Here’s further proof that no one writes families as well as Laurie Frankel. Mabs, Monday and Mirabel are triplets growing up in a small town beset by an ever-worsening environmental crisis that has profoundly damaged its residents. Determined to find the culprit poisoning their town’s water, the girls’ mother wages a campaign that divides the …
A book this fun has no business being so interesting and thought-provoking. Hella is a low gravity world home to massive wildlife ( a.k.a. giant dinosaurs) and even larger weather patterns, a combination that forces the colonists trying to build a home there to adapt to their surroundings in profound ways. Seasonal migrations, strong communal …
May the memory of bell hooks (1952-2021) always be preserved. Her work was a tour de force, and this excellent volume is a good a place to start. She was the author who taught me about feminism as an act of revolutionary love, and as a critical mindset for human thriving. This book disrupts patriarchal …
My mother, Mary MacCracken, died before completing her last book, about helping her husband Cal through Alzheimer’s, so I did this for her. She had worked so hard on it, and it was such a good book I felt I just had to finish it and get it published. It was like making a quilt …
I loved this set of a dozen stories brought to life in Morgan Talty’s words. Each story is demonstrative of life as a Penobscot, in a Native community in Maine. One of my favorites is about a boy who opens a Pandora’s box kind of jar and lets out a curse that ruins his family. …
This essay by Laura Kalpakian was originally published on her blog. Never has folding laundry produced such creative results as that day in 1990 my mother and I were working our way through the laundry basket, casually reminiscing. We were remembering the elaborate shrine to Elvis on the front porch of a small tract house …
Told from dual perspectives—from Benny and from “the Book” itself—young Benny’s story begins when his father is killed in a senseless accident and he begins hearing the voices of inanimate objects. Much to his dismay, his mother, Annabelle, finds comfort in collecting random items to excess, and the situation soon spirals out of control. However, …
[In David Yoon’s City of Orange, a] man wakes up. He has no memory. He’s not sure where he is. He’s injured and thirsty. As he explores what looks like an apocalyptic landscape for food, water, and answers, he gradually realizes everything is not as it seems. Show up for the “what the heck?” Stick …
New Paperback of the Week from Madison Books Among the booksellers of my acquaintance, this was by far the most-anticipated book of the year. Author Mikel Jollett was once a young fiction writer of growing reputation who made an unexpected career turn and became the front-man for indie band Airborne Toxic Event. His literary talent …
A taut legal thriller, this debut novel truly has it all – a devious plot, slick characters, and a riveting pace. Ellice, a corporate attorney, is finally given the upper echelon job she has worked hard to achieve, but only after the sudden death of her boss. Her rise to the top is not without …
