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 …
This book continued to haunt me weeks after I finished it, like some dark, lyrical cloud. Hurricane Season exists sharply in the present—the ways in which violence affects every sense; this prose will make you squirm—but is simultaneously outside of time, folkloric. Melchor’s writing is devastating and propulsive: As much as I sometimes wanted to, I could …
Kristen Millares Young has written a cymbal clash of a debut. Claudia—a Mexican anthropologist fleeing her life in Seattle after her husband and sister announce their affair— collides with Peter—a prodigal son returning to the Makah reservation for the first time since his dad’s murder to help his mother, Maggie, whose memory is failing. The …
A humorous but pointed look at race, privilege and our motivation to act. Never preachy, Kiley Reid studies human nature. Her debut is a literary novel that reads like suspense. –Melanie, The Well-Read Moose, Coeur d’Alene, ID “When I attempted to write a review for Such a Fun Age, I was at a loss for words. …
Ready to flatten the curve, everyone? Sure, Netflix is great, but after telling the damnable thing that YES, I’M STILL WATCHING “THE OFFICE” for the 47th time, it may be time to turn to books. If you’ve a bit of schadenfreude in you, or if you’d like to remind yourself that it could always be …
WOW! I just completed Cilka’s Journey by Heather Morris, her second book. It was as mindboggling as The Tattooist of Auschwitz, her first. The story is true but the author did not meet her subject. The story is based on interviews with Lale Sokolov, the subject of her first book, plus extensive research into the …
Brick & Mortar Books of Redmond, WA fêted Ted Chiang for his win for Exhalation on Saturday, February 22, 2020. But there are more celebrations to come! Thursday, February 27, 2020, 6:00- 7:00 pm Wishing Tree Books, Spokane, WA Sharma Shields, The Cassandra Anne Walter, a friend and mentor of Sharma’s since she was a …
This short story collection does what Yuknavitch does best—asks you to trade your life for a book that is just strange and beautiful enough for you to make the deal. I floated through these stories the same way I’ve floated through her other work, almost unaware of time passing. Her endangered characters make terrible and …
In 2008 I quit an all-consuming sales position in Missoula and tried to move with my husband to Lake Pend Oreille in the slim Idaho panhandle, where we hoped to rededicate ourselves to our writing. Mother nature had other plans for us, blanketing the Inland Northwest with record-breaking snowfall and rendering our little cabin in …
In November 2019, Publishers Weekly published an article titled Is Chuck Palahniuk Too Big to Fail? An excerpt from that article: “Palahniuk is best known for the second book he wrote, which was the first he published: Fight Club. Released in 1996, the novel earned him an advance of $7,000. Far from an instant bestseller, …
