Litstack Rec: Earn It! and Viva Frida
Earn It! by Cinders McLeod This is the perfect gift for young readers on your list, because it's never too...
Lauren Alwan
Lauren Alwan’s fiction has appeared in the O. Henry Prize Stories, the Southern Review, the Alaska Quarterly Review, StoryQuarterly, in the Bellevue Literary Review. She is the recipient of a First Pages Prize, the Goldenberg Prize for Fiction, and.a citation of Notable in Best American Essays. Her essays have appeared in ZYZZYVA, Catapult, World Literature Today, The Rumpus, The Millions, Writer's Digest, and others. She is a prose editor at the museum of americana, an online literary review. Follow her on Twitter at @lauren_alwan and learn more at www.laurenalwan.com
Litstack Recs: The Romanoffs & The Burning Light
The Romanoffs, by Matthew Weiner The thing I love most about linked story collections is the strategy of slow accrual....
Litstack Recs: An Unnecessary Woman & Lethal White
An Unnecessary Woman, by Rabih Alameddine “I like outsiders,” Aaliya Sohbi tells us, “phantoms wandering the cobwebbed halls of the...
Litstack Recs: Two New Titles from WTAW Press & Us
Two New Titles from WTAW Press Northern California's newest independent press has just released its 2018 titles: Unnatural Habitats and...
Litstack Rec: Bridge & The Stargazer’s Sister
Bridge, by Robert Thomas “Welcome to the prayer-strewn pews of my brain,” Alice, the narrator of Bridge tells us, and...
LitStack Recs: By Nightfall & The Wanderers
By Nightfall, by Michael Cunningham Peter and Rebecca Harris are forty-something New Yorkers, well-off, hip, empty-nesters. Peter is an art...
LitStack Rec: Little Failure & United States of Japan
Little Failure: A Memoir, by Gary Shteyngart "In order for me to be born," Gary Shteyngart says early on in...
LitStack Recs: Sense and Sensibility Screenplay and Diaries & Brotherhood of the Wheel
The Sense and Sensibility Screenplay and Diaries, by Emma Thompson There's enough left of summer to fit in at least...
LitStaff Rec: A House for Mr Biswas & Pride’s Spell
A House For Mr Biswas, by V.S. Naipaul This past week, we lost a giant when V.S. Naipaul died in...
Litstack Recs: The Tall Book of Make-Believe & The Last Days of New Paris
The Tall Book of Make-Believe ed. Jane Werner Illustrated by Garth Williams Well beyond the age it's intended for, this...
Litstack Rec: The Refugees & The Hummingbird
The Refugees: Stories, by Viet Thanh Nguyen Fans of The Sympathizer, Nguyen's debut novel that won the Pulitzer Prize in...
LitStack Recs: How to Read to Read a Sentence and How to Write One & American Elsewhere
How to Read to Read a Sentence and How to Write One, by Stanley Fish For writers, the sentence is...
LitStack Recs: A Time of Gifts & Wolf in White Van
A Time of Gifts: On Foot to Constantinople, by Patrick Leigh Fermor A classic of the travel memoir genre, A...
LitStack Rec – The Coast of Chicago & Red Rising
The Coast of Chicago by Stuart Dybek May is Short Story Month, so this month I'll be looking at story...
LitStack Recs: Passage to Ararat & Borderline
Passage to Ararat, by Michael J. Arlen Tuesday, April 24, marked a sober anniversary, 103 years since the Armenian genocide,...
LitStack Review: Earn It! by Cinders McLeod
Earn It! by Cinders McLeod (Nancy Paulsen Books, 2017) Teaching children financial literacy—knowing how money works and having the skills...
Litstack Rec: Patrimony & Biggie
Patrimony: A True Story, by Philip Roth Roth's 1991 memoir charts the illness and death of his father, Herman Roth,...
LitStack Recs: Green Thoughts & Nightwise
Green Thoughts: A Writer in the Garden, by Eleanor Perényi If you're a writer who gardens, Eleanor Perényi writes in...
LitStack Recs: The Death of the Heart & God’s War
The Death of the Heart, by Elizabeth Bowen Even though it's spring, there may be snow and frigid temperatures outside...
LitStack Rec: Out of Place & Miranda and Caliban
Out of Place: A Memoir, by Edward Said Edward Said, the prolific author, political activist, pianist, and music critic rose...
LitStack Rec: Arranged Marriage: Stories & This Case Is Gonna Kill Me
Arranged Marriage: Stories, by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni Acclaimed poet, novelist, and story writer Chitra Banerjee Divrakaruni’s first book of fiction...
LitStack Rec: Epilogue: A Memoir & Hounded
Epilogue: A Memoir, by Will Boast Both a remembrance and a elegiac account of the loss of a family, Boast's...
Litstaff Rec: The Oysters of Locmariaquer & Longbourn
The Oysters of Locmariaquer, by Eleanor Clark Late in Eleanor Clark’s extraordinary book, she tells us the oyster needs the...
