For The Book Obsessed
[ad_1] May is typically a month of new beginnings: students are graduating, flowers are blooming, vacations are on the horizon along with the promise of warmer weather. That could be said of this year more than most. Many of us are starting to take our first trepidatious steps into the world after a long hibernation. … 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] Early North American colonial history often gets short shrift in the standard American history classroom. Once the pilgrims have celebrated their first Thanksgiving, the syllabus typically vaults forward in search of the excitement and glamour of 1776. While the era between these two events may not make the marquee of American history, Nicole Eustace … 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
[ad_1] Tell somebody that you’re trans and the egg-hunt begins. The acquaintance that popped in for brunch tries to decipher you, to catalog evidence that indicates transformation. The proof of change could be anywhere though, most noticeably, hiding under your lip or reverberating in your voice, but there are less discernible spots too, things they … Read more
[ad_1] The enemies-to-lovers trope is my jam. Is there anything more delicious than watching two people dance back and forth over that line between love and hate? That moment of “you annoy me so much oh no suddenly we’re kissing” is one of my favorite things to read—and write. It’s one of the reasons that … Read more
[ad_1] Occasionally a novel comes along that stretches the formal limits of language on the page. A novel that bends the rules, that glides past the barriers that we had assumed were unassailable, firmly entrenched around our preconceived notions of fiction and form. It’s somehow odd that we are surprised each time this occurs, as … Read more
[ad_1] T.S. Eliot aside, April, with its changeable weather and motion, seems a peculiar month to designate for all things poetry. Yet, as one of the most contrary months of the calendar, it’s perfect: poetry is the country of flexible words and contexts and sometimes startling shifts in a single stanza, the way you need … Read more
[ad_1] While Michelle Zauner may be best known by her musical project, Japanese Breakfast, she writes with an equivalent passion. As someone relatively unfamiliar with her music, it is in writing that I knew her first. I came across the essay “Crying in H Mart” years ago in The New Yorker. It resonated with me, … Read more