Book Review
What I'd Rather Not Think About
In Jente Posthuma’s bittersweet novel What I’d Rather Not Think About, a woman who is bereft after her twin brother’s suicide searches to understand his mental illness. The fraternal twins at the center of the story have peculiar...
Book Review
In Vitro
Mexican poet Isabel Zapata probes the enduring mysteries of pregnancy and birth in "In Vitro", a memoir in fragments that travels from fertility treatment through to the early weeks of pandemic-time motherhood. “I want to shatter the...
Book Review
My Mother Says
In Stine Pilgaard’s novel "My Mother Says", an eccentric woman who faces roadblocks in her academic career and relationships uses humor to sidestep her pain. After breaking up with her zookeeper girlfriend over their age gap and their...
Book Review
Veganistan
In "Veganistan", Sally Butcher spotlights Middle Eastern and Mediterranean flavors through spice-rich, plant-based meals. Butcher and her Persian husband run Persepolis in London, a restaurant where “the Middle East is Allah’s gift...
Book Review
The Distance from Slaughter County
Steven Moore’s nuanced, hypnotic essays about growing up in the Midwest balance nostalgia with critique, sharing childhood memories that were formative to his identity. An Iowan now based in Oregon, Moore has insider knowledge and an...
Book Review
The Lichen Museum
Art professor A. Laurie Palmer’s musing interdisciplinary work "The Lichen Museum" draws life lessons from often-overlooked organisms. Lichens, Palmer notes, have served as food, drink, dye, and decoration for millennia, though their...
Book Review
All of Us Together in the End
In his pensive memoir, Matthew Vollmer investigates the blinking lights that appeared in the woods soon after his mother’s death. In 2019, Vollmer’s mother died of complications of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. Months later, his...
Book Review
God's Ex-Girlfriend
In her memoir God’s Ex-Girlfriend, Gloria Beth Amodeo is candid about how she was drawn into evangelical Christianity—and about how she came to see it as a “common American cult” involving unhealthy relationship dynamics and...