I’m a writer and editor and specialize in reviewing books written for adults and writing educational standards-based books and articles for kids and teens. My work has been published in The New York Times Book Review, The Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, San Francisco Chronicle, The Oregonian, Publishers Weekly, and other publications.

Featured Reviews: Adult Books

The House of Broken Angels by Luis Alberto Urrea

In the advance reading copy of his eighth work of fiction, literary heavyweight Luis Alberto Urrea writes that as a kid, he never saw his Mexican American family represented in the pages of American literature. Sure, there were immigrant stories. But none of them featured characters who “made tortillas and listened to Pedro Infante.” Urrea thought someone should rectify that problem. The House of Broken Angels is his attempt to do so — and what a raucous, moving and necessary book it is. Especially now. Inspired by the … [Read More...]

The Mars Room by Rachel Kushner

An obese woman, still in shackles, slumps over in her seat before rolling onto the bus’ dirty floor. A few rows away, a chained and visibly pregnant 15-year-old girl in a metal cage cries out from labor pains. She’s on the verge of delivering a child she’ll never have the chance to love. In both cases, the women and their outbursts are ignored. Along with 58 other women, they are being transferred under the cover of darkness to Stanville Women’s Correctional Facility, a notorious prison in Northern … [Read More...]

Featured Reviews: Adult Books

The Recovering: Intoxication and Its Aftermath by Leslie Jamison

Throw a rock and you’ll hit someone with a drug or alcohol addiction. Or someone who knows someone with an addiction. Throw another rock and you’ll hit the tell-all they published about it. Or the recovery novel they’re working on. Or the notebooks full of poems on the topic. Alcoholism in particular is a popular subject. It’s also a frustrating, demoralizing illness millions of people grapple with and have tried to overcome — including Leslie Jamison. Jamison’s memoir and first full-length work of … [Read More...]

Lion Cross Point by Masatsugu Ono

If you aren’t aware of Two Lines Press, you best pay attention. The publisher’s latest offering is Lion Cross Point, acclaimed Japanese author Masatsugu Ono’s first to be translated into English. It’s a thin but deceptively heady book about a 10-year-old boy’s solo journey from Tokyo to his mother’s ancestral home in rural Japan to stay with a relative, possibly for good. At first, with the liberal use of abbreviated words sprinkled throughout the dialogue (“ya” is a noticeable culprit), the translation … [Read More...]