Book Reviews

Reprinted from I Was Their American Dream (copyright 2019 by Malaka Gharib).

Books
Arts

In 'I Was Their American Dream,' It's Culture, Not Color, That Matters

2:05pm April 30, 2019

by Etelka Lehoczky

Even as NPR editor Malaka Gharib makes light of herself in her high-spirited graphical memoir, her wisdom about the power and limits of racial identity is evident in the way she draws.

Books
Arts

Ali Smith's 'Spring' Unfolds Like A Fern

7:00am April 30, 2019

by Heller McAlpin

The latest volume in Smith's seasonal quartet revisits some of her familiar themes — the bleakness of contemporary politics, loss, fractured families, nature and art — yet still feels spring-fresh.

Books
Arts

Whatever Your Feelings On Football, 'Fumbled' Scores Big

10:00am April 28, 2019

by Denny S. Bryce

Alexa Martin is married to a former NFL player, and she puts that experience to good use in her latest football romance — a witty, sexy story about a determined single mom rediscovering an old love.

Books
Arts

How A 'Mama's Boy' And His Mama Found A Path Beyond Politics

8:58am April 28, 2019

by Lulu Garcia-Navarro

Screenwriter Dustin Lance Black's new book is a memoir of his relationship with his mother, and how they found a way forward after he came out as gay and left the Mormon church that she loved.

Books
Arts

In 'Any Other Place,' Struggling With The Feeling That Something's Not Right

7:00am April 28, 2019

by Michael Schaub

Most of the people Michael Croley's debut story collection feel like they don't belong, even in the places they call home — and Croley conjures that unsettled feeling in understated, beautiful prose.

April is National Poetry Month. From left to right, poets: Kaveh Akbar, Fatimah Asghar, Ada Limon, Hieu Minh Nguyen and Ashley M. Jones.

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Arts

A Bouquet Of Poets For National Poetry Month

6:01am April 28, 2019

Looks like this year, April showers brought April flowers. As in, a bouquet of outstanding poets. So stop and smell the roses, my friends.

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Books
Arts

'Inspection' Doesn't Quite Live Up To Its Surprising Premise

1:07pm April 27, 2019

by Bethanne Patrick

Josh Malerman's latest imagines two towers full of boys and girls, raised in isolation and ignorance of the opposite sex, but spends too much time creating a world and not enough on its consequences.

Books
Arts

This Graphic Novel Brings Gaiman's 'American Gods' To Chilly Life

10:00am April 27, 2019

by Etelka Lehoczky

Artist Scott Hampton has a big job in this second volume of an ambitions, three-book adaptation of Neil Gaiman's American Gods: Depict Gaiman's deadly serious characters without making them quaint.

The Heartland: An American History, by Kristin L. Hoganson

'The Heartland' Aims To Debunk Myths About The Midwest

2:00pm April 25, 2019

by Bradley Babendir

Though leaving no answer to the region's political future, author Kristin L. Hoganson writes a deeply researched book that will remain useful and readable long after this election cycle.

Books
Arts

'The Beneficiary' Weighs The Emotional Heft Of Inheritance

2:04pm April 24, 2019

by Maureen Corrigan

Janny Scott, a biographer and award-winning reporter for The New York Times, has written a vivid and penetrating memoir about her own illustrious family.

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