Where is your nonfiction section please.
Book review: Shrill, by Lindy West That period—when I was wholly myself, effortlessly certain, my identity still undistorted by the magnetic fields of culture—was so long ago that it’s beyond readily accessible memory. I do not recall being that person. Lindy West has written boldly and bluntly - but not actually shrilly - on all... Continue Reading →
Book review: Look Alive Out There, by Sloane Crosley (Amazon / Book Depository) Sloane Crosley's new essay collection is the first of her work I've read, despite her popularity, particularly for her personal essays, and having recognized her name when she made a cameo on Gossip Girl (I've recently admitted my shame over this, let's... Continue Reading →
Book review: Miss Ex-Yugoslavia, by Sofija Stefanovic Amazon My mother said, "just imagine this situation we're in is a massive black cloud falling from the sky, and be like a net. Allow it to pass through you." I pictured a net through which a black cloud is squeezed, dispersing into many pieces; I imagined holding... Continue Reading →
Book review: Home Cooking, by Laurie Colwin Amazon Originally published 1988, this collection of memoir-centric essays on cooking and life is insightful, funny, surprisingly practical and helpful, and still fresh and relevant thirty years later. Beloved novelist Laurie Colwin loved being in the kitchen, especially cooking for other people. She has an upbeat, happy sense... Continue Reading →
Book review: Agorafabulous! by Sara Benincasa (Amazon / Book Depository) This day was different. This day I woke up, stared at the ceiling, and was gripped by the certain knowledge that, if I left the apartment, something terrible would happen. I did not know what the terrible event was, only that it would occur, and with a fury.... Continue Reading →
Book review: Everything is Normal, by Sergey Grechishkin Book Depository Railways and trains in Russia have always been much more than just pragmatic modes of getting from point A to point B. For a Russian soul, a never-ending train journey across the empty vastness of its land is a state of mind, a meditation, an... Continue Reading →
Book review: Thanks, Obama by David Litt (Amazon / Book Depository) Few activities offer less upside than a staring contest with the president. But now, having started one, I didn’t know how to stop. I considered averting my gaze, like a shy maiden in a Jane Austen novel, but that would only make things more awkward.... Continue Reading →
Book review: Vacationland, by John Hodgman (Amazon / Book Depository) "Nobody knows," I said, meaning at least one person does not know, and that person is me. I didn't know anything about John Hodgman (comedian, author, Daily Show and This American Life contributor, podcaster) at all before I picked up his most recent book, a collection of essayish... Continue Reading →
Book review: The Girl With the Lower Back Tattoo, by Amy Schumer I like Amy Schumer's comedy, but I'm not enough in love with it that her book was a priority when it came out nearly a year ago. Until I happened upon a review praising it as something much more meaningