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] A child walks into an abandoned house in the woods along with a dog no one else can see. He sits down at the wooden table, cups his chin, and looks around at the objects and furniture surrounding him, which were once useful and now stand strange and still. He thinks of the hands … Read more
[ad_1] “Some languages, but by no means all, have the luxury of the word ‘daughter,’ but in many—and French is one of them—your sex is not distinct from your relationship to your parents. You will only ever have this one word to describe your being and your lineage, your dependence and your identity.” This entwinement … Read more
[ad_1] Bud Smith is kind of a legend. The Jersey City writer has been publishing since 2009, but has been writing for much longer. Under his belt he’s got a story collection (Double Bird, Maudlin House), a poetry collaboration with his wife, Rae Buleri (Dust Bunny City, Disorder Press), a memoir (WORK, Civil Coping Mechanisms), … Read more
[ad_1] Welcome to another installment of a collaboration between the Chicago Review of Books and the Your Favorite Book podcast. Malavika Praseed, frequent CHIRB contributor and podcast host, seeks to talk to readers and writers about the books that light a fire inside them. What’s your favorite book and why? Our guest is Nghi Vo, … Read more
[ad_1] There are good reasons why love triangles appear so often in literary plots. Triangles are inherently unstable. They force characters to make choices through constant negotiation and compromise. As far as triangles go, the one in Lillian Fishman’s debut novel Acts of Service is a perfectly messy inquiry into the nature of power and … Read more
[ad_1] “There’s a way to be playful even in times of really terrible doubt,” posits the narrator of Ali Smith’s new novel Companion Piece. It’s hard to think of an author more playful than Smith, whose work consistently breaks the conventional rules of contemporary fiction as taught in most American MFA programs—with consistently incandescent results. … Read more
[ad_1] Courtney Maum’s new memoir, The Year of the Horses, uses her story of falling in love with horses and playing polo as an adult to reckon with how to exist not only as a mother, but also as a human. Maum, a writer propelled by deadlines and busyness, wrestles with the all-consuming question of … Read more
[ad_1] Journalist Vauhini Vara’s debut novel, The Immortal King Rao, takes us to a dark future where humans are “Shareholders” governed by a global corporation. Decisions are made not by human heads of state, but through a master algorithm called Algo. There is no longer a need for currency, as Shareholders’ labor is evaluated by … Read more
[ad_1] Narrative structure impacts when we take in information, and how we read a story. Doubtful Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go would have the same impact if we knew from page one what was happening, and surely Leslie Marmon Silko’s Ceremony wouldn’t be as masterful if narrated linearly. In the same way, Michelle Hart’s … Read more
[ad_1] Jennifer Saint’s 2021 debut novel Ariadne, a Sunday Times bestseller and Waterstones Book of the Month released in the US by Flatiron, brought fascinating women from Greek myth to life. She now turns her attention to the famous House of Atreus and the women of the Trojan War in Elektra, sharing the intertwined stories … Read more