Featured Author News & Interviews:
A Talk with Jonis Agee (The Bones of Paradise)
Praised by the New York Times as “a gifted poet of that dark lushness in the heart of the American landscape,” Jonis Agee is the award-winning author of 12 books. Her latest, The Bones of Paradise, is a multigenerational family saga set in the unforgiving Nebraska Sand Hills in the years following the massacre at Wounded Knee, and is at once a mystery, a tragedy, a romance, and an unflagging exploration of the beauty and brutality that defined the settling of … [Read more...]
Featured Reviews: Adult Books
Human Acts by Han Kang
Han Kang’s Man Booker International Prize-winning The Vegetarian was 2016’s sleeper hit. The first of the South Korean author’s works to be translated into English, the book’s lurid and haunting story describes the shocking physical and psychological deterioration of an otherwise dutiful housewife who, to the shame of her social mores-abiding family, stops eating meat in an effort to transform herself into a tree. Critics called it “ferocious,” a “mesmerizing mix of sex and violence.” Indeed, the … [Read More...]
Today Will Be Different by Maria Semple
We’ve all made them: lists of steps we can take to become our better selves. Eat broccoli and kale instead of potato chips! Be nice to that nebbish of a next-door neighbor! Sign up for a gym membership — then actually go! In the beginning, it’s easy to get carried away by a new self-improvement regimen. But sticking to it and yielding lasting results? That’s another story. Take it from Eleanor Flood, the half-clever, mostly neurotic protagonist of Maria Semple’s third novel. She’s having quite a rough go of it. At the … [Read More...]
Featured Reviews: Adult Books
Moonglow by Michael Chabon
If you grew up in an extended family, you might know what I’m talking about — that feeling of sitting around at holiday get-togethers, listening to elder relatives reminisce about the Old Days. When you’re a kid and don’t know any better, it’s a real snooze. (When’s dessert?) But as you mature and grasp that your parents and grandparents are actually real people with rich, complicated pasts, it can be a fascinating experience — especially when long-kept secrets … [Read More...]
Commonwealth by Ann Patchett
Let’s do a brief exercise together. Imagine that a famous (married) author (whom you are sleeping with) has written a novel called Commonwealth that’s loosely based on your childhood. He’s made everything sound exponentially more tragic than it was. This, of course, earns him best-seller status, the National Book Award and sales “through the roof.” (Wink, nudge.) Many years later, after your beloved author dies, the book is made into a film. The movie is inaccurate and awful in all the ways you feared it might be. … [Read More...]
