Book Reviews

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Arts

'The Changeling' Is, Itself, A Changeling Of A Book

7:00am June 17, 2017

by Amal El-Mohtar

Victor LaValle's story of a rare book dealer whose life is torn apart after his wife commits an act of violence and vanishes is by turns enchanting, horrifying, infuriating and heartbreaking.

Books
Arts

2 Families Cruise Toward Catastrophe In 'Do Not Become Alarmed'

3:57pm June 15, 2017

by Maureen Corrigan

Maile Meloy's novel centers on two families whose children go missing during an international vacation. Maureen Corrigan read it in two nights and says it's a "very smart work of literary fiction."

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Books
Arts

In 'The Chalk Artist,' A Plea For Real-World Connection

7:00am June 15, 2017

by Heller McAlpin

While the love story in Allegra Goodman's latest novel can seem formulaic, she captures the allure of video gaming and the tension between real-world art and literature and the fantasy worlds online.

Books
Arts

'Mormama' Is A House Built On Quicksand

1:00pm June 14, 2017

by Amal El-Mohtar

Kit Reed's would-be Southern Gothic chiller starts strong, with an amnesiac man stumbling into a house haunted by family secrets — but is ultimately undone by issues of plot, pacing and voice work.

The Show that Never Ends, by David Weigel

Prog Rock Gets Some Respect In 'The Show That Never Ends'

12:33pm June 13, 2017

by Jason Heller

David Weigel is primarily a political reporter, but in The Show that Never Ends he spins his love of prog rock into a detailed, affectionate history of a genre that's never completely gone away.

Books
Arts

'So Much Blue' Is Percival Everett's Best Yet

10:56am June 13, 2017

by Michael Schaub

By turns funny, shocking and heartbreaking, Everett's new novel follows a painter who's deeply ambivalent about his apparently idyllic life and digs into the moments in his past that shaped him.

The Last Kid Left: A Novel, by Rosecrans Baldwin.

Books
Arts

'Last Kid Left' Is A Summer Read For People Who Hate The Light

7:00am June 11, 2017

by Jason Sheehan

Rosecrans Baldwin's new novel probably shouldn't have come out in summer: It's got the trappings of a beach read — a shore town, tourists, a murder — but it strays into some very dark territory.

Books
Arts

Beach Reads You Need: Four Sandy Summer Romances

10:00am June 10, 2017

by Maya Rodale

Our monthly romance roundup rolls on with four beach-appropriate reads for June, from the supernatural to the astronomical to an old-fashioned tale of family lost and found when you least expect it.

Books
Arts

'The Essex Serpent' Spreads Its Wings

7:00am June 10, 2017

by Annalisa Quinn

Sarah Perry's historical novel is gloriously alive, teeming with bugs, moss and marsh, unconventional spirits and a darker undercurrent of fear about a legendary monster haunting the Essex coast.

Books
Arts

'The Alice Network' Is A Crackling Tale Of Spies And Suspense

7:00am June 08, 2017

by Jean Zimmerman

Set in 1947, Kate Quinn's novel follows two indomitable women, a math whiz and a retired spy, in a truly fabulous car as they pursue a quest through war-torn Europe in search of a missing relative.