Book Review
Trying
Chloé Caldwell’s inventive memoir "Trying" recreates her years of attempting to become pregnant. Caldwell devoted much of her thirties to trying to get pregnant via intrauterine insemination. She developed rituals to ease the grueling...
Book Review
We Should All Be Birds
Brian Buckbee’s reflective memoir "We Should All Be Birds" is about how his friendship with a rescued pigeon alleviated his ongoing health struggles. In 2020, Buckbee was walking near home when he noticed a pigeon on a roof. The bird...
Book Review
Otherwise, I'm Fine
Barbara Presnell’s grace-filled memoir reflects on the loss of her father and a sibling trip to Europe to re-create his World War II travels. Presnell’s father, Bill, died after surgery when she was fourteen years old. Her mother,...
Book Review
Earhart
In Torben Kuhlmann’s lovely illustrated novel "Earhart", a field mouse builds an airplane to fly around the world, mirroring the exploits of the famous aviatrix. A mouse inventor who manufactures machines in her underground workshop...
Book Review
Tales from Dreamland
Ed Valfre’s artful collection "Tales from Dreamland" signposts the “ordinary magic of the everyday” via whimsical flash fiction and eye-catching photographs. The paragraph-length stories range from poetry to fables. In...
Book Review
Edge of the World
In the intrepid, intimate essays of "Edge of the World", edited by Alden Jones, travel engenders realizations about self, society, and the value of queer community. Sixteen authors of diverse sexual orientations and genders contrast here...
Book Review
Double Hyenas and Lazarus Birds
In his rollicking essay collection "Double Hyenas and Lazarus Birds", Charles Hood reckons with the ocean’s simultaneous allure and risk through stories of seabird-watching and of his father’s wartime service in the Pacific Theater....
Book Review
Foreign Fruit
In Katie Goh’s nimble hybrid memoir "Foreign Fruit", the unfolding history of the orange is paralleled with family migrations and anti-Asian racism. The inciting incident dates to the COVID-19 lockdowns: “The morning after a white...