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] Last March, tweets urging writers to refrain from writing about the pandemic were so common they became as tiresome as the phenomenon they hoped to head off. No one wants to read your quarantine fiction, they insisted. No one living through hard times wanted to read a book about those same hard times, and … Read more
[ad_1] The world is dying and it is all humanity’s fault—an on the nose observation, but one that encapsulates Octavia Cade’s novella, The Impossible Resurrection of Grief. We meet marine biologist Ruby in a near-future Australia, immersed in her study of jellyfish while dealing with the fallout of a colleague and friend drowning in the … Read more
[ad_1] Susan Orlean is known for making her readers care about people and things they may not have otherwise noticed. On the short list: German Shepherds, libraries, luxury condos, a 10-year old boy named Colin Duffy, and, of course, orchids. Coming up on the 20th anniversary of the film “Adaptation,” itself an adaptation of her … Read more
[ad_1] Yelena Moskovich’s third novel A Door Behind a Door is a phantasmagoria about immigration, death, and queer desire with a plot that defies easy description. It centers on a young immigrant in Milwaukee named Olga. When Olga was a baby back in the Soviet Union, a boy in her apartment building stabbed an old … Read more
[ad_1] May 17 holds a particular significance for the LGBTQ+ community, as it commemorates the World Health Organization’s decision to declassify homosexuality as a mental disorder. It’s the day that rejects discrimination against lesbians, gays, bisexuals, bi-curious, queer, transgender, intersex, and all those who have diversified sexual orientation. It empowers the LGBTQ+ community and motivates … Read more
[ad_1] I first read Natalia Ginzburg’s memoir Lessico Famigliare—Family Lexicon—for a college Italian class. Though that book is in a language I no longer understand as fluidly as I wish I could, it has accompanied me across all my moves since. This re-issue of Voices in the Evening, also translated by D.M. Low and recently … Read more
[ad_1] Eric Nguyen’s debut novel Things We Lost to the Water is the story of a Vietnamese family that resettled in New Orleans after the Vietnam War. The novel is told from the perspectives of three characters: Hương, the mother, and her two sons, Tuấn and Ben. As Hương becomes gradually less hopeful about the … Read more
[ad_1] With the new translation of Solo Viola: A Post-Exotic Novel, Antoine Volodine inhabits the operating theater of the apocalypse. It’s a classic example of his post-exotic project. And there is alchemy in the night of surrealism. It’s dangerous to characterize the writing of Antoine Volodine because he so intentionally self describes writing. Volodine employs … 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? This week’s guest is Sanjena … Read more
[ad_1] Matt Mitchell’s debut collection of poetry, The Neon Hollywood Cowboy, examines identity through the eyes of its eponymous archetype, depicting a nomadic traveler, saddled to his horseback, slipstreaming every passing moment into another literary confessional. The Neon Hollywood Cowboy represents an alter ego for Mitchell to funnel his own story through. An alter ego … Read more