For The Book Obsessed
[ad_1] I’ve long marveled at the ways that writers connect themselves to other writers—ones from the past and ones from the present. For more than a decade, Shirley Jackson has been one of those writers for me. And this week, as the movie Shirley opens, based on my 2014 novel about Jackson, I’m marveling all … Read more
[ad_1] When you pick up a book from the late nineteenth century, you might prepare yourself to read a musty language that has aged so much it feels otherworldly. Machado de Assis’s books, however, are not like that. His books not only feel evergreen, but they also seem to anticipate the taste of a reader … Read more
[ad_1] Stella thought she’d made up a lie on the spot, asking her childhood friend if he remembered the strange public broadcast TV show with the unsettling host she and all the neighborhood kids appeared on years ago. But he does remember. And so does her mom. Why doesn’t Stella? The more she investigates the show and … Read more
[ad_1] “The Artist’s Bookshelf” is a column about books that inspire the CHIRB staff’s favorite artists. A visual artist and tenured professor at Glendale College in Los Angeles County, California, April Bey grew up in the Bahamas–which we can see all through her artwork. Her pieces explore the intersections of American and Bahamian culture, and … Read more
[ad_1] The title of Joyce Carol Oates’ fifty-ninth novel is extracted from Walt Whitman’s “A Clear Midnight,” which ends with: “pondering the themes thou lovest best, Night, sleep, death and the stars.” These themes, indeed, subsist throughout Oates’s narrative, and one might even say that Oates loves them best, too. They are the pilot light … Read more
[ad_1] “I hate memoirs. They’re so self-indulgent.” Those words spoken by a friend stayed present in my mind the entire time I wrote my own memoir, In Pursuit of Disobedient Women. The book tells the story of how I turned upside down my Brooklyn life to move to Dakar, Senegal, to become my family’s main … Read more
[ad_1] Ray Bradbury has written some of the most recognizable and deeply loved stories in literature, from The Martian Chronicles to Fahrenheit 451 and even lesser known (but just as beloved) tales like The Halloween Tree. Bradbury’s influence on both genre writing and literary writing is undeniable. To work beside him, to be mentored by … Read more
[ad_1] My partner Julia owns a 1965 paperback edition of Hemmingway’s A Moveable Feast. It lives on our bookshelf in a special section, asleep atop Dickens, Faulkner, and Allan Sichel’s The Penguin Book of Wines. It is creased and cracked, the back hangs on by a quarter-inch of yellowing paper, and a dog’s ear adorns … Read more
[ad_1] It’s June, dear friends, which means the days are the longest they’re going to be on this hemisphere—more daylight for reading some of the wonderful books we’re eager to share with you this month! From bittersweet coming-of-age stories and family sagas full of secrets (like Jean Kyoung Frazier’s Pizza Girl and Brit Bennett’s The … Read more
[ad_1] Sirens’ voices have power—not only because of their magical properties, but also because of how they use their voices and for whom. Tavia and Effie know this better than anyone: Tavia herself is a siren, and Effie is Tavia’s best friend in the world. Yet in Bethany C. Morrow’s debut young adult title, A … Read more