For The Book Obsessed
[ad_1] After two years of physical and psychic anxiety and what feels like a permanent, unwanted reframing of our bodies in the world and in proximity to others, there’s something especially beautiful and necessary about Richie Hofmann’s A Hundred Lovers. Wandering through this collection is similar to a luxurious meander through one’s favorite museum, with … Read more
[ad_1] Sometimes, when characters are truly iconic, t-shirts are made with their names. There’s one with characters from A Little Life, “Jude & JB & Willem & Malcolm,” because, regardless of what one thinks of Hanya Yanagihara’s novel, these four undeniably come to life over those eight hundred-plus pages. Destiny O. Birdsong’s debut novel, Nobody’s … Read more
[ad_1] As a poet and nonfiction writer, Sarah Manguso is known for her gifts of compression. In 2017’s 300 Arguments—a work consisting of short, aphoristic sections of prose—she writes, “I don’t write long forms because I’m not interested in artificial deceleration. As soon as I see the glimmer of a consequence, I pull the trigger.” … Read more
[ad_1] Award-winning Ecuadorian writer Mónica Ojeda makes her English debut with Jawbone, a hair-raising novel about the horrors of adolescence. Ojeda has published short stories, poems, and novels. Jawbone is her third novel, originally published in Spanish in 2018. Sarah Booker, who renders Ojeda’s dense, tightly woven prose into a stunning new English translation, reflects … Read more
[ad_1] When we speak of the peak years of the Civil Rights Movement, typically we refer to the period beginning with Brown v. Board of Education in 1954 and the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955-56—which thrusted Martin Luther King, Jr. onto the national stage. This canonical era concludes with the passage of the Voting Rights … Read more
[ad_1] Cooking competition shows are beloved for their delightful cast of characters, methodical rhythm, and delicious artistry. They have also been safe havens for queer people to find representation. It only stands to reason, then, that novels can do the same thing for readers, and Anita Kelly delivers and then some in their first traditionally-published … Read more
[ad_1] Welcome to another installment of a collaboration between the Chicago Review of Books and the Your Favorite Book podcast. Malavika Praseed, frequent CHIRB contributor and podcast host, seeks to talk to readers and writers about the books that light a fire inside them. What’s your favorite book and why? This week’s guest is Simon … Read more
[ad_1] We’re living through rough times. Pandemics, climate change, volcanic eruptions—each sweeping horror seems worse than the last. In Kim Fu’s new collection of stories, Lesser Known Monsters Of The 21st Century, the horrors are more intimate, smaller, and less global in scale. This is not a collection filled with fantastic beasts, although a sea … Read more
[ad_1] KB’s debut poetry collection How to Identify Yourself With a Wound was selected by Ire’ne Lara Silva as the winner of the 2021 Saguaro Poetry Prize, and contains the kind of words that stay on your mind and in your skin. KB plays with pop culture (“self-portrait as Frank Ocean song about drugs,” “Break … Read more
[ad_1] Didn’t we just do this, dear reader? Weren’t we just here? Is it really February again? If it’s beginning to feel a little bit like Groundhog Day out there, the repetitions piling on and the monotony wearing you down, take heart. Even if you can sense another existential crisis coming on and you’re becoming … Read more