Featuring: A moving novel from Clare O’Dea and a snappingly great biography by Carrie Courogen. Continue reading Book Report — Voting Day; Miss May Does Not Exist

Featuring: A colorful family saga imagined up by Karen Russell and deeply impressive historical reporting by Lawrence Wright. Continue reading Book Report — Swamplandia!; Thirteen Days in September

Featuring: A messy memoir from Jessica Valenti, and a powerful history lesson from James Reston, Jr. Continue reading Book Report — Sex Object: A Memoir; A Rift in the Earth: Art, Memory, and the Fight for a Vietnam War Memorial

A Life of Barbara Stanwyck: Steel-True 1907-1940 by Victoria Wilson Nonfiction, 2013 She had so many dogs that she had to take up carpets and get rid of various chairs. A visitor walked into her house, looked around at the … Continue reading Book Report — A Life of Barbara Stanwyck: Steel-True 1907-1940; The Phoenix and the Mirror

Bel Canto by Ann Patchett Fiction, 2001 There were deep white bathtubs with an endless supply of hot water pouring out of the curved spigots. There were stacks of soft white towels and pillows and blankets trimmed in satin and … Continue reading Book Report — Bel Canto; Opposable Thumbs: How Siskel & Ebert Changed Movies Forever

The Stone Sky by N.K. Jemisin Fiction, 2017 But there are none so frightened, or so strange in their fear, as conquerors. They conjure phantoms endlessly, terrified that their victims will someday do back what was done to them—even if, … Continue reading Book Report — The Stone Sky; Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents

Independent People by Halldór Laxness (translated from the Icelandic by J.A. Thompson) Fiction, 1934 and 1935 There are few things that fill the soul of man with greater disappointment than to wake up when everyone else is asleep, especially if it … Continue reading Book Report — Independent People; Ten Steps to Nanette

Transit by Rachel Cusk Fiction, 2016 Loneliness, she said, is when nothing will stick to you, when nothing will thrive around you, when start to think that you kill things just by being there. Yet when she looked at her … Continue reading Book Report — Transit; This Woman’s Work

Sharp by Michelle Dean Nonfiction, 2018 The opening line of The Journalist and the Murderer, which originally appeared in three parts in the The New Yorker in 1989, is famous. “Any journalist who is not too stupid of too full … Continue reading Book Report — Sharp; Uncanny Valley