Tag: essays

Vignettes of Life and Memories from the American Midwest to Italy

Book review: American English, Italian Chocolate, by Rick Bailey (Amazon / Book Depository) English professor Rick Bailey writes a sweet, soft memoir in vignette-style essays stretching from the American Midwest to northern Italy. Musings include high school dramas and levitation parties, medical issues humorous and otherwise, death, home insect infestations, historical perceptions of beans, how Nutella might... Continue Reading →

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Real Life Essays with a Little Raunch

Book review: We Are Never Meeting in Real Life, by Samantha Irby (Amazon/ Book Depository) Samantha Irby is the Chicago-based blogger behind the popular, ultra-honest, hilariously confessional blog Bitches Gotta Eat. She opens her personal essay collection with a piece about how she'd fill out an application to be a Bachelorette contestant. It's a pretty wonderful, hilarious introduction,... Continue Reading →

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Images of Apocalypse in the Everyday

Book review: The World is On Fire, by Joni Tevis Joni Tevis has a strange talent for writing essays that combine the most unlikely, unrelated subjects, skipping without any obvious connection between topics and somehow making it work as a coherent, emotional, interesting piece. I've never read anything quite like it before. As one example,... Continue Reading →

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Not-So-Sunny Sides of the Sunshine State

Book review: Sunshine State, by Sarah Gerard Sunshine State, up and coming literary darling Sarah Gerard's essay collection rooted in her childhood home state of Florida, hits some high highs and low lows. The opening essay, "BFF", starts the book out as strongly as it could possibly be started; I was hooked. Gerard dreamily, wistfully... Continue Reading →

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True Solace is Finding None

Book review: The Solace of Open Spaces, by Gretel Ehrlich (Amazon / Used or new @ SecondSale.com) "I came here four years ago. I had not planned to stay, but I couldn't make myself leave." Achingly beautiful, emotionally charged prose essays with a distinctly lyrical style, written by a young woman as she initially pursues a... Continue Reading →

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The Opposite of How Most People Think

Book review: The Unspeakable, by Meghan Daum (Amazon / Book Depository) I've been in the mood to read a good essay collection, and oh man - oh man, was this it. Meghan Daum is a columnist for the L.A. Times and contributor to outlets like Slate and NPR. And she's an unflinchingly honest essayist. The Unspeakable tells stories about subjects that are uncomfortable to... Continue Reading →

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