Category: Books

I swear Anne Tyler was put on this Earth to make me understand passive people. Because I don’t. And Tyler writes them so beautifully. I’m more likely to echo Cloud Dance‘s Denise, who exasperatedly asks Willa (the protagonist), “Why do you go at things slantwise?” She treats Willa (or Macon Leary

Cora is on the cusp of womanhood and in the throes of slavery. She is owned by a cliched (yet well drawn by Whitehead) Cruel Crazy Cracker on a plantation in Georgia; utterly alone since her mother escaped, banished to The Hob, a cabin housing slaves that are too sick,

True Roots by Kristin Cavallari I’ve always been a #TeamLauren kind of gal, so it was in a snarky spirit that I checked this book out from the library. I thought Lauren Conrad’s (also an alum from the Laguna Beach reality MTV show who famously graduated to another MTV reality

Trajectory is Russo’s most classily-named collection of short stories (his previous collection was Whore’s Child). With this work, Richard attempts to distance himself from the famed Newsweek article and his homey roots. “Compare me to (John) Irving?” Russo sneers, “how about some Nadine Gordimer?” We’re going to discuss whether or not Richard succeeds.

Shriver’s Lovely Collection Shriver’s Version Of The Who Sell Out In Lionel Shriver’s first collection of short fiction she delivers a concept album; the theme, stuff. Never one to flounce, Shriver tells us exactly what we’ll be getting in the title of her book: short stories and two novellas about property. Lionel

Anna Seghers’ The Seventh Cross George Heisler is in deep trouble. A rakish man-about-town, George has been in trouble before: womanizing, gambling, shirking bad debts and worthwhile friendships with abandon. His mother rolled her eyes when he began to dabble in Communism, the Gestapo proved to be less melodramatic and