Tracking her rise from humble beginnings to acclaimed author and self-made anthropologist, Peter Bagge's Fire!!: The Zora Neale Hurston Story charts the life of the Harlem Renaissance's most famous woman writer, fast-forwarding through her life in bold technicolor to give us the woman, the myth, the legend: Zora Neale Hurston. Born in 1891 to former … Continue reading Fire!!: The Zora Neale Hurston Story: A Review
I've written a lot about the need for diversity in kidlit, and New Zealander illustrator Katie O'Neill's Princess Princess Ever After hits on all the right notes. Told through O'Neill's vibrant depictions, this love story of two young princesses saving towns from monsters and fighting back against dark magic will delight readers of all ages. … Continue reading Princess Princess Ever After: A Review
If you haven't heard of The Girl on the Train by now, I'm quite surprised you found this review. The smash-hit thriller from Paula Hawkins has had everyone talking since its release in 2015, and for good reason: The Girl on the Train is the kind of mystery novel that can hook even the most … Continue reading The Girl on the Train: A Review
A few writing books have become must-reads for any aspiring English-language novelist: Stephen King's On Writing, Ursula K. Le Guin's Steering the Craft, William Zinsser's On Writing Well. This year, Colum McCann's Letters to a Young Writer: Some Practical and Philosophical Advice joins that list. Consisting of 52 essays crammed with no-nonsense advice, Letters is … Continue reading Letters to a Young Writer: A Review
The best kind of short-story collection doesn't so much contain digestible vignettes as offer up chewy, meaty Everlasting Gobstoppers for reader consumption and reflection. Roxane Gay's Difficult Women does exactly that. The stories in Difficult Women range from hard realism to flights of fancy. People made of glass stand alongside kidnapping victims and the children … Continue reading Difficult Women: A Review: