For The Book Obsessed
[ad_1] In its long and popular history with writing, the term “craft” and its associates—“toolbox,” “workshop,” “mechanics”—have always looked somewhat incongruous. Rather than bring the poet to mind, they evoke the technician or the engineer, paring back emotional intimacy in favor of writing’s nuts and bolts. Think of Kurt Vonnegut charting plot on a blackboard … Read more
[ad_1] In this heartfelt and bracing debut, Ramona Reeves renders the complex lives of the people of Mobile, Alabama, in all their pursuits and struggles. It Falls Gently All Around and Other Stories presents a memorable account of a community through the intimate lens of their relationships, addictions, longings, and fears. Reeves excellently sets the … Read more
[ad_1] The Chicago Review of Books is proud to announce the shortlist for the 2022 CHIRBy Awards! Now in its seventh year, the CHIRBy Awards recognizes the best fiction, nonfiction, and short essays that feature Chicago and our strong literary community. Eligible titles include works published between September 1, 2021 and September 1, 2022 that … Read more
[ad_1] Before coming to America in search of a safer life as a transgender woman of color, renowned activist, performer, and now writer, Cecilia Gentili grew up in the small city of Galvez, Argentina, as the daughter of an Italian father and Argentinian mother. Faltas: Letters to Everyone in My Hometown Who Isn’t My Rapist, … Read more
[ad_1] Marcie Rendon’s mystery novels simultaneously inform and entertain readers, presenting current Native American issues through her heroine’s efforts to solve crimes perpetrated against society’s more vulnerable members in the early 1970s. When the Cash Blackburn series’ third volume opens, a body surfaces in the Red River Valley’s meltwater; the spring floodwaters on this North … Read more
[ad_1] From the Latin ambitiō, by way of the Old French, across the Channel and the centuries through the Middle English, and finally to the modern day, comes to our protean patois that pleasant, well-groomed word ambition. To us, it is an unassuming noun, unusually simple, for English, to both pronounce and spell, invoking affirmation … Read more
[ad_1] “Obsessions are a way of knowing a person,” Erin Langner writes, and obsession is certainly a central subject in her debut essay collection, the Zone 3 Press Nonfiction Book Award-winner Souvenirs from Paradise. In its pages, Langner explores how her relentless “object appreciation” and preternatural curiosity have led her back to the Las Vegas … Read more
[ad_1] How well can we ever know the people we love? Are there limits to healthy affection? Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya makes literal in her fiction the questions we might be afraid to ask. With her debut novelette, Helen House, these questions take a sinister turn. The story’s narrator and her girlfriend, Amber, share an intense … Read more
[ad_1] Though any book can be released, or read, at any time of year, October always seems to bring an extra helping of reading in the eerie/spooky vein. One of this October’s most deliciously Gothic new releases is Kris Waldherr’s inventive retelling of Frankenstein from the perspective of three women in Victor Frankenstein’s life, Unnatural … Read more
[ad_1] Following her critically acclaimed novels “Everything I Never Told You” and “Little Fires Everywhere” author Celeste Ng explores new territory in her latest novel “Our Missing Hearts” by stretching the boundaries of American political reality. This book, centering twelve year old Bird Gardner and his complex relationship with his absent mother, is set in … Read more