Book Review
Wise Women
A triumphant antidote to the falsities spread about women’s aging, "Wise Women" is a solace- and life-giving collection of fairy and folk tales. Knowing that older women in beloved tales are too often crones and villains, inculcating...
Book Review
Masquerade
An enigmatic discovery is the impetus for a faltering man to rethink an old friendship and a recent, raw breakup in the sinuous, surprising novel "Masquerade". Once, Meadow planned to become a doctor in the humanities; now, he works at a...
Book Review
Yoke & Feather
Jessie van Eerden’s glittering essay collection Yoke & Feather is a work of exquisite longing marked by keen reflections on biblical tales. Beginning after van Eerden’s divorce, these intimate essays trouble through relationship...
Book Review
The Trial of Anna Thalberg
Misogyny and religious conviction are vicious bedfellows in Eduardo Sangarcía’s horrifying, humbling literary novel "The Trial of Anna Thalberg", based on the Würzburg witch trials that tore through poor populations with their...
Book Review
Necrology
In Meg Ripley’s subversive, thrilling novel "Necrology", a wise girl raised on the wonders of the wilds is forced to contend with those who would see her kind extinguished. In an alternate version of America, magic pulses through the...
Book Review
The Forbidden Book
A girl resists the limits imposed by her class and gender, daring to seek a new kind of life (with some supernatural help), in Sacha Lamb’s wonder-filled historical novel "The Forbidden Book". In a shtetl whose rabbi possesses a text...
Book Review
Paradises Lost
The first tome in an epic series set to cover the span of human history, Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt’s riveting novel "Paradises Lost" introduces an immortal who’s grown weary of human foibles, but who still recognizes the wondrous...
Book Review
Becoming Baba Yaga
First a force within Eastern European oral traditions before flowing into popular culture as a frightening witch, Baba Yaga is a character whose many incarnations suggest fascinating depth. Stories about her are teased out and mined for...