For The Book Obsessed
[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] 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] 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] Well, that certainly was a year we all just endured. We at the CHIRB hope that you’ve found solace in the pages of a good yarn whenever possible, and that you’re able to celebrate the upcoming holidays both safely and joyfully. But 2020 isn’t quite done with us yet and there are still many … Read more
[ad_1] Sam J. Miller’s new book The Blade Between is not a laid-back read for a languid afternoon. No, this is a sit-up-straight book. Full of jarring juxtapositions, this book is as engrossing as it is challenging. While it requires your attention, The Blade Between rewards you with a heady, addictive mix of realism and … Read more
[ad_1] In her debut novel, The Opium Prince, Jasmine Aimaq centers a frequently overlooked aspect of tumult in Afghanistan: if opium were not in demand, possessing it wouldn’t translate into power. A hierarchy – a royalty of sorts – exists around the creation and distribution of opiates in the East, in no small part because … Read more
[ad_1] Greer Macallister’s thrilling historical fiction novel, The Arctic Fury, is a love letter to adventurous women, unlikely friendships, and finding possibilities in a bleak, unforgiving wilderness. Set in the 1850s, a mysterious, wealthy woman hires guide Virginia Reeve to lead an expedition to find her husband lost in the Arctic North. The novel opens … Read more
[ad_1] Burning Worlds is Amy Brady’s monthly column dedicated to examining how contemporary literature interrogates issues of climate change, in partnership with Yale Climate Connections. Subscribe to her monthly newsletter to get “Burning Worlds” and other writing about art and climate change delivered straight to your inbox. Welsh writer Cynan Jones has long depicted the fraught relationship between humanity … Read more
[ad_1] In the title story of Nicole Krauss’s fifth book and first collection of stories, To Be a Man, the narrative bends and breaks. Written in three sections with subsections, the narration shifts from first person to third, and then back to first. It’s only twenty-five pages. And it is as brilliant in execution as … Read more