For The Book Obsessed
Should you read that book you’ve had your eye on? Will it totally rock or sink like a stone? Check out these book reviews from book lovers like you to help you find your next great read!
[ad_1] In her debut novel, Here in the Dark, prize-winning culture reporter and theater critic for the New York Times Alexis Soloski crafts a psychological thriller around Vivian Parry, a Manhattan-based theater critic notorious for her acerbic reviews and her predilection for mixing sex, booze, and pills to quell the anxiety and grief she feels … Read more
[ad_1] On December 7, 2023, we came together for the 2023 Chicago Review of Books (CHIRBy) Awards, co-presented by StoryStudio Chicago! Now in its eighth year, the CHIRBy Awards honor the best fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and short essays and stories that feature Chicago and our strong literary community. Congratulations to this year’s winners and to … Read more
[ad_1] Book influencers are popular on virtually all social media platforms—the biggest being TikTok, Instagram and YouTube—and one of the most popular content to create is a book haul. One YouTube video shows the unboxing of an Amazon purchase of over 40 books. While Amazon is not the place to support the book industry and … Read more
[ad_1] When I teach Anthony Veasna So’s Afterparties, I start with the book’s dedication, which is addressed not to So’s parents or loved ones but to “everyone who underestimated me, including myself.” I also make sure to note the book’s acknowledgements. Like most authors, So spends the bulk of this section generously thanking family, friends, … Read more
[ad_1] In anticipation of the 2023 Chicago Review of Books (CHIRBy) Awards ceremony, we asked our finalists a few questions about their books, their inspirations, and their favorite way to spend 2 hours and $50 in Chicago. In Part II, we talk to: Stay tuned for the announcement of our 2023 Chicago Review of Books … Read more
[ad_1] Ani Gjika’s An Unruled Body follows the author from the turbulent final years of Albanian communism through an era of transition and on to a somewhat fated path to Boston—as a matter of fact, it is her “grandmother’s faith that gets [her] family to the U.S.” In this memoir, the passage from girlhood to … Read more
[ad_1] Sadie and Alice have been best friends since high school and now live on opposite ends of California. When budding actress Alice comes back to the Bay Area to perform in a basement-theater production of Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale, she expects reliable Sadie to attend opening night. But her friend has special plans of … Read more
[ad_1] The debut novel Wings of Red is autofiction penned by educator and mentor James W. Jennings that centers learning as a way forward, but not necessarily straight forward. Middle and high school students, friends, family, subway riders, “scribes,” the rich, and the poor exchange casual but poignant lessons with our nomadic protagonist on every … Read more
[ad_1] Walk into any pharmacy in America and you can find eyeliner. That’s true of any halfway decent grocery store as well. I haven’t looked, but I imagine even the 24/7 bodega on the corner near my apartment would have more than one option. There is a ubiquity to eyeliner that is easy to overlook, … Read more
[ad_1] Sigrid Nunez’s ninth novel, The Vulnerables, uses the 2020 pandemic as an inciting incident for an examination of the uncertainties and vulnerabilities that we experience during catastrophes as well as in our quotidian lives. The narrative is deceptively simple: a professor offers her apartment to a healthcare worker during the early days of the … Read more