For The Book Obsessed
[ad_1] Take a chill pill” is a harmless enough—albeit rude—imperative: Calm down. Relax. Hush. But the phrase quickly transforms from harmless to insidious with a brief Internet search. Not only can you buy Chill Pills® for “natural relief” from anxiety and insomnia, but “chill pill” is, historically, a slang term for ADHD medication. The phrase … Read more
[ad_1] 17 Books to By Indigenous Authors to Read During Native American Heritage Month It’s easy—especially in the United States—to let commemorative times like Indigenous Peoples’ Day and Native American Heritage Month pass without giving them much thought. Because of the long-lasting narratives of settler colonialism, it’s easy to drift through these times thinking only … Read more
[ad_1] The phrase “conservative critic of US foreign policy” generally has a particular connotation. One imagines a sweaty call for even more bombs, more spending, more muscle against every enemy real and imagined. It is assumed the more force the better, no matter the outcome. That’s not the style of Andrew Bacevich, a long-time critic … Read more
[ad_1] Want author Lynn Steger Strong stretches her scope from the nuclear to the extended family in Flight, a story of adult siblings and their partners and children gathering for Christmas for the first time since their mother’s death. Helen, the recently deceased and seemingly universally beloved matriarch, has passed away just eight months prior, … Read more
[ad_1] While award-winning creative flutist, composer, and bandleader Nicole Mitchell Gantt is no longer based in Chicago, she has certainly left a legacy. She was the first woman president of Chicago’s Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) and founder of the Black Earth Ensemble (BEE), “a musical celebration of the African American cultural … Read more
[ad_1] “Who is to say which is the original and which is the imposter?” queries Graeme Macrae Burnet in his 2022 Booker-Prize-nominated novel, Case Study. The question is applicable to a character in the novel, to documents reproduced within the novel and, most intriguing, to the author himself. Burnet is the ultimate unreliable narrator, and … Read more
[ad_1] Jamil Jan Kochai was sitting with his parents, aunts, uncles, and cousins on the second story of his aunt’s home in Logar, Afghanistan, sipping tea and taking in the evening breeze around sunset, when his phone buzzed, and he saw that he was tagged in a tweet by the National Book Foundation. But before … Read more
[ad_1] If an aspiring storyteller were to pick up Haruki Murakami’s Novelist as a Vocation, translated by Philip Gabriel & Ted Goossen, expecting a step-by-step guide to putting a novel together, they may well be disappointed. However, what Murakami’s memoir does offer is certainly of equal value. It is one novelist looking back over his … Read more
[ad_1] Lines suggest beginnings and endings, possibilities and limits, differences and connections. Lines can be made by humans. Hand-drawn borders on maps mark one sovereign’s subjects from another’s, their consequences cascading down generations in languages spoken and traditions shared. Lines can be made by nonhumans, too. The horizon stretches across the sea. Waves reach up … Read more
[ad_1] When an occupation has ended, what do we have left? Traces of Boots on Tongue: And Other Stories addresses the question in micro and macro forms, within the narratives of the story, and in a broader sense of time and place. Set in the early years of independent India, this short story collection delves … Read more