Book Reviews

[ad_1] There has been a contemporary movement, stirred by the unease and anxiety that is so prevalent in this stage of late capitalism, of books about women who are unhappily employed, lonely, self-loathing, and–this one’s important–often intoxicated. And Jean Kyoung Frazier’s Pizza Girl definitely fits into that category, joining novels like Halle Butler’s The New … Read more

[ad_1] More Miracle Than Bird, Alice Miller’s debut novel, joins a spate of stories that imagine relationships between famous male artists and their wives. Paula McLain’s The Paris Wife (2011), Therese Anne Fowler’s Z (2013), and Whitney Sharer’s The Age of Light (2019) – to mention a few – all attempt to give depth and … Read more

[ad_1] American horror writer Shirley Jackson is most famous for “The Lottery,” the short story that earned The New Yorker the most hate mail in its history. Readers were incensed by her portrayal of ordinary folks who, in the work of other authors, might represent a simpler, more wholesome time. Jackson wrote them stoning an … Read more

[ad_1] Poets & Writers awards the annual Jackson Poetry Prize to a poet with exceptional talent. The prize includes $70,000, a sum designed to help poets sustain writing, and it also serves as a gift of gratitude for outstanding contributions to the art. Recipients are first nominated by peers then selected by a panel of … Read more

[ad_1] Including insightful, entertaining, and beautifully written novels, memoirs, and poetry collections, here’s a list of the editors’ favorite books hitting shelves this June. A BurningBy Megha MajumdarRandom House “For readers of Tommy Orange, Yaa Gyasi, and Jhumpa Lahiri, an electrifying debut novel about three unforgettable characters who seek to rise—to the middle class, to … Read more

[ad_1] Megha Majumdar’s debut novel, A Burning, begins with a terrorist attack at a train station in Kolkata that claims over one hundred lives. Jivan, a Muslim teenager who lives in the nearby slums, happens to witness the attack, but when she makes a post on Facebook that is critical of the government response, she … Read more

[ad_1] “The language of butterflies is the language of color,” Wendy Williams writes in her new book centered on the six-legged insects. Lepidoptera have offered delight and visual pleasure for centuries because of their brilliant hues and ostentatious patterns. The Language of Butterflies: How Thieves, Hoarders, Scientists, and Other Obsessives Unlocked the Secrets of the … Read more

[ad_1] Brit Bennett is an author outside of time. The Vanishing Half is a novel written a century after the Harlem Renaissance. It is a clear and direct descendant of that literary heritage and is a strong entry when compared to its ancestry. Race, class, and gender discussions are wrapped in beautiful language that is … Read more

[ad_1] A third of the way through Ilana Masad’s All My Mother’s Lovers, Maggie Krause, our protagonist, prepares to leave her father and younger brother holding shiva while she sets out to deliver, in person, a handful of letters left by her mother, who unexpectedly died in a car accident: “As the garage door opens … Read more

[ad_1] That there are links between music and literature is not a new or original notion. In both, one finds meaning and messages in sets of complex symbols. But comparing the two art forms, listing their differences and similarities, determining what one does better than the other, is no easy task. Namely because both the … Read more