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] No book has influenced how I approach book reviews more than Craft in the Real World by Matthew Salesses. The book challenges the lens many readers use, one shaped by white, Western values, and is a call not only to make space for diverse storytelling, but to evaluate it on its own terms. And, … Read more
[ad_1] The threat posed by technocratic fascism has played out in real time on the timelines of social media users in recent months. Whether we’re sharing words or videos or memes or embarrassing grade school yearbook photos, we’ve ceded enormous power to too few gatekeepers. The rapid changes in technology has meant our cultural critique … Read more
[ad_1] While I was reading Marisa Crane’s elegant debut novel, I Keep My Exoskeletons to Myself, I thought a lot about how much of ourselves we hide from other people. In Marisa’s speculative near future, punishment is a constant public spectacle, surveillance is everywhere, and those deemed wrongdoers by a totalitarian U.S. government are given … Read more
[ad_1] Any time I ask my mom about the Lahore of her childhood, the present moment glitches for a split second, and she disappears to some place within herself. Upon return, the edges of her lips curl into a sly smile, and—each time, without fail—she prefaces her answers with a single phrase: “Lahore Lahore hai” … Read more
[ad_1] Fantasy is all about situating the reader in a compelling fictional world, but some worlds are more fictional than others. Some authors in the genre excel at putting fantasy first, creating new worlds so different from our own that they have their own geography, magic, culture, conventions, and language. Others sketch the outlines of … Read more
[ad_1] When you think of horror as a genre, what comes to mind? Maybe Stephen King, ghosts, clowns, murderous clowns? I think Juan Martinez would tell you that true horror—the type that haunts and torments you—might be taking place outside of any novel you’ve ever read. Extended Stay opens with a family on a road … Read more
[ad_1] Before we get to Chapter 1, Maria Dong’s Liar, Dreamer, Thief opens with the narrator’s joyous discovery of a novel at the Scholastic book fair, then a diagram and description of an endekagram (an eleven sided figure), then a snippet of said children’s novel, Min Hee and the Mirror-Man. At once we are introduced … Read more
[ad_1] Year-end features typically focus on “bests,” a consideration that I shy away from, perhaps a scarred memory of always being picked last for dodgeball. Because many hundreds of books are published each year, most are only very briefly in the spotlight. That always feels so inherently unfair, like having one shot at getting a … Read more
[ad_1] With the New Year comes a new list of books to get excited for. But where should you start when it comes to building your 2023 reading list? To help you get started, we asked some of our favorite Chicago booksellers and authors what books they’re hotly anticipating in 2023. They’ve never let us … Read more
[ad_1] “If you are squeamish don’t prod the beach rubble” is a line by Sappho* that serves as sound advice for the novels of Marguerite Duras. If you are squeamish, don’t crack the cover. There will be grief, there will be a threat of madness, there will be sensuality mottled with darkness, a family may … Read more