Book Reviews Archive
This Winter’s Must-Reads
There is no better way to pass the coldest season of the year than by cozying up with a good book, and 2015 has started off with a bang. Here are our picks for this winter’s best literary offerings. Disgruntled Asali Solomon FSG, February 3 $26 Buy: book ∣ebook
(Writing) Exercise: Self-compassion
I’m talking here of memory’s difficulty. Difficult not in the way I have to wrack my weak brain to remember what happened, but in the way I’m forced to face that time I let my brother, bleeding from the mouth, run the mile home alone. Difficult in the way
Review: COYOTE by Colin Winnette
Coyote Colin Winnette Les Figues Press, 2015 96 pages $17.00 Buy: book It’s a natural tendency to summarize, to distill entire constellations of events and details into a single swallow of information. Near the beginning of Coyote, Colin Winnette’s protagonist attempts just this, saying “I tell the same story
Review: THE QB by Bruce Feldman
The QB: The Making of Modern Quarterbacks Bruce Feldman Crown Archetype, October 2014 304 pages $27.00 Buy: book | ebook Like the casting of James Bond or the election of presidents, the styles, moods, and values of the NFL’s starting quarterbacks in any given generation provide a meaningful reflection
Review: BRIGHT SHARDS OF SOMEPLACE ELSE by Monica McFawn
Bright Shards of Someplace Else Monica McFawn University of Georgia Press, September 2014 176 pages $24.95 Buy: book Every writer has faced the age-old question, “What makes a story?” History has provided us with plenty of satisfactory answers—in the excitement found in novelty or the resonance found in the
Review: AIMLESS LOVE by Billy Collins
Aimless Love: New and Selected Poems Billy Collins Random House, October 2013 288 Pages $16.00 Buy: book | ebook Three thousand miles away from my library—most of it translated literature, most of it tortuously postmodern—I turned in a lonely hour to my dad’s hardcover copy of Billy Collins’ Aimless
Review: ZOOLOGIES: ON ANIMALS AND THE HUMAN SPIRIT by Alison Hawthorne Deming
Zoologies: On Animals And The Human Spirit Alison Hawthorne Deming Milkweed Editions, October 2014 272 pages $18.00 Buy: book As children, many of us felt instinctually connected to and curious about animals. Maybe we even found solace in imagining our personal dinosaur counterparts. Alison Hawthorne Deming’s book Zoologies: On
Review: LIKE A BEGGAR by Ellen Bass
Like a Beggar Ellen Bass Copper Canyon Press, March 2014 70 pages $16.00 Buy: book Exquisitely wrought in language and imagery, Ellen Bass’s third collection meditates on sequencing images. Her poems open in one place and close elsewhere. She signals this with titles that point toward the firsts and lasts,
Review: Dismembering the American Dream: The Life and Fiction of Richard Yates
Dismembering the American Dream: The Life and Fiction of Richard Yates Kate Charlton-Jones University of Alabama Press, August 2014 279 pages $49.95 Buy: book | ebook An English professor, a former colleague of mine, once admitted to me that he wasn’t much of a fan of the novelist about
Holiday Book Shopping List: The TV-Lovers Edition
‘Tis the season for gift giving, and what makes a better gift than an unforgettable book? 2014 has been a great year for books and television both, so here are some pairings to help you shop for the TV enthusiast in your life.