One of the secret benefits of being a contributor to a site like Book Riot is that I benefit from the vast reading lives of the other contributors. As a result of their enthusiasm, I’ve been much more open into exploring the world of comics over the last several months. I like to try out [...]
Book Review
I knew that The Lonely War by journalist Nazila Fathi was going to be a great read as soon as I finished the preface. In just six pages, Fathi gave, perhaps, the most clear, succinct and balanced account of the Iranian Revolution – a 1979 uprising that replaced the Iranian shah with a radical Islamic [...]
“Now reading her letters, I knew more about the woman I thought I loved. Or maybe I knew less. Maybe what I knew was that there was more mystery and hurt than I could have imagined. Maybe the world has been bad to its great and unusual women. Maybe there wasn’t a worthy place for [...]
The six women featured in Judith Mackrell’s Flappers: Six Women of a Dangerous Generation are not the most famous women of the Jazz Age. But the stories of Josephine Baker, Tallulah Bankhead, Diana Cooper, Nancy Cunard, Zelda Fitzgerald, and Tamara de Lempicka are wonderful illustrations of the challenge in forming identity and a life with [...]
In 1895, Tsar Nicholas Romanov II and his wife, Tsarita Alexandra, welcomed their first child into the world. Although the Tsar and Tsarita were thrilled with their daughter, Olga, much of the Russian populace was concerned because, of course, the dynasty needed a son. When the Tsarita gave birth to three more daughters — Tatiana [...]
One of the things I try to do when I write mini-reviews is find a way to tie the two books together. I don’t think this is necessary, but I think it’s a good challenge. It took me awhile, but I realized yesterday what the two books I’m going to write about today have in common: [...]
One of the things that started to bug me in 2014 was my contribution to the “cult of busy” or “the busy trap” – the way people have of lamenting how busy they are in such a way that it becomes a kind of humblebrag, a complaint disguised as a boast to show how important [...]
In addition to writing about books here at the blog, I’m also lucky enough to do some freelance reviewing. Most of it is for The Cap Times, a weekly news site in Madison, Wisconsin. I interned at the paper when I was in grad school and continued to do some writing about books when I lived [...]
One of the unexpected benefits of slowing down my blogging pace this year is that I’ve only been reviewing books that I really feel compelled to talk about. Today I’ve got two books that I want to shout about from the rooftops and that, I’m almost certain, will make my favorite fiction of the year [...]
I hate starting out blog posts with apologies, but this tweet from Andi (Estella’s Revenge) pretty much sums up life over the last couple of weeks: Why did the “I’m too busy to breathe” slumps have to hit during #nonficnov? — Andi Miller (@estellasrevenge) November 17, 2014 I had high hopes for a thoughtful, nuanced [...]
