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...]
2014 Interview with Nadia Hashimi (New Novel in September)
Nadia Hashimi's parents left Afghanistan in the 1970s before the Soviet invasion. In 2002, Hashimi visited Afghanistan for the first time. It wasn’t that trip, though—at least not directly—that inspired her debut novel, The Pearl that Broke Its Shell, but an article about the ancient Afghan custom of having girls dress and act like boys until they reach a marriageable age. In this interview, Hashimi opens up about her childhood as a first-generation … [Read more...]
Featured Reviews: Adult Books
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 … [Read More...]
The Bones of Paradise by Jonis Agee
On December 29, 1890, one of the most atrocious massacres perpetrated by whites in American history occurred on the Lakota Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. Nearly 300 unarmed Sioux men, women and children were gunned down in their teepees by the U.S. Seventh Cavalry. For weeks leading up to the event, members of the Native American tribe had been performing a ritual “ghost dance” — a spiritual … [Read More...]
Featured Reviews: Adult Books
Pond by Claire-Louise Bennett
Claire-Louise Bennett’s debut made a huge splash across the, well, pond when it was first published in Ireland last year. It’s a sure bet the book’s overseas success will have a ripple effect here. Corny reviewing jargon aside, Pond is a fascinating and utterly immersive reading experience that speaks volumes about the author’s creative process and delivers insights in droves. The book is a … [Read More...]
Imagine Me Gone by Adam Haslett
An early scene in Adam Haslett’s searing second novel describes a father adrift in a small motorboat off the coast of Maine with the youngest two of his three children. As his kids — Alec, 7, and Celia, 10 — fuss with the lobsters they bought for dinner back at the vacation cabin, Dad turns off the motor and pockets the key, lies down on the floor, closes his eyes, and says: “Imagine me gone, imagine it’s just the two of you. What do … [Read More...]
