For The Book Obsessed
[ad_1] Is there a more back-handed compliment than to be called a “woman before her time”? There’s something self-congratulatory in the appellation, how it’s both dismissive of an artist’s work in the moment while anticipating a better future for them that might never arrive. Yet it’s a description that seems to be trotted back out … Read more
[ad_1] Courtney Zoffness has a way with beginnings. Consider the opening sentence of her essay, “Boy in Blue”: “Most mornings, my four-year-old arrests me.” Or the instructions at the start of “Holy Body” on how to prepare your body for a mikveh, which involves not just washing every limb and hair but emptying both your … Read more
[ad_1] Many times in the past tumultuous year, during moments of sadness and isolation, I comforted myself with James Baldwin’s oft-shared quote, “You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read.” It returned to me again when I picked up Cheryl Boyce-Taylor’s new collection Mama … Read more
[ad_1] It seems like we’re always on the precipice of a short story renaissance, of the year that the length of our bestsellers finally aligns with our collective attention spans. While it’s hard to say 2020 was a breakout year for anything aside from disaster, it was still an embarrassment of riches for fans of … Read more
[ad_1] The Ides of March are upon us — the 15th to be exact — but here at the ChiRB we’re more about commemorating dates than “bewaring” them (or so advised the soothsayer in William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar). You could spend the day with a hefty history book or biography of Caesar, but if those … Read more
[ad_1] My phone number still has an Iowa area code, even though I haven’t lived there for over a decade. That means every four to eight years I’m inundated with calls and texts from Democratic presidential hopefuls, or at least their hard-working canvassers, asking for my support at the caucuses. I’ve only participated in one, … Read more