For The Book Obsessed
[ad_1] Alchemy may no longer be considered a reputable or factual science, but it still shapes our current understanding of chemistry, physics, and biology. In her new book, The Experimental Fire: Inventing English Alchemy, 1300-1700, scholar and historian Jennifer Rampling shows that this influence is worth chronicling, not only for marking how attitudes towards science … Read more
[ad_1] Boldness incarnate. A laugh in the face of subtlety and propriety. These are fragmented phrases to describe Crosshairs by Catherine Hernandez, and they do not go far enough. Hernandez writes for herself, for the communities she represents, and for anyone who has ever felt othered in society. Her feminism is intersectional, her prose electric, … Read more
[ad_1] 2020 felt like horror, romance, cookbooks, and a post-apocalyptic sci-fi thriller novel all wrapped up in one. Whether you felt more like a Jane Austen protagonist, living a quiet domestic life, or Ms. Frizzle, The Magic School Bus teacher, trying to impart some home-schooled science knowledge to your young pupils, or one of the weary group … Read more
[ad_1] It seems like we’re always on the precipice of a short story renaissance, of the year that the length of our bestsellers finally aligns with our collective attention spans. While it’s hard to say 2020 was a breakout year for anything aside from disaster, it was still an embarrassment of riches for fans of … Read more
[ad_1] I have to admit—I’ve had a lot of trouble reading this year. Usually, I read about 80 books in a given year and due to everything (*gestures around wildly*) going on, I’ve had a tough time focusing. However, when I have had the opportunity to settle into a great read, it has served to … Read more
[ad_1] Taylor Swift looked at her Folklore 2020 dominance and said, NOPE, not done yet! And so, completely out of the blue, she dropped a second, sister album, evermore. Full of lush forest cottagcore storytelling and characters that definitely have backstories, we HAD to continue the tradition and get an Ultimate Book Track Match article. … Read more
[ad_1] A general move that most fantasy has made, perhaps most fiction has made, is to zoom in, to show more, to unpack rather than summarize. Where a fairy tale or earlier fiction might just say “they traveled for a month,” the more modern approach is likely to tell you what that felt like, what … Read more
[ad_1] Steven Rowley’s novel, The Editor, now available in paperback, looks at a writer, who after years of struggling, finally sells his novel to an editor at a major publishing house: none other than Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. Jackie–or Mrs. Onassis, as she’s known in the office–has fallen in love with James’s candidly autobiographical novel, one … Read more
[ad_1] Last Thursday we celebrated the fifth annual Chicago Review of Books Awards, co-presented by StoryStudio Chicago. The “Chirby” awards celebrate the best books published by Chicago-based writers and poets–and the best essay published by a Chicago writer–in the past year. Here are 2020’s winners. Congratulations to everyone! (You can read the shortlist here.) Poetry: Too … Read more
[ad_1] Meet the Flyy Girls. The group of girls who seem like they can get away with anything. Veteran author Ashley Woodfolk pens a gorgeous and dynamic series of four Harlem high-schoolers, each facing a crossroads of friendship, family, and love. And today, we’re revealing the cover for the final book in the series. Get … Read more