“A friendly desert community where the sun is hot, the moon is beautiful and mysterious lights pass overhead while we all pretend to sleep. Welcome to Night Vale.” For those who are already fans of the wildly popular podcast, there’s not much I need to say other than be careful
Read More →“I am Mary Iris Malone, and I am not okay.” Mim has believed this for the past 16 years of her life. Mim lives in Jackson, Mississippi, with her father and stepmother, Kathy, but she refers to her hometown as Mosquitoland, and it doesn’t feel like home. After discovering
Read More →Karen Joy Fowler, New York Times bestselling author of “We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves,” has recently reprinted her 1998 publication, “Black Glass.” With these 15 short stories, novelist Fowler delivers an inventive, provocative collection. The title story is the lengthiest and perhaps the most elaborate. With innovative fashion, Fowler
Read More →Bestselling author Malcolm Gladwell has developed a following with titles like “The Tipping Point” and “Outliers.” His newest book, “David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants,” follows his familiar formula of combining scientific studies with personal stories to challenge conventional wisdom and readers’ assumptions about the
Read More →Jonathan Franzen’s newest novel, “Purity,” is his most contemporary novel to date, dealing with subjects such as student debt, the Internet, hackers/leakers and murder. “Purity” is Franzen’s most worldly novel, with parts taking place in Germany and Bolivia, as well as Oakland and Denver. It is stylistically similar to his
Read More →Joseph Ellis has written a very readable history on the development of the Constitution of the United States, a process he termed the second American Revolution. He notes that the opening phrase of the Gettysburg address is in error — the nation was not brought forth at the Revolution. The
Read More →Ernest Cline’s first book, “Ready Player One,” became an instant classic in the speculative fiction world, winning awards and praise nearly across the board. His newest novel, “Armada,” takes the retro-futuristic vibe of his first book and adds in a more complex voice with an uncannily realistic near future. Once
Read More →Mary Kubica follows her debut novel, “The Good Girl,” with this psychological thriller about Heidi Wood. She is a charitable woman helping immigrants and refugees through the Chicago nonprofit for which she works. Her family didn’t expect Heidi to invite a homeless teen and her infant to live with them.
Read More →J. Ryan Stradal’s new novel is a unique story of family and food. Easily devoured by food lovers and literature lovers alike, the debut has ingredients inspired by Stradal’s Minnesota upbringing and his grandmother’s Lutheran church cookbook. Real family recipes are mixed among heartfelt, character-driven stories and a bit of
Read More →In her 30-plus years in the copy department of The New Yorker, Mary Norris has corrected the work of many of the finest writers of the time, dedicating herself to maintaining the magazine’s high standards for grammar, spelling and punctuation. It turns out Norris is a wonderful writer herself, and
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