BOOKS – Page 58 – Reads A Lot

A Disconcertingly Familiar Story in “Pathological” – Chicago Review of Books

Book ReviewsMarch 30, 2022 by Kat Solomon

[ad_1] Over the course of thirty years, writer and teacher Sarah Fay received six different psychiatric diagnoses: anorexia, major depressive disorder, anxiety disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and bipolar disorder. Only twelve when she was diagnosed with anorexia, Fay accepted the diagnosis and came to identify as an anorexic, reading and rereading Steven … Read more

Hope Without a Plan in “Last Exit” – Chicago Review of Books

Book ReviewsMarch 30, 2022 by Jake Casella Brookins

[ad_1] It’s a tricky thing to infuse a story set in our actual, current world with giant supernatural problems and potentials. Call it “the problem of allegorical interference.” If we’re aware of actual injustices in the world—and their often-thorny causes—then it becomes, at best, weird to blame them on vampires or aliens, to focus on … Read more

Shuttling Down the Side Streets of the Weird in “Out There” – Chicago Review of Books

Book ReviewsMarch 29, 2022 by Ryan Asmussen

[ad_1] When I was a liminal fifteen in Reagan’s dire 1980s, my desperately-needed imaginative transport took the form of cable reruns of The Twilight Zone. Having been met at the departure terminal of the fantastic some years earlier by Ray Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles, I quickly discovered that Rod Serling’s “land of both shadow and … Read more

On Women Writers & Their Dads – Chicago Review of Books

Book ReviewsMarch 28, 2022 by ckpowers

[ad_1] In her 1938 essay, “The Three Guineas,” Virginia Woolf christened herself, along with her literary predecessors, as “the daughters of educated men.” Though she referenced only three fathers by name, the paternal influence she described can indeed be applied to a remarkable number of female writers from ages past. For varying reasons, Fanny Burney, … Read more

Your Favorite Book with Elaine Hsieh Chou – Chicago Review of Books

Book ReviewsMarch 25, 2022 by Malavika Praseed

[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 Elaine … Read more

A Lovely, Unlikable Reflection in “Jerks” – Chicago Review of Books

Book ReviewsMarch 24, 2022 by Ian MacAllen

[ad_1] A cottage industry of likability discourse manifests with regularity, and Jerks, Sara Lippmann’s new collection of stories, will no doubt inspire a certain level of curiosity with the subject. The characters are not nice, they are not kind, they are not good people; they are, as the title suggests, jerks. That isn’t to say … Read more

Distorting Conclusions in “Rethinking Sex” – Chicago Review of Books

Book ReviewsMarch 23, 2022 by Ben Clarke

[ad_1] The subtitle of Christine Emba’s Rethinking Sex: A Provocation is revealing yet misjudged. The description tells us a lot about Emba’s understanding of her own work but does not accurately describe the book, which frustrates rather than provokes. The issue is not just that its conclusion, that the “best sexual world is perhaps a … Read more

Embracing the Readable in “Disorientation” – Chicago Review of Books

Book ReviewsMarch 23, 2022 by Malavika Praseed

[ad_1] In the conversation surrounding Elaine Hsieh Chou’s debut novel Disorientation, I expect to see discussion of her carefully crafted satire, her inclusion and destruction of campus tropes, and the meticulous unpacking of Asian American identity in the lens of violence and fetishism. These should all be discussed, but I hope the conversation also includes … Read more

Strokes of Authenticity in “Portrait of an Unknown Lady” – Chicago Review of Books

Book ReviewsMarch 22, 2022 by Ian J. Battaglia

[ad_1] It’s perhaps an unfortunate aspect of art that the value we perceive in it is at least partially derived from public opinion. Who was the work’s creator, and from what circumstances was it made? In Portrait of an Unknown Lady, the second novel from Maria Gainza that has been translated into English by Thomas … Read more

YA books and what they were ALMOST called!

Book BuzzMarch 21, 2022 by Reads A Lot Editor

[ad_1] Did you know some YA books change title before going to publication? Here are 6 books that did! They Wish They Were Us by Jessica Goodman Original title: The Players’ Table Fun fact: this will actually be the title of the TV adaptation currently in development! Beasts of Prey by Ayana Gray Original … Read more