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] Fatimah Asghar’s debut novel, When We Were Sisters, reads exactly like you want your poems to. It’s vivid, lyrical and taut. A poet, screenwriter and, now, a novelist, Asghar weaves personal history and the struggle for identity in a coming of age story. Much like Asghar, the protagonist, Kausar is femme, queer, Muslim, South … Read more
[ad_1] John Irving has declared that his new book, an irresistible and deeply affecting family saga titled The Last Chairlift, will be the last long novel of his long career. And it is, indeed, the longest. The Last Chairlift teems with the raucous situational humor, memorable and resonant characters, righteous rage, instructive social commentary, and … Read more
[ad_1] It will surprise few readers of contemporary fiction to learn that George Saunders’ new collection of short stories, Liberation Day, is very good indeed. At this stage, reviews can only confirm his talent, not reveal it, and should consequently focus on other issues. Once one has established that Liberation Day is as good as … Read more
[ad_1] Chicago-based novelist Deborah Shapiro’s third novel Consolation came out October 18, with an event The Seminary Co-op on November 1st. Her first novel, The Sun in Your Eyes, was published by William Morrow in 2016, and her second, The Summer Demands, by Catapult in 2019. However, she decided to create her own imprint, B-side … Read more
[ad_1] For years, I’ve read Kristine Langley Mahler’s essays and have come to expect inventive structures, sentences that are taut and on-target, and a meticulous attention to detail. These signatures are no doubt present in her debut essay collection, Curing Season: Artifacts, which explores and catalogs four years of the author’s adolescence spent in suburban … Read more
[ad_1] When Fatimah Asghar pictures her father alive, she imagines him ordering a pizza. “At the pizza shop he eyes pepperoni. . . . he orders a slice with no sauce,” a young Asghar observes. Asghar, a Chicago-based poet, writer, and artist, is the child of two Pakistani-Muslim refugees, both of whom died by the … Read more
[ad_1] When we select a book from the shelf and open its pristine pages, we might believe the process of producing that book was smooth, even dreamy. We might imagine the author sat down, and the words arrived to her perfectly formed, the characters coherent, the plot sure-footed. Sara Lippmann would likely disagree with you. … Read more
[ad_1] Short story author and novelist Elizabeth McCracken has just published a book, The Hero of This Story, in which the main character is Natalie Jacobson McCracken, educator, writer, and former editor-in-chief of Boston University alumni magazine, Bostonia. Elizabeth herself is the narrator of this novel. And, also, the daughter of Natalie. In the novel. … Read more
[ad_1] It’s Not Nothing is the kind of novel that you can’t help but to savor. Every sentence, every turn of phrase is liable to catch you off guard—knock you off center—crack you up or kill you. In it, protagonist Rosemary Candwell shuffles in and out of bars, hourly jobs, and institutions, trying to grasp … Read more
[ad_1] In its long and popular history with writing, the term “craft” and its associates—“toolbox,” “workshop,” “mechanics”—have always looked somewhat incongruous. Rather than bring the poet to mind, they evoke the technician or the engineer, paring back emotional intimacy in favor of writing’s nuts and bolts. Think of Kurt Vonnegut charting plot on a blackboard … Read more