The Refugees: Stories, by Viet Thanh Nguyen In celebration of #ShortStoryMonth, this week’s rec looks at another great story collection I’ve read and recommended this year. Fans of The Sympathizer, Nguyen’s debut novel that won the Pulitzer Prize in 2016, will find much of what they loved in the author’s […]
On Tuesday – International Women’s Day – the longlist for the Baileys Woman’s Prize for Fiction was announced. The British prize, now in its 10th year, celebrates excellence, originality and accessibility in women’s writing from throughout the world. Works on the longlist include: A God in Ruins by Kate Atkinson […]
Bridge, by Robert Thomas “Welcome to the prayer-strewn pews of my brain,” Alice, the narrator of Bridge tells us, and quickly, we understand that this intellectually gifted young woman sees the world, and herself, in unconventional, and often dangerous ways. Robert Thomas’s powerful debut novel, published by BOA Editions in […]
The Kirkus Prize is one of the richest literary awards in the world, with a prize of $50,000 bestowed annually to authors of fiction, non-fiction and young readers’ literature. It was created to celebrate the 81 years of discerning, thoughtful criticism Kirkus Reviews has contributed to both the publishing industry and readers […]
I was reading a book the other day. It was a very good book, extremely well written, very imaginative. The images it evoked were sharp and emotive; it was clear what the author was trying to convey, her motives unfolded sensibly and organically. This particular book had been very well […]
From the Guardian UK: According to Neil Gaiman, writers should be less mammalian. But can you build a literary career by casting your work into the wind? The Guardian UK published a piece on the varying changes in publishing, prompted by their hosting of Neil Gaiman’s podcast on the site. […]
Recently, there has been quite the hoopla surrounding what many are calling the sexist and obligatory “good ole boys” response to the gender issues in SciFi and Fantasy fiction. More specifically, the SciFi and Fantasy Writers of America’s (SFWA) response to a controversial cover of the organization’s Bulletin that was […]
Fiction Romance Writers of America Golden Heart winner Anne Barton’s next two Regency-set historical romances in the Honeycote family series, again to Selina McLemore at Forever, by Helen Breitwieser at Cornerstone Literary (World). ________________________________________________________ Christine Woodward’s ROGUE TOUCH, to Elisabeth Dyssegaard at Hyperion, by Peter Steinberg at The Steinberg Agency‘s […]
If fairytales are to be believed, then every little girl awaits her knight in shining armor. Unless, of course, you live outside of 1952. Fiction, really great fiction, disrupts stereotypes, subverts the models of common acceptance and asks that simple truths be revealed; that is why these types of stories […]
Trader of Secrets Steve Martini William Morrow ISBN-13: 978-0-06-193023-2 ▬ᴥ▬ Steve Martini’s Trader of Secrets is the 12th book in the Paul Madriani series. In Martini’s latest, attorney Paul Madriani and his law partner, Harry Hinds find themselves pursuing a killer who is determined to kill them as well as […]
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.