s new poetry collection, General Release from the…