"The Chinese Jars" is both a breezy, classic noir murder mystery, as well as an entertaining character-rich novel which mines the kind of intrigue specific to a time before cellphones and the Internet, and to a city rooted in old... Read More

A visit to the website of photographer Joseph B. Hendrix can result in some serious procrastination as one begins to explore the rich color images of European castles, lakeside villages, military sites, royal palaces, and other... Read More

Cancer memoirs, if it’s not too insensitive to say, are multiplying daily, and while that’s probably good—everyone has a slightly different medical story and perspective worth hearing—too few allow the reader in on as many levels... Read More

When braiding hair or challah bread dough, the original strands that make up the overlapping finished product are the same texture and composition; the result, if done well, is satisfying enough, though not especially nuanced. How... Read More

It is said that there are no new stories, only new ways of telling the same ones: jealousy, revenge, ambition, and of course, love—imperfect love, unrequited love, and naturally, inconvenient love that crosses taboo boundaries. This... Read More

Whit Hill’s memoir is engaging and interesting, but is it not about Madonna? It’s not. That’s okay. Expecting a memoir by Madonna’s pre-fame roommate to not be about Madonna may be like expecting a minor member of the Jackson... Read More

Each year, Graywolf Press publishes the winner of the Bakeless Prize for Nonfiction, and neither the publisher nor the Breadloaf Writers Conference (which administers the Prize) has put forward a wrong foot yet. Mary Jane Nealon’s... Read More

"The Redemption of George Baxter Henry" is a f\#^ing entertaining romp—and if a reader is put off by that description, there’s little chance of enjoying Conor Bowman’s off-handed, tightly structured little book about a middle-aged... Read More