Book Reviews

Michelle Tea's previous books include Rent Girl and Mermaid in Chelsea Creek.

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Arts

'How To Grow Up' Needs To Grow Up

3:05pm January 28, 2015

by Michael Schaub

Poet, novelist, memoirist and queer icon Michelle Tea makes a rare misstep in How to Grow Up, an essay collection that reviewer Michael Schaub calls "a well-intentioned, exasperating mess of a book."

Books
Arts

'Mr. Mac' Paints Flowers In A Darkening World

1:53pm January 27, 2015

by Heller McAlpin

Esther Freud's new novel Mr. Mac and Me traces an unlikely friendship between a lonely boy and a struggling artist. Reviewer Heller McAlpin says the book has both technical prowess and grace.

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'The Jaguar's Children' Is Ripped From Heartbreaking Headlines

1:09pm January 27, 2015

by Alan Cheuse

Critic Alan Cheuse says John Vaillant's intense tale of illegal immigrants trapped in a tanker truck in the Arizona desert expands a single terrible story into a history of human suffering.

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Arts

For A Taste Of Grimdark, Visit The 'Land Fit For Heroes'

3:01pm January 26, 2015

by Genevieve Valentine

Richard K. Morgan's epic sword-and-planet (and alien technology) Land Fit for Heroes series is a good introduction to grimdark, a subgenre that aims to show the gritty underside of fantasy fiction.

One of Megan Mayhew Bergman's short stories is based on the life of dancer and actress Butterfly McQueen.

Books
Arts

These 13 'Almost Famous Women' Stirred Up Trouble, Or Trouble Found Them

2:17pm January 26, 2015

by Maureen Corrigan

Megan Mayhew Bergman's stories about historical women are littered with bad-girl paraphernalia, like smashed-up motorcycles and morphine needles. In this collection, their lives are richly imagined.

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Mo Yan won the Nobel Prize for literature in 2012.

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Arts

Do You Have To Read 'Frog'? No, But You Might Want To

11:35am January 26, 2015

by Jason Sheehan

Reviewer Jason Sheehan says Mo Yan's Frog is not without issues, but still offers a thoughtful tale of a dark era in modern Chinese history, touched with humor and occasional magic.

Books
Arts

'The Galaxy Game' Is Rich And Strong As A Shot Of Rum

4:24pm January 23, 2015

by Amal El-Mohtar

Karen Lord's new The Galaxy Game picks up where her previous novel, The Best of All Possible Worlds, left off — in a complicated galactic civilization trying to come to terms with a genocide.

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'Golden Son' Is Space Opera That Doesn't Forget The Opera

4:23pm January 23, 2015

by Jason Sheehan

Pierce Brown's followup to last year's Romans-in-space epic Red Rising is bigger, louder, and bloodier than its predecessor. Reviewer Jason Sheehan says it isn't perfect — but it is hard to put down.

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Delicious Short Stories, Ripe On The Vine In 'Honeydew'

2:06pm January 22, 2015

by Alan Cheuse

Reviewer Alan Cheuse has rapturous praise for Edith Pearlman's new story collection: "The first thing I wanted to do after finishing was, well, I wanted to go right back and start from the beginning."

Author Scott Blackwood based See How Small on a real incident, a multiple murder at an Austin, Texas, frozen yogurt shop in 1991.

Books
Arts

The Vastness Of Violent Loss In 'See How Small'

1:57pm January 22, 2015

by Michael Schaub

Scott Blackwood's new novel, based on a real murder case, follows a community rocked by the slaying of three teenage girls. Reviewer Michael Schaub calls it "brutal, necessary and near perfect."