Karen from Annie Bloom’s Books in Portland, OR recommends three recent YA titles on the theme of #MeToo (recommended for more mature readers). Red Hood by Alana K. Arnold is definitely about wolves and about frightened girls, but Bisou Martel isn’t willing to play the victim. The second person narration threw me in the first few …
The Lightness is the debut novel from the editor of Literary Hub. Not only does she recognize good writing, but Temple also writes beautifully, herself. I enjoyed this book for its attention to detail as much as for its story, about a teenage girl, Olivia, who signs herself up for a meditation retreat that is …
A reader could confuse these stories for a novel because they revolve around one family. Told in a variety of narrative styles and criss-crossing generations of a (mostly) Japanese family, this book has an architectural quality in which each room is connected to every other room and in which WWII is the central room and …
Baseball season is finally here! Check out these new books on America’s pastime. Bouton: The Life of a Baseball Original by Mitchell Nathanson From the day he first stepped into the Yankee clubhouse, Jim Bouton (1939–2019) was the sports world’s deceptive revolutionary. Underneath the crew cut and behind the all-American boy-next-door good looks lurked a maverick …
Ramiza Shamoun Koya has an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College and her fiction and nonfiction has appeared in publications such as Columbia Review, Lumina, Washington Square Review, and Mutha Magazine. She has been a fellow at both MacDowell Colony and Blue Mountain Center. Her father was born in Fiji, her mother in Texas, and she was …
The Polish science fiction writing genius, gave us a short story par excellence with The Seventh Voyage. It’s one of many adventures of his indefatigable comedic protagonist Ijon Tichy. In this instance the innocent Ijon is merely cruising in his space ship when he gets caught in a time loop. As a result, past and …
The Newbery award-winning author’s newest book is a lush fairy tale of a book steeped in the mythology of the Philippines. The 12-year-old protagonist faces some dark and scary monsters and some equally monstrous men in her community, but persistence in spite of fear and honorable intentions guide her choices on an adventures reminiscent of …
Ellie Jacobs takes a walk near her home in the Exmoor countryside one day. While her husband, Clive, is a domineering lout, Ellie tries to create a peaceful life for herself by writing poetry and walking in the woods. On this day, however, Ellie comes across a barn that has been converted into a harpmaker’s …
In a desert town near Joshua Tree National Park, a man dies in a hit-and-run accident. Thus opens a story of the man and his family and the investigation of his death. Alternately narrated by several different characters, we learn of backstories and side stories and brief flashbacks to Morocco and Iraq and Mexico. And …
