book recommendations
-
Anna March’s Reading Mixtape #27: True Stories
These are extraordinary stories, exceptionally well-told. In a world where too many storytellers don’t tell truths, these writers do. Each one of these authors is steadfast and loyal, fierce and open, generous and unflinching. Their works deeply satisfy. Every story here…
-
Anna March’s Reading Mixtape #26: Fiction I Read and Loved This Summer
Not a one of these is a “beach read,” though I read many of them on the beach. Every one of these novels and short story collections transported me deeper into myself. Every one of these books excited me and…
-
Is That Book for Jocks or Nerds?
There is virtually no end to lists that attempt to catalog the best books in history, but what about a list that scrutinizes whether a book suits a jock sensibility or a nerd sensibility? Over at the Toast, Bridget Gibson…
-
Anna March’s Reading Mixtape #14: Memoirs about Hard Times and Beauty
I love memoirs about difficult times that don’t sugarcoat it, that don’t pretty it up. I love a memoir that finds the beauty—there is such an unbelievable amount of beauty in this world—without handing out a Hollywood ending, without dipping…
-
Don’t (Blurb) Speak
Wallace coined the helpful term “blurbspeak,” which he defined as “a very special subdialect of English that’s partly hyperbole, but it’s also phrases that sound really good and are very compelling in an advertorial sense, but if you think about…