Selected Letters of Langston Hughes
Selected Letters of Langston Hughes captures the measure of the man. From the first letter to the last, a portrait of a complete artist emerges. Hughes was a renowned poet, playwright, and novelist who...
Category: Book Reviews
Etta and Otto and Russell and James by Emma Hooper
Etta and Otto and Russell and James has taught me that not enough books take elderly people seriously, that I might have to give magical realism a second chance, and that author Emma Hooper...
Letter to a Future Lover by Ander Monson
The life of a reader is a private one. Reading a book, whether an e-book, mass-market paperback, or vellum-bound incunable, creates an incontrovertible connection between you and its creator. Regardless of how many readers...
The Unloved by Deborah Levy
The Unloved is a murder mystery with a difference. The “who dunnit” is a mystery wrapped within an enigma; however, the narrative adds to the complications for it is certainly not straightforward. The setting...
Expo 58 by Jonathan Coe
Described by the publisher as “a comic spy caper and international love story,” Expo 58 is just that—and it’s terrific. Jonathan Coe effortlessly combines a Kafka-esque sense of dread and futility with a lighthearted,...
Funny Girl by Nick Hornby
When Nick Hornby’s newest novel, Funny Girl, opens with the protagonist Barbara Parker winning the Miss Blackpool beauty pageant in 1964. Parker quickly discovers that the honor requires her to stay in Blackpool, in...
On the Edge by Edward St. Aubyn
First published in 1998, Edward St. Aubyn’s On the Edge has finally been released for US readers with hopes that the masochistic adrenaline of the author’s exceptional Patrick Melrose quintet and 2014’s Lost For...
A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki : Turtle Gyre Animation
In Ruth Ozeki’s 2013 novel A Tale for the Time Being, a writer named Ruth becomes magically intertwined with a 16-year-old Japanese girl named Naoko when Naoko’s diary washes up on the beach near...
The Thing About Life Is That One Day You’ll Be Dead by David Shields
★★☆☆☆ Personal memoir and statistical enumeration intertwine in David Shields’ genre-defying reflection upon death. Shields’ (I Think You’re Totally Wrong: A Quarrel, 2015, etc.) unique memoir is a meditation upon life’s brevity and its...
