Fiction Archive
On Building Believable Characters in Fiction
Before I picked up a copy of Offshore last month, it had been years since I read Penelope Fitzgerald, a British author who didn’t start writing until she was in her sixties. But the characters in this Booker Prize-winning novel caught my attention and I soon became completely emerged
Review: YEAR OF THE GOOSE by Carly J. Hallman
In her debut novel Year of the Goose, Carly J. Hallman investigates whether or not unbelievable amounts of money can, in fact, buy happiness. (No. The answer is no. And here's the other thing: in this story, the goose is evil.)
Review: THE STARGAZER’S SISTER by Carrie Brown
The Stargazer’s Sister Carrie Brown Pantheon, January 2016 352 pp; $25.95 Buy: hardcover | eBook Reviewed by Ellen Birkett Morris Here it is, the moon that has followed her everywhere through her childhood—racing between treetops to find her, darting over rooflines, appearing suddenly in the river at her feet or
Other Countries
Sometimes I have to remind myself that the Black Writer In America is a cosmopolitan entity. The news can do that to you, even in February. Obviously there’s Harlem, and before that, there was the mass exodus from the South to the North, to experience life among people who
Challenging Cultural Norms: Contemporary British Women Authors
It wasn’t until I was in my mid-twenties that I realized what I’d been searching for all along. An avid reader, I absorbed a variety of books during my childhood and adolescence. These were carefully screened by my well-meaning but stifling folks, who paled at the thought me
Review: THE WAKE by Paul Kingsnorth
The Wake Paul Kingsnorth Graywolf, Sept 2015 365pp, $16 Buy: paperback Much has been made of Paul Kingsnorth’s The Wake, crowdfunded to publication in England last spring and longlisted for the Man Booker Award. Set during and after the Norman Conquest of England in 1066, The Wake follows a
In Bookstores Near You
Author: Leslie Jill Patterson | Categories: Authors, Book Reviews, Fiction, Reading, Series No comments
In her latest novel, Silence & Song, Melanie Rae Thon once again wanders into the world of devastation. The opening clip captures a fiery car accident, one that could have been avoided if only the father, the driver, had agreed to stop at a hotel for the night
Round-Up: Alan Rickman, Philip Pullman’s OLF Resignation, and Literary Oscar Nominees
From the loss of the beloved Harry Potter actor Alan Rickman to a particularly strong year for literary film adaptations in the 2016 Oscar nominations, a look at the latest headlines from the literary world: British actor Alan Rickman, age 69, passed away on January 14. Rickman is well-known
Woolf at the Table: Good Dinner, Good Talk
I have always been enchanted by Virginia Woolf and—being an avid cook and food writer myself—by gastronomic references in literature, both fiction and nonfiction. So when I learned about a book about the eating habits of the Bloomsbury set, of which Woolf was a member, I took notice. The
Book Review: MEMORY THEATER by Simon Critchley
Memory Theater Simon Critchley Other Press, Nov 2015 112 pp, $15.95 Buy hardcover | eBook What I remember most from reading Thomas Harris’ Hannibal when it was first published in 1999 was not the graphic violence and strange character detour for which the book would be criticized; it was