LitStack Rec: The Films in My Life & Slow River
The Films in My Life, by Francois Truffaut The revered French filmmaker, who would have been eighty-six this year, is...
Litstack Rec: Thunderstruck & Other Stories & Kitchens of the Great Midwest
Thunderstruck & Other Stories, by Elizabeth McCracken Early on in Elizabeth McCracken’s extraordinary story collection, Thunderstruck, a grieving mother instructs...
Litstack Rec: Selected Stories & Gemini Cell
Selected Stories, by William Trevor A volume of stories by William Trevor is a reader's must-have, and this 2009 collection...
Litstack Rec: Spielberg, Truffaut and Me & The Wanderers
Spielberg, Truffaut and Me: An Actor's Diary, by Bob Balaban In the summer of 1976, during the first weeks of...
LitStack Rec: Werewolves in Their Youth & Safe From the Sea
Werewolves in Their Youth: Stories, by Michael Chabon Not all scary stories are for Halloween. Michael Chabon's, Werewolves in Their...
LitStack Recs: Life Drawing & Viva Frida
Life Drawing, by Robin Black “Nobody outside a marriage can understand it,” the narrator of Life Drawing tells us. Augusta...
LitStack Recs: Top reads & Winterdance
Are books, and stories, getting better? That is, are they getting richer, stronger, and more compelling? My answer is an...
LitStack Recs: Speedbumps & The Human Division
Speedbumps: Flooring It Through Hollywood, by Teri Garr Think of Teri Garr, the legendary actress turns 70 on December 11,...
LitStack Rec: Anna May Wong & We Were Liars
Anna May Wong: From Laundryman’s Daughter to Hollywood Legend, by Graham Russell Gao Hodges Don’t be misled by the tabloid...
2017 National Book Award Winners
At the November 15th National Book Awards, Jesmyn Ward was awarded her second prize in the Fiction category for her...
Litstack Review: And There Was Evening And There Was Morning, by Mike Smith
And There was Evening And There Was Morning, Essays on Illness, Loss, and Love, by Mike Smith (WTAW Press) “Mourning,”...
Litstack Rec: The Goldfinch & Doctor Sleep
The Goldfinch, by Donna Tartt The reception Donna Tartt garnered for her third novel—it washer first in twelve years—was called...
LitStack Rec: Jerusalem: A Cookbook & Exit West
Jerusalem: A Cookbook, by Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi Some cookbooks are defined by a generation. Your grandmother’s shelf likely...
LitStack Rec: Out of Place & Landscape with Invisible Hand
Out of Place: A Memoir, by Edward Said Edward Said, the prolific author, political activist, pianist, and critic who would...
Litstack Rec: Blood Will Out & Vinegar Girl
Blood Will Out, by Walter Kirn In Preston Sturges’ romantic comedy, “The Palm Beach Story,” Claudette Colbert plays Gerry, reluctant...
Litstack Rec: Barbarian Days & The Echo
Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life, by William Finnegan William Finnegan's 2016 memoir begins with an epigraph from Edward St. Aubyn's...
LitStack Rec: Little Failure: A Memoir & Back Roads and Frontal Lobes
Little Failure: A Memoir, by Gary Shteyngart "In order for me to be born," Gary Shteyngart says early on in...
Litstack Rec: The Lesson of the Master and A Land More Kind Than Home
The Lesson of the Master, by Henry James Colm Tóibín, in his introduction to the 2007 edition of Henry James'...
Litstack Rec: The Hermit in the Garden & A City Dreaming
The Hermit in the Garden: From Imperial Rome to Ornamental Gnome, by Gordon Campbell You may not know it, but...
Etsy’s Book Inspired Bags
Count it as a good thing whenever books make a crossover into the everyday. And that would include this recent...
LitStack Rec – The Marriage Plot & Leviathan Wakes
The Marriage Plot, by Jeffery Eugenides “Heartbreak is funny to everyone but the heartbroken.” That ironic reflection comes early the...
Litstack Rec: An Unnecessary Woman & Extraordinary Adventures
An Unnecessary Woman, by Rabih Alameddine “I like outsiders,” Aaliya Sohbi tells us, “phantoms wandering the cobwebbed halls of the...
LitStack Rec: The Good Soldier & Pride’s Spell
The Good Soldier, by Ford Madox Ford If this novel had been published under the title the author selected, The...
LitStack Rec: Desperate Characters & The Last Days of Magic
Desperate Characters, by Paula Fox This classic of literary fiction, first published in 1970, serves too as a classic example...
LitStack Rec: Commonwealth & All the Birds in the Sky
Commonwealth, by Ann Patchett Of divorce, Nicole Krauss wrote, "One of us held on to the ambition of the one...
LitStack Rec: The Portable Veblen & Wait Till Next Year
The Portable Veblen, by Elizabeth McKenzie By way of Anne Lamott, we know the novelist Ethan Canin once remarked, “Nothing...
LitStack Rec: Stoner & Cradle to the Stage
Stoner, by John Williams John Williams’ 1965 novel went out of print after selling only 2,000 copies, but since its...
