Coolest Stories Press Review by Jack Smith Coolest American Stories 2023 is the second in a series of anthologized short stories, edited by Mark Wish and Elizabeth Coffey. In numerous…
Category: Genres
Humanly Possible: Seven Hundred Years of Humanist Freethinking, Inquiry, and Hope by Sarah Bakewell
Penguin Review by Walter Cummins Sarah Bakewell begins Humanly Possible by delineating the characteristics of humanism and then goes on to describe how these ideas emerged and were developed through…
Forgetting: The Benefits of Not Remembering by Scott A. Small
Crown Review by Walter Cummins One of the frequent plaints that emerges when two or more people of my age get together is lamentation over what we’ve been forgetting, primarily…
The Museum: From its Origins to the 21st Century by Owen Hopkins
Frances Lincoln Review by David Starkey In The Museum: From its Origins to the 21st Century, Owen Hopkins, Director of the Farrell Centre at Newcastle University, focuses on three key…
Chilean Poet by Alejandro Zambra, translated by Megan McDowell
(Penguin) Review by Brian Tanguay Discovering a new author is one of the unparalleled joys of reading. Like the box of chocolates made famous by Forrest Gump, one never knows…
Wildflowers of North America by the National Audubon Society
Knopf Review by David Starkey It’s spring here in Coastal California, and the atmospheric rivers that deluged our state have resulted in an abundance of wildflowers, which makes the publication…
Seeking Authenticity by Walter Cummins
Del Sol Review by Jack Smith In this collection of essays and reviews, Walter Cummins, short story writer and essayist, deals with a broad range of topics, among them DNA…
Take What You Need by Idra Novey
Viking Review by Walter Cummins The words of Idra Novey’s title, Take What You Need, suggest a sign scrawled on a heap of broken, useless stuff not worth a payment.…
Six California Kitchens: A Collection of Recipes, Stories, and Cooking Lessons from a Pioneer of California CuisineSix California Kitchens by Sally Schmitt
Chronicle Books Review by George Yatchisin Sally Schmitt’s posthumous publication Six California Kitchens proves you can write a powerful memoir one recipe at a time. Whether the book will become…
Dog on Fire by Terese Svoboda
Nebraska Review by Walter Cummins Terese Svoboda opens Dog on Fire with the narrator trapped in a blinding storm: “Out of a storm so thick with dust, a storm so…