For The Book Obsessed
[ad_1] The shortest novels I have read tend to follow one of two trajectories: a steady build towards a climactic event, or regular shifts between calm and upset. Tiffany Clarke Harrison’s debut novel Blue Hour is of the latter variety, keeping you poised for disaster with the turn of every page. The multi-ethnic photographer who … Read more
[ad_1] In a recent opinion piece for The Guardian, Andrey Kurkov writes about recycling. While over 3,000 Russian tanks have been destroyed since the beginning of the latest war in Ukraine, it’s the smaller scrap metal and artillery shell casings that artists have focused on painting for European auctions that have raised money for the … Read more
[ad_1] Research has shown there’s a hereditary component to trauma—its effects can be passed down in utero, etched into our DNA. When I first came across the research, I thought about this country’s horrific history of genocide and slavery and wondered about the implications beyond a single generation. What are the effects on the descendants … Read more
[ad_1] We return to the time of green. It’s spring—yes, manifest it—it’s spring. The sharp blades of the most intrepid plants are pushing through earth still cold from winter snow. Where I live, tender white snowdrops still linger from February, watching over newcomer white and lilac crocuses with their creamy orange pistils. Each walk around … Read more
[ad_1] I am not so audacious as to claim there’s a single quality that weaves together all of us who love literature—readers, writers, booksellers, publishers, librarians, to name just a few. But whatever list of qualities we may come up with to describe everyone under the umbrella of books, high on that list would be … Read more
[ad_1] Maggie Smith’s new memoir You Could Make This Place Beautiful starts with a postcard written by Smith’s husband to another woman. The postcard marks the beginning of the end for Smith’s marriage, when she “lost the narrative” and “stopped knowing how to tell herself the story of her life.” Smith brings us along as … Read more
[ad_1] For all the ominousness of the title, The Last Catastrophe, Allegra Hyde’s sophomore short story collection, is remarkably hopeful. Not hopeful as to the eventual collapse of ecosystems, or the extinction of species, or technology addiction, or pollution, or the state of American politics (though Hyde’s satire on this front is biting enough to … Read more
[ad_1] The character of the old maid is not new to literature, as spinsters have appeared in classics from Charles Dickens to the Brontë Sisters to Virginia Woolf to Jane Austen. Most of us today would hesitate to use the same term to describe single, childless women of a certain age, but that doesn’t mean … Read more
[ad_1] Despite what its title suggests, Soraya Palmer’s debut novel, The Human Origins of Beatrice Porter and Other Essential Ghosts, does not limit its focus to the title character. Instead, it encompasses the family she helped create. A mysteriously knowledgeable narrator fills in some of the gaps with information about Beatrice, and her husband Nigel, … Read more
[ad_1] At times, trying to pick up basketball in my thirties feels like a fool’s errand. My body is past its days of fast learning, so it takes time for things to stick, and with no coaching my fundamentals are trash. But it has its perks too. For example, one day playing a game with … Read more