Book Reviews

[ad_1] In our current state of semi-solitude, trying to write sentences about other sentences feels alien. I spend too much time staring at screens and reading the news, my mind is quick to tilt towards anger at those in power. Reading anything literary is difficult, hard to connect with. Everything is a political polemic.That includes … Read more

[ad_1] While there’s no shortage of historical novels set in Paris, no other recent novel both embraces and transcends its Parisian setting like Alex George’s new book, The Paris Hours. Set over the course of a single day, with plenty of detours into the fascinating backstories of its four main characters, The Paris Hours brims … Read more

[ad_1] In her debut novel, Daughters of Smoke and Fire, Ava Homa brings readers to her former home of Iran and invites them inside the struggle of two generations of Kurds trying to survive in a country that does not want them. As the main character Leila, an aspiring filmmaker, fights for the release of … Read more

[ad_1] The world still feels strange, but the publishing industry continues to bring us fun, thoughtful, and deliciously written books. Here are the CHIRB editors’ 11 favorites hitting shelves this month. VagablondeBy Anna DornUnnamed Press “Vagablonde is a darkly humorous, rollercoaster ride through the Los Angeles music scene about a woman who wants two things, the … Read more

[ad_1] In Samanta Schweblin’s latest book, Little Eyes, characters occasionally ask point-blank, “What is this book about?” The answer is easy enough to grasp at; the novel is about a world obsessed with a gadget called the “kentuki,” the robot you might get if you mixed Amazon Alexa with a Furby, sprinkling in some inspiration … Read more

[ad_1] Set in the fictional, Hudson Valley village of Clapham, Emma Straub’s All Adults Here explores the city dweller’s pastoral fantasy. Goat farms, a five-and-dime lined main street, and a gilded age manor house serve as the setting for this family drama. All Adults Here follows Straub’s formula of a sprawling cast of intimately connected … Read more

[ad_1] The Earth is in environmental collapse. Women’s rights are deteriorating. Space exploration and settlement are calling. Though this might sound like our current world, these are actually the factors in Laura Lam’s newest novel, Goldilocks, which follows a set of all-female astronauts after they steal a spaceship and set out to colonize a planet … Read more

[ad_1] In the sixty-seven years since its designation as a buffer zone to the border demarcating North and South Korea, the 4-by-250-kilometer area that is the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) has gone undeveloped by humans. Today, it exists as one of the most heavily militarized borders on the planet and the site of a de … Read more

[ad_1] The Civil Rights Movement produced some of the most iconic music ever created. While protest music is not a popular genre on most streaming services today, it was a driving force which energized a people to push back against organized oppression and fight for the right to exist. Ian Zack’s Odetta: A Life in … Read more

[ad_1]  “They put fish in the oven. / They pull dreams out of the earth.” This is how Lebanese poet Abbas Beydoun begins the poem “Dreams and Potatoes.” Though a modern staple in his family’s Lebanon, the potatoes have only a supporting role in Ralph Nader’s newest book, The Ralph Nader and Family Cookbook: Classic … Read more