The Standard Grand Jay Baron Nicorvo St. Martin’s Press Release Date: April 24, 2017 ISBN 978-1-25010-894-4 It’s rare when an author is able to take characters that are not exactly admirable, and makes them beautifully memorable, especially when the author does not shy away from that which makes them, well, […]
Exit West Mohsin Hamid Riverhead Books Release Date: March 7, 2017 ISBN 978-0-7352-1217-6 Immigration is a hot burner issue right now – who to welcome, who to keep out, if to welcome at all. What gets lost in the discussion, often, is the individual element of those fleeing war, fleeing […]
The Wanderers Meg Howrey G. P. Putnam’s Sons Release Date: March 14, 2017 ISBN 978-0-3995-7473-4 This book…wow. I read a lot of books; a lot of good books. But this one? Wow. The Wanderers is a work of fiction but it feels real, taking place in the imminent present day […]
Universal Harvester John Darnielle Ferrar, Straus and Giroux Release Date: February 7, 2017 ISBN 978-0-37428-210-3 Full disclosure: I grew up in Iowa, so John Darnielle’s new novel Universal Harvester has home field advantage in a play for my loyalty. After all, I already knew that Nevada, Iowa is pronounced Neh-VEY-dah, […]
The Wonder Emma Donoghue Little, Brown and Company Release Date: September 20, 2016 ISBN 978-0-316-39387-4 It’s 1859, and English nurse Lib Wright has been hired to travel to the Irish Midlands to observe a pending miracle – a young girl who for four months has supposedly subsisted only on “manna […]
Nicotine Nell Zink Ecco Publishing Release Date: October 6, 2016 ISBN 978-0-06-244170-6 I get it. Not all books are going to appeal to all people. But I have to admit, I don’t see what all the fuss is about when it comes to Nell Zink’s latest novel, Nicotine. Oh, it’s […]
The Princess Diarist Carrie Fisher Blue Rider Press Release Date: November 22, 2016 ISBN 978-0-3991-7359-2 In her 1984 semi-biographical novel Postcards from the Edge, readers were introduced to actor Carrie Fisher’s wry wit, her self-deprecating insight, and her lack of calculated artifice. Over 30 years later, The Princess Diarist bridges […]
Vinegar Girl (Hogarth Shakespeare) The Taming of the Shrew Retold Anne Tyler Hogarth Release Date: June 21, 2016 ISBN 978-0-8041-4126-0 In October of 2015, Hogarth, an imprint of the publishing giant Penguin Random House, launched a literary series where Shakespeare’s works would be “retold by acclaimed and bestselling novelists […]
Hag-Seed (Hogarth Shakespeare) Margaret Atwood Hogarth Release Date: October 11, 2016 ISBN 978-0-8041-4129-1 In October of 2015, Hogarth, an imprint of the publishing giant Penguin Random House, launched a literary series where Shakespeare’s works would be “retold by acclaimed and bestselling novelists of today.” Five out of a planned eight […]
Manitou Canyon William Kent Krueger Atria Books Release Date: September 6, 2016 ISBN 978-1-4767-4926-6 Cork O’Connor, former sheriff and now private investigator in the North Woods of Minnesota sure has longevity; well, for a literary character. Manitou Canyon is the 15th book in the Cork O’Connor series by William Kent […]
On this day, December 3, in 1857, Joseph Conrad was born in Berdichev, Imperial Russia (modern
Ukraine, then a part of Poland). While he settled in England and wrote in English, he always considered himself a Pole. Heart of Darkness, one of the most famous of his 20 novels (which explores colonialism and the attitudes regarding what constitutes a barbarian versus civilized society) is considered one of the best English novels of the 20th century, as is his novel Lord Jim, which chronicles a crew’s abandonment of its disabled ship. Conrad died in England in 1924 at age 66.