Book Reviews

Tiffanie Drayton tells the story of coming to the U.S. as an immigrant child and discovering that no level of accomplishment would enable her to shake the burden of Blackness in this nation.

Valentine's Day reminds us we can relearn and redefine what it means to love and be loved. So, we offer some books, songs, and movies about passion, devotion, and relationships to take on the journey.

Manguso made a name for herself in minutely observed memoirs. Now she uses fiction to write about what it is to feel poor, poorly nurtured, and inadequately loved in a class-conscious town.

In 1970, Hansen began a 12-novel series about Dave Brandstetter, an insurance investigator who happens to be gay. Reading now, it's clear that Hansen was one of the great crime writers of his time.

Emily Maloney's essay collection is an indictment of the exorbitant costs of staying alive in America, and the weight of being hounded by a debt that reduces your life to dollars and cents.

In his debut thriller, Brendan Slocumb employs polemic about racism to great effect as he reminds us that the high-toned world of classical music suffers from, and because of, racism.

Phyllis Fischer, a 40-year-old wife and mother, is drawn into a liberating relationship with a much younger man. She soon realizes that perhaps she wasn't so content as she thought.

In each of these stories — Full Flight, Required Reading for the Disenfranchised Freshman, Ophelia After All — a girl stands at a junction in her life, on the brink of deciding who she wants to be.

There are notable parallels to The Brothers Karamazov in Lan Samantha Chang's new novel about three brothers and the contentious relationship between them and their domineering father.

Kim Fu's book contains 12 stories that peel away layers of normalcy to reveal weird, creepy things; though very different from each other, they share elements, giving the collection a sense of unity.