The book is not so much a triumphant tale of overcoming adversity as a howl of fury at the injustice of it all. —the Guardian In this candid memoir Viola Davis details her journey from desperate childhood poverty in Central Falls, Rhode Island, to becoming one of the finest actors working today. “I learned from […]
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You May Be Surprised by What Scares You “Fear may be a linchpin of horror, but as a recent anthology attests, the true bedrock of the genre is mood.” Stephen Kearse writes, “even in my favorite works of the genre, horror scenarios generally intrigue rather than scare me; I’m more likely to ponder than to
Related Post: This week I offer two selections because there’s not much I can say about #3 without giving away the whole point. #2 A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce © 1916 Date read: ca. 1966 or 1967 While I now credit Gillian Flynn’s novel Gone Girl with opening
Why is March 2024 the Best Month in Years For Books? “In Her Debut Column, Maris Kreizman Considers This Spring’s Flood of Great Books” Maris Kreizman describes the kinds of books she, as a critic, likes to cover: The books that move me aren’t the kinds that are written by celebrities; they’re often labors of
This month we start with the book we ended with in January. That was Tom Lake by Ann Patchett. The title refers to a region in Michigan where the protagonist and her family own a cherry orchard. first degree My first-degree entry is a no-brainer: Anton Checkhov’s probably best known play, The Cherry Orchard. second
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It’s Time to Rewrite the Rules of Historical Fiction “Research has long been a backbone of the genre. But beyond the textbooks, there’s a whole world of family stories that have not yet become history. They deserve their place in fiction, too.” Vanessa Chan, author of the well-received recent novel The Storm We Made, writes,
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Shane’s Lot: How a 1949 Gun-Toting Loner Still Rides Through American Literature Writer Maria Hummel examines how Shane, the gunslinger introduced in Jack Schaefer’s 1949 novel Rider from Nowhere, has lived on in American popular culture. Although Shane’s worldview is dated, the novel projects the timeless quest of innocence in our bloody world. Shane altered
After author Rie Kudan won one of the country’s most prestigious literary awards, she admitted she had help from an unusual source. Source: The winner of a prestigious Japanese literary award has confirmed AI helped write her book | CNN
Other posts in this series: Introduction Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin, which was the starting point for this month’s 6 Degrees of Separation post, was My Most Surprising Read of 2022. I can’t remember the last time a novel made me cry, but this one did. Thinking about why Zevin’s book hit me
12 Novels That Changed How I Read Fiction Read More »
Mychal Threets Wants Everyone to Experience ‘Library Joy’ “The 33-year-old librarian from California has become popular on TikTok and Instagram with his upbeat take on libraries.” When a librarian friend of mine recently mentioned Mychal Threets on Facebook, I had no idea who he is or why she was waxing enthusiastic about him. Now I
