I Have To Tell YouVictoria Hetherington0s&1s, 201469,000 words$6.00 Buy: ebook While reading Victoria Hetherington’s novel, I Have To Tell You, I occasionally found myself wanting to shake one or two of the characters for a host of self-destructive behaviors and dysfunctional relationships. And just as my frustration rose, inevitably one of Hetherington’s precisely crafted sentences…
Jimmy’s Blues and Other Poems James Baldwin Beacon Press, April 2014 120 pages $16.00 Buy: book | ebook The cover of Jimmy’s Blues and Other Poems features blurbs by none other than Toni Morrison and Maya Angelou, telling the world to read this book. I’ll be honest; I feel like I can’t add much to that—just listen…
Lungs Full of Noise Tessa Mellas University of Iowa Press, October 2013 128 pages $17.00 Buy: book | ebook In one of Tessa Mellas’s stories, a woman gives birth to a plant-baby. While everyone else is a little perplexed, the mother looks at the newborn—his green skin, leaves and buds—and thinks that “he is beautiful…
Days in the History of Silence Merethe Lindstrom Other Press, August 2013 240 pages $14.95 Buy: book | ebook I’m not very familiar with Norwegian literature, so I can’t comment on whether Merethe Lindstrom’s Days in the History of Silence follows the typical conventions of Norwegian novels. What I can say is that this award-winning…
The Winged SeedLi-Young LeeBOA Editions, April 2013200 pages$16.00 Reading Li-Young Lee’s The Winged Seed reminded me of an argument by economist Tyler Cowen. Cowen cautions against our propensity to impose narrative on everything. He claims that life is not a story but a mess, and that in insisting on making sense by giving it a…
The Declarable FutureJennifer BoydenUniversity of Wisconsin Press, May 2013112 pages$16.95 When I teach poetry, I often turn to Jennifer Boyden’s work for startling images, masterfully paced tension and complicated, big subjects rendered accessible. The Declarable Future—Boyden’s second book of poems—not only showcases this signature voice I’d expected from it, but it moreover succeeds as a…
The Shelter of NeighboursEilis Ni DhuibhneBlackstaff Press, September 2012288 pages$27.95 One page into Eilis Ni Dhuibhne’s The Shelter of Neighbours I laughed out loud. And then, two stories later, with a carload of train passengers glancing my way, another audible chuckle. My laughing and grinning continued throughout the collection, but each time I was asked…
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