I Kissed Shara Wheeler by Casey McQuiston. Wednesday Books, 2022. $19.99, 368 pages.
“It’s not that Shara is that important; it’s just that, without her, Chloe’s not sure what the point of anything is.”
We all have a Shara. The …
Book Review
Scale Model of a Country at Dawn
Scale Model of a Country at Dawn by John Sibley Williams. Small Press Distribution, 2022. $18.95, 102 pages.
Scale Model of a Country at Dawn by John Sibley Williams is a collection of poetry offering a view of his inner …
At the End of Everything
How do you feel fear? Do you freeze as the world around you slows to a blur? Do you run, hoping that your feet can keep up with the ground beneath them long enough? Do you fight either to protect yourself or those around you, ignoring the consequences of bruises that will last days after the fear stops? In the Hope Juvenile Treatment Center, knowing how you feel fear is synonymous with staying alive. Fear is taught on day one of being inside Hope, with guards that snap like twigs breaking off in the wind. That is, until one night when all the guards disappear and fear takes on an entirely new name.
Hello, Molly! – Asia Edit
Hello, Molly! by Molly Shannon and Sean Wilsey. Harper Collins, 2022. $27.99, 304 pages.
Humor allows us to build ourselves back up after we’ve been knocked down.
Comedian and actor Molly Shannon recounts a childhood marked by tragedy in her …
The Teller of Secrets
The Teller of Secrets by Bisi Adjapon. HarperVia, 2021. $26.99, 352 pages.
“Why do we women act as if men are so frail we need to hurt ourselves to make them look
strong? And look at how Auntie always gives …
Ophelia After All
Ophelia After All by Racquel Marie. Feiwel & Friends Publishing, 2022. $17, 352 pages.
She is just like any other 17-year-old! She’s a pretty, witty, rose-gardening, prom-obsessed,
boy-loving girl. She’s Ophelia, after all! Or is she?
Racquel Marie’s debut YA …
A God at the Door
This poetry collection is Tishani Doshi’s eighth book. The collection is separated into five sections and covers everything from war and the inevitability of death to systemic misogyny, most of it being inspired by events, people, or other published pieces from the past and present.
The Sentence
The Sentence is the latest novel from Louise Erdrich, a prolific, Pulitzer prize-winning author of Ojibwe descent. It is a sprawling work that chronicles main character Tookie’s journey from one-time body smuggler who wanted to impress a girl and earn $26,000 to incarcerated person to bookstore employee and wife. While The Sentence sells itself as a ghost story and is certainly not lacking in the ghost department, it is primarily a pandemic story, illustrating how the onset of COVID-19 affects Tookie, her husband and her stepdaughter as well as her family of bookstore co-workers.
No Gods, No Monsters
What would you do if, on a random Tuesday morning, you came across a video showing police body cam footage of a werewolf being shot? Would you believe it? Would you care? Cadwell Turnbull’s No Gods, No Monsters poses the question: what if everything that goes bump in the night were real and how would we treat them?
White Smoke
“You ever wake up in bed and feel like you’re not...alone?”
Shadows pass through the hallways and rooms. Kitchen cabinets open and dishes show up in places they weren’t before. Voices seep through the walls. And if she hears one more creak in this old, dusty house, she’s going to scream. She tries to brush her fears under the non-existent rug, but a much more sinister truth awaits her.
