When I was elementary school, my favorite assignment was writing book reports on those huge pieces of wheat-colored paper (lines on the bottom half, wide-open space on the top half). While my illustrations were not to be trusted (think stick figures in triangle skirts), by the time I had graduated to middle school, I had perfected the art of balancing synopsis and criticism, usually tacking on a brilliant zinger at the end. The formula still works to this day.
Now as a full-time writer and book critic, I still enjoy crafting reviews with just the right blend of plot rundown and mostly friendly critique (though, admittedly, blunt criticism is very necessary). My reviews have been published in print and online in publications such as The New York Times, The Washington Post Book World, Chicago Tribune, San Francisco Chronicle, Bookforum, The Oregonian, and Publishers Weekly, and others. I’m a member of the National Book Critics Circle and served as a judge for the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Awards for many years.
A selection of clips and reviews:
The Washington Post Book World
- Societal Expectations? Please. For the Female Protagonists in These 3 Debut Novels, It’s Time to Break the Mold
- In Remarkably Bright Creatures, an Octopus Tells a Feel-Good Story
The New York Times
San Francisco Chronicle
- Yearning, Love, and Regret at the Heart of Standout Stories Set in Central Valley (Manuel Muñoz’s The Consequences: Stories)
- Memoir Is a Candid and Engaging Reckoning with Fat Shaming, Recipes Included (Rabia Chaudry’s Fatty Fatty Boom Boom)
- In the Appalachian South, Resilience Takes Hold in Demon Copperhead
- In a 1950s Filmore Neighborhood, a Black Family Reaches for Musical Stardom (Margaret Wilkerson Sexton’s On the Rooftop)
- Story Collection Takes Aim at Aging with Wit, Sarcasm, and a Sexacapade or Two (Jane Campbell’s Cat Brushing)
- Knockout Collection of Stories Set in China and the U.S. Grapples With Chaos of Our Time (Meng Jin’s Self-Portrait With Ghost)
- Beautiful World, Where Are You: Gleefully Caught Again in Sally Rooney’s Web of Friendship-Courtship Entanglements
- Ash Davidson’s Damnation Spring: Knockout Debut Mines a Story of Family Love Set Against the Politics of Logging
- Memoir At the Chinese Table is Both Cookbook and Delicious Love Story
- Dana Spiotta’s Wayward: A Woman in Midlife Ditches Her Husband and Teenage Daughter. What Could Go Wrong?
- Love Short Stories? These Four Wide-Ranging Collections Don’t Disappoint
- Edie Puts an Honest Face on Dealing with Alzheimer’s
- Privileged Teens Take on San Francisco in We Run the Tides
- A Lie Someone Told You About Yourself is an Honest Take on Parenthood (and Abortion ) from Dad’s Perspective
- Be Gone, 2020! These 3 Books Could Help You Create a New You
- Memorial Explores the Elusive Boundaries of Love, Trust, and What It Means to Be Home
- In Miracle Country, Kendra Atleework Pays Tribute to Her Rural California Roots
- Hamnet Reimagines Shakespeare’s Little-Known Family Life
- A Registry of My Passage Upon the Earth Is a Collection of Short Marvels and Oddities
- How Much of These Hills Is Gold Is a Fierce Reimagining of the American West
- In Jordan Kisner’s Thin Places, 13 Essays Investigate America’s Contradictions
- AI Meets Gender Politics (and Sexbots) in Jeanette Winterson’s Smart and Witty Frankissstein
- Two Books by Bay Area Authors Present Women with Chutzpah in Spades (Cantoras by Carolina De Robertis and Chimerica by Anita Felicelli)
- Insightful, Personal Books Explore the Ongoing Fight for Gay Rights (Indecent Advances by James Polchin, Out of the Shadows: Reimagining Gay Men’s Lives by Walt Odets, and Cruising by Alex Espinoza)
- Dave Eggers’ The Parade Is an Intriguing Parable that Comes Up Short
- Death, Revisited: Where Reasons End, by Yiyun Li, and The White Book, by Han Kang
- New York Story: A Review of The Dakota Winters, by Tom Barbash
- Wild Ride: The Travelling Cat Chronicles, by Hiro Arikawa
- Unsheltered by Barbara Kingsolver
- My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh
- The Mars Room by Rachel Kushner
- The Recovering: Intoxication and Its Aftermath by Leslie Jamison
- The House of Broken Angels by Luis Alberto Urrea
- The Heart’s Invisible Furies by John Boyne
- What We Lose by Zinzi Clemmons
- Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
- Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward
- Made for Love by Alissa Nutting
- The Underworld by Kevin Canty
- All the News I Need by Joan Frank
- Woman No. 17 by Eden Lepucki
- Anything Is Possible by Elizabeth Strout
- Human Acts by Han Kang
- Moonglow by Michael Chabon
- Today Will Be Different by Maria Semple
- Commonwealth by Ann Patchett
- Pond by Claire Louise-Bennett
- The Girls by Emma Cline
- Imagine Me Gone by Adam Haslett
- Alice & Oliver by Charles Bock
- The Nest by Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney
- The Expatriates by Janice Y.K. Lee
- Avenue of Mysteries by John Irving
- The Tsar of Love and Techno by Anthony Marra
- Our Souls at Night by Kent Haruf
- The Secret Wisdom of the Earth by Christopher Scotton
- Painted Horses by Malcolm Brooks
Chicago Tribune
- When I Was White: At 27, Sarah Valentine Found Out Her Biological Father Was Black. A Chat About Her New Memoir.
- The Noble Hustle by Colson Whitehead
The Washington Post
- A Journal for Jordan by Dana Canedy
- Mission: Black List #1 by Eric Maddox
- Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
- The World Is What It Is by Patrick French
- Widows of Eastwick by John Updike
- Death with Interruptions by Jose Saramago
- Epilogue by Anne Roiphe
- What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami
- Real World by Natsuo Kirino
- All the Sad Young Literary Men by Keith Gessen
- The Man Who Made Lists by Joshua Kendall
- Freedom Manifesto by Tom Hodgkinson
- Fire in the Blood by Irene Nemirovsky
- Tomorrow by Graham Swift
- Before by Irini Spanidou
- The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears by Dinaw Mengestu
- Mothers and Sons by Colm Toibin
Bookforum
The Oregonian
- Phenomenal: A Hesitant Adventurer’s Search for Adventure in the Natural World by Leigh Ann Henion
- H Is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald
- Get in Trouble: Stories by Kelly Link
- All My Puny Sorrows by Miriam Toews
- A Backpack, a Bear, and Eight Crates of Vodka by Lev Golinkin
- The Betrayers by David Bezmozgis
- The Dog by Joseph O’Neill
- Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage by Haruki Murakami
- The Last Magazine by Michael Hastings
- Fourth of July Creek by Smith Henderson
- Wonderland by Stacey D’Erasmo
- Every Day Is for the Thief by Teju Cole
- The Plover by Brian Doyle
- Rules for Becoming a Legend by Timothy S. Lane
- Little Failure: A Memoir by Gary Shteyngart
- Want Not by Jonathan Miles
Alexis Burling 