For The Book Obsessed
[ad_1] If your fondest holiday memories also involve hiding in the bathroom (or closet, or floorboard, or passenger seat of your cool older cousin’s car) to get a moment’s peace from your [insert adjective] family, you’re probably already sold on a distraction. Books can’t yell at you! Or guilt you! Or punish you! Unless they … Read more
[ad_1] Bryan Washington sets the table in Family Meal with an abundance of ordinary details. His characters are busy with their hands, for instance: they might play with their thumbs, twirl a pen, throw the peace sign, or flick a cherry tomato. Fingers press into orifices and bodily fluids, press cell phone screens, and press … Read more
[ad_1] With In the Lives of Puppets, Lambda Literary Award-winning TJ Klune offers speculative fiction and young adult readers a fresh new tale. By loosely adapting The Adventures of Pinnochio, Klune tells the endearing story of a father creating life under unorthodox circumstances and a boy on a dangerous journey to a far-off land and … Read more
[ad_1] In diaspora communities, it’s not uncommon to find cultural practices from the homeland, even after they’ve become unpopular or forgotten there. This is colloquially referred to as “the immigrant time capsule effect.” It can be experienced in many of the ethnic enclaves in the US. My first impression of Los Angeles’ Koreatown when I … Read more
[ad_1] In Rebecca Kauffman’s fourth novel, Chorus, family relationships, especially those between siblings, are dissected to expose all their messy and glorious complexities. Kauffman accomplishes her dissection of the Shaw family through a linked-story structure. The narrator’s role rotates among the seven Shaw siblings and their father and spans from 1911 to 1959, though not … Read more
[ad_1] As much as I enjoy reading about two people falling in love, I am always intrigued by the relationships that exist outside a budding romance––the connection between a character and their family. I want to know the issues that complicate these relationships––perhaps a complex mother-daughter dynamic, meddling relatives, secrets, or unwavering cultural expectations. Whatever … Read more