In Maggie O’Farrell’s sterling Hamnet, she seeks to fill in the blanks of history to tell a deeply human story. … More Life and Death in the Margins: Hamnet, by Maggie O’Farrell
A review/rant about Bianca Marais’ novel If You Want to Make God Laugh, an unintentionally offensive story about three women in post-apartheid South Africa. … More Here Comes a Book Rant
I’ve been sitting on this review for a while now because I keep turning it over and over in my head, and to be brutally honest, I’m trying to decide how much I actually like this book. Published in 1978, Dancer From the Dance is a perfect encapsulation of the gay subculture that thrived in … More My Deep Dive into Dancer from the Dance
In Barbara Kingsolver’s Unsheltered, a family in crisis confronts the new realities of a changing world. … More Surviving in Changing Times: Unsheltered, by Barbara Kingsolver
It’s the end of the world in Karen Thompson Walker’s The Age of Miracles, but you wouldn’t know it from what her characters are worried about. … More Young Love at the End of the World: The Age of Miracles, by Karen Thompson Walker
A review of a nonfiction account of one woman’s quest to save children orphaned by or suffering from AIDS in Ethiopia. … More Motherhood, Charity, and Africa’s AIDS Orphans: There is No Me Without You, by Melissa Fay Greene
A humane, sharply observed set of interlocked stories about a home care worker taking care of AIDS patients in the 1990s. … More A Handbook for Helping the Dying: The Gifts of the Body, by Rebecca Brown
A review of Samanta Schweblin’s newly translated surreal short story collection, Mouthful of Birds. … More Get Creeped out with Mouthful of Birds, by Samanta Schweblin
Reviews of two books about women in the middle of a crisis, both very worth your time. … More Women on the Verge: Adèle, by Leila Slimani and The Terrible, by Yrsa Daley-Ward
Reviews of Esi Edugyan’s Man Booker finalists Half-Blood Blues and Washington Black–one of which I love and one which I struggled to get through. … More When You Just Can’t Get Behind a Book Everyone Else Loves: Washington Black, by Esi Edugyan
