For The Book Obsessed
[ad_1] In the Lobby of the Dream Hotel is like a Lifetime movie run amok. Author Genevieve Plunkett’s anti-heroine Portia is a thirtysomething aspiring guitarist who struggles with bipolar disorder. Though the story is apparently set in the present day, Portia tries to fulfill a 1950s-housewife role while simultaneously playing in a punk rock band. … Read more
[ad_1] Don Paterson is one of the most decorated and influential poets writing in the UK today. He is also an accomplished guitarist who founded and toured with a jazz ensemble throughout the 90s. Early in his new memoir Toy Fights, which covers the first twenty years of his life, Paterson explains that he quit … Read more
[ad_1] I tore through Nick Fuller Googins’s debut novel, The Great Transition, over spring break, which my family spent in Wilmington, NC, a beautiful coastal town that could be substantially submerged by high tides as early as 2030 and completely underwater by 2100 if current carbon emission rates continue. In The Great Transition, we meet … Read more
[ad_1] Chicago Review of Books is excited to feature the cover reveal of Armen Davoudian’s debut poetry collection, The Palace of Forty Pillars, out on March 19, 2024 with Tin House Books! Regarded as a “brilliant and deft and heartfelt” collection by A Hundred Lovers author Richie Hoffman and praised for its images that “embody a … Read more
[ad_1] In her debut collection examining the myriad identities of modern Asian and Asian-American women, Cleo Qian does not shy away from both the real and surreal aspects of longing. Indeed, longing is the most palpable feeling of Let’s Go Let’s Go Let’s Go, and Qian embodies this feeling in all its dimensions. Whether the … Read more
[ad_1] Diane Williams’s latest collection of flash fiction, I Hear You’re Rich, is something like a literary Rubik’s cube. Every time you think a story’s bigger picture is coming into focus, an exclamation—like a square of a different color—flips over to disrupt the solidity of what you’ve read. Or it might be that a story … Read more
[ad_1] Ashley Wurzbacher’s debut novel, How to Care for a Human Girl, feels exceptionally timely as it explores unwanted pregnancy in the years leading up to the Dobbs decision. Wurzbacher captures the tension caused by inflamed political divides in families and communities around abortion-related healthcare with artifacts of the distinct cultural moment—including the rise in … Read more
[ad_1] In Wine People, Michelle Wildgen dives into the rich and ruthless business of wine via the dueling perspectives of two young women working for a Manhattan importer. While steely, pragmatic Wren learns the nuances of wine buying from her quixotic mentor, Sonoma-bred Thessaly prides herself on delivering top sales numbers alongside an eclectic cast … Read more
[ad_1] Mostly set around Atlanta, with excursions to Louisiana, Stephen Kearse’s Liquid Snakes is a psychotropic crime thriller, a revenge story, and a bitter invective against environmental racism. It’s also an immensely engaging read—clever and nimble in its narration, pointed in its critiques—with a chorus of interesting voices and arresting images. Although the novel is … Read more
[ad_1] The Translator’s Voice is a new monthly column from Ian J. Battaglia here at the Chicago Review of Books, dedicated to global literature and the translators who work tirelessly and too often thanklessly to bring these books to the English-reading audience. Subscribe to his newsletter to get notified of new editions as well as … Read more