One of the things I like most about my city neighborhood is the fact that so many of the people who live here come from different countries around the world. At the playground on a Saturday morning, you might hear a dozen different languages being spoken, each parent saying their own version of Please don’t […]
Credit…Nicolas Ortega THE SEQUEL, by Jean Hanff Korelitz In 2021, Jean Hanff Korelitz’s novel “The Plot” earned exactly the kind of acclaim the characters in her book — aspiring writers — yearned for: It became a best seller, was hailed as “insanely readable” by Stephen King and is being adapted into a limited series starring […]
Books Local fiction: Walks with his pups, Gaston and Baudelaire, were a great way to research the novel, which is sometimes told from a pooch’s perspective. The Minnesota Star Tribune Pete Hautman (Joseph Hautman/Candlewick) You can trace Pete Hautman’s “Answers to Dog” back to his childhood love of classics such as Jack London’s “Call of […]
Photo by Salah Ait Mokhtar on Unsplash When people strive for a Dickie Greenleaf summer—whether wearing bowler shirts, behaving petulantly, or just generally being in Italy—I always want to ask, do they remember how that ended for him? In Craig Willse’s debut novel, Providence , Dickie’s demise is part of the canon. The novel tells […]
The photos in Ernaux and Marie’s book attest to love’s urgency while also suggesting its eventual devastation. THE USE OF PHOTOGRAPHY , by Annie Ernaux and Marc Marie. Translated by Alison L. Strayer. Men have repeatedly lectured me about Annie Ernaux. “You must read ‘ The Years ,’” a date once told me, responding to […]
Key points In pre-publication testing, an anorexia recovery memoir passed the test—not doing harm, and even doing good. The question “Should this be published?” should be asked more often by writers, agents, and publishers. Precedent exists in the eating disorder realm for writers asking the question and answering “no.” Practical examples of how to generate […]
Stan Zimmerman; Milo Ventimiglia in Gilmore Girls. Photo: Dusan Vuksanovic; Warner Bros./Everett Collection Milo Ventimiglia almost carried the world of Gilmore Girls to Los Angeles, but the West Coast didn’t match up to the magic of Stars Hollow. Many fans of the beloved series know that Ventimiglia’s character, Jess Mariano, was lined up to star […]
Despite rumors to the contrary, detective fiction is alive and well. In a world that often seems out of control, people seek order wherever it may be available. Procedural stories—no matter if they feature amateur sleuths, police officers, or private investigators—offer a way to find that order, a sense of completeness often missing from daily […]
Kalpesh Lathigra/Farrar Strauss & Giroux The Karamazov Brothers by Fyodor Dostoevsky, translated by Ignat Avsey 1 Penguin Classics The Karamazov Brothers by Fyodor Dostoevsky, translated by Ignat Avsey Now 36% Off $11 at Amazon $19 at Bookshop For me, this book ranks among the greatest triumphs of the novel as a form. Its plot deals […]
On September 6, Turkish-American human rights activist Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi was shot in the head by an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) sniper during a peaceful protest against illegal Israeli settlements in Beita, Nablus, in the West Bank. She was rushed to Rafidia Surgical Hospital in Nablus, where she was treated for severe head injuries, but […]
