Book Reviews

[ad_1] Or What You Will by Jo Walton belongs to the tradition of beautiful cozy books about books.  A love letter to Shakespeare, fantasy, and alternate histories, the story follows Sylvia, an author, from the perspective of a nameless narrator who has appeared throughout Sylvia’s novels as a collection of different characters. With meta layers … Read more

[ad_1] Jeffrey Colvin’s absorbing debut, Africaville, follows three generations of the Sebolt family, from 1930s Africaville, an historically Black community in Nova Scotia, to the politically tumultuous American Deep South of the 1980s. This beautiful novel is, on the one hand, a family saga filled with hardship and triumph, but as we watch each generation … Read more

[ad_1] Queer writers perform miracles just by telling their stories. They help us imagine how we can love, who we can be, and what we can make of our time in this world. Their words also make us feel visible and connected. To say goodbye to Pride Month, I rounded up thirteen books published in … Read more

[ad_1] Hella, the setting of David Gerrold’s newest novel by the same name, is a world modeled on the simple human amazement at huge things. Hella’s “atlas trees” stretch nearly a kilometer high with branches the size of sequoias, its three rotating moons in the night sky pull the waves ten meters tall, and its … Read more

[ad_1] BrownMark has been holding it down for four decades. The artist formerly known as Mark Brown first came to prominence right out of high school playing bass with Prince and the Revolution from 1981 to 1986, touring the world and making key contributions to beloved singles and album tracks. An architect of what has become known … Read more

[ad_1] Waiting for the Night Song is the forthcoming debut novel of Julie Carrick Dalton. Forthcoming from Forge Books in early 2021, the book mixes mystery with pointed (but beautifully written) commentary about the natural world. Below is a Q&A with the author about what she hopes readers take away from the novel–and a reveal … Read more

[ad_1] I’m not sure if books have the power to change minds, let alone the world. Nor do I buy into the power of books or other forms of entertainment as primarily escapist ventures, means of avoiding the world around you and its harsh realities. In fact, it’s often in illuminating the harshness of life … Read more

[ad_1] Eihei Dōgen Zenji—the Japanese founder of what remains one of the most vital sects within Zen Buddhism, the Sōtō school—wrote the Sansui kyō, the “Mountains and Rivers Sutra” at his Kyoto monastery Kōshōhōrin-ji in the autumn of 1240. A poetic rumination on the foundational co-dependence within all of nature, this sutra has long been … Read more

[ad_1] Burning Worlds is Amy Brady’s monthly column dedicated to examining how contemporary literature interrogates issues of climate change, in partnership with Yale Climate Connections. Subscribe to her monthly newsletter to get “Burning Worlds” and other writing about art and climate change delivered straight to your inbox. Australian author and critic James Bradley stunned with his previous novel, Clade, … Read more

[ad_1] “The Artist’s Bookshelf” is a column about books that inspire the CHIRB staff’s favorite artists. Theo Germaine has range. If you’ve seen them in Abby McEnany’s Work In Progress on Showtime, you’ll know them as Chris, the compassionate, joyful love interest of the protagonist, Abby. Together, they run around Chicago backdrops I know and … Read more