Lit Top 5: March 2023
March brings events both somber and somewhat silly to the literary world.
The Price of Freedom: A Review of “The Schoolhouse” by Sophie Ward
The Schoolhouse” has the cinematic feel of a crime drama, and much of the intrigue comes from seeing how the different storylines will come together.
State of Excitement: A Review of Frank Sennett’s “Shadow State”
Sennett’s new thriller “Shadow State” serves up a terrific hero, accelerated action and an impressively complex conspiracy.
A Lack of Friendship: A Review of Charmaine Craig’s “My Nemesis”
An erudite novel about a woman in love with another woman’s husband.
I Have No Easy Answers for You: An Interview with Rebecca Makkai
After professor Bodie Kane returns to her school to teach a winter course, she’s forced to relive the mysterious circumstances and murder of her boarding school roommate.
Where Words Are Magic: A Review of “Drawing Breath” by Gayle Brandeis
“Drawing Breath” is a welcome reminder that bodily experiences drive writing as much as ideas do; the collection is “a map of body and word and the breath that animates and unites them.”
Personal Obstacles: A Review of Dancing Down the Barricades, Sammy Davis Jr. and the Long Civil Rights Era, A Cultural History
Within Jacobson’s rich and layered description of the civil rights movement and post-civil rights era, he gives us a detailed and compassionate portrait of Davis.
Good Will Journey: A Review of Dawn Raffel’s Boundless as the Sky
The book gets categorized as “Fables & Tales. Some of Them True.” This blurring of genre lines creates an immediate challenge to the reader.
Silence-Loving Caretakers: A Review of Tom Gauld’s “Revenge of the Librarians”
Its pages are sure to delight even the most serious bibliophile.
Lit Top 5: February 2023
Mixing, friendship, marriage and more
