All This Could Be Yours by Jami Attenberg is a family saga centered around Victor, an abusive and criminal businessman who is about to die. …
Continue ReadingBook Review – Pagan Virtues: Poems, by Stephen Dunn
Pagan Virtues is the 19th book by Pulitzer-Prize winner Stephen Dunn. The poems are reflective, intellectual, and sardonic. Often they describe truths and observations about …
Continue ReadingBook Review – Clap When You Land, by Elizabeth Acevedo
Clap When You Land, the title of Elizabeth Acevedo’s first novel, refers to passengers clapping hands when a plane touches down, a custom popular among …
Continue ReadingBook Review – Cleanness, by Garth Greenwell
Cleanness is Garth Greenwell’s second book. The protagonist is a gay expatriate American writer teaching in Bulgaria. The book consists of chapters that are stories …
Continue ReadingBook Review – A Burning, by Megha Majumdar
A Burning by Megha Majumdar is set in modern India and told through the eyes of three characters – Jivan, a girl from the slums …
Continue ReadingBook Review – The Mountains Sing, by Nguyen Phan Que Mai
The Mountains Sing, the first novel in English by Vietnam-born Nguyen Phan Mai Que Mai, is a family saga woven into the history of Vietnam …
Continue ReadingBook Review – All My Mother’s Lovers, by
All My Mother’s Lovers by Ilana Masad is the well-written story of road trip undertaken by Maggie, the dysfunctional 40-year-old lesbian daughter of Iris. Iris …
Continue ReadingBook Review – Such a Fun Age, by Kiley Reid
Such a Fun Age is a debut novel by Kiley Reid. The characters are a privileged white woman (Alix), her young black babysitter (Emira) and …
Continue ReadingBook Review – Come the Slumberless to the Land of Nod by Traci Brimhall
Come the Slumberless to the Land of Nod is Traci Brimhall’s new collection, about 2/3 poems and 1/3 difficult to classify (prosetry? creative nonfiction?). The …
Continue ReadingBook Review – The Illness Lesson by Clare Beam
The Illness Lesson by Clare Beam takes place in an experimental all-girls school in Massachusetts in the 1870s. The protagonist, Caroline, is the daughter of …
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