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] By the time the Ottomans dissolved the Roman Empire in 1453 and took down Constantinople, the city had conceived the name Istanbul. It is now known as a city that embraces cultural diversity in the most enlightening ways despite, in Nektaria Anastasiadou’s words, “a monstrous confusion of civilization and barbarism” it has dealt with … Read more
[ad_1] Despite my Indian-American heritage, Partition to me feels as distant as any historical event. Though my grandparents were children in a pre-Independence India, Partition did not affect their lives directly as they lived in South India, far from the newly drawn borders of India and Pakistan. What I know of Partition comes from books, … Read more
[ad_1] “Two deaths you cannot have and one you cannot avoid.” So goes a Russian saying Mikhail Iossel remembers in his excellent new collection Love Like Water, Love Like Fire. Funny thing about Iossel’s stories of Soviet life, though: they are filled with men and women living second lives, drunks who avoided death (to their … Read more
[ad_1] I’ve been thinking a lot lately about why I like to read fiction; I think I feel fulfilled after reading a book with particularly beautiful prose or a really interesting plot, inspired to create and go out into the world with a renewed sense of vigor. I believe that time can’t be wasted; especially … 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 Mia … Read more
[ad_1] Creating a fresh playlist of such a critical voice in modern American poetry is both a significant challenge for the editors and a satisfying reward for us. The Essential June Jordan, edited by Jan Heller Levi and Christoph Keller, is a generous collection which samples poems—some unpublished—across decades, making one distinctly aware of how … Read more
[ad_1] Science fiction dystopias have often featured authoritarian governments, yet increasingly in the real world, the nation-state is ceding power to privately held corporations. Hypercapitalism threatens individual liberty in Nicole Kornher-Stace’s Firebreak, where two megacorporations have all but replaced the American government and control essential natural resources. Mal and her best friend Jessa live in … Read more
[ad_1] Founded in 1906, the history of Gary, Indiana, has curious, layered aspects, comprised of silt, slag, and blood. You gain access to it in a car ride, your passenger noting, “My family used to own that building…” You overhear it in an impromptu conversation, a shared recollection of close detail and laughter. You cross it … Read more
[ad_1] What’s the ideal length of a piece of writing for a film adaptation? Novels would seem to be the most obvious answer, though in recent years their domain has shifted somewhat from the multiplex to prestige television miniseries. Novellas hit the sweet spot with page counts that align roughly with the length of the … Read more
[ad_1] Open Water, the debut novel by Caleb Azumah Nelson, begins when a barber notices the unnamed protagonist exchanging gazes in the mirror with a woman getting her hair cut. The barber says: “You two are in something. I don’t know what it is, but you guys are in something. Some people call it a … Read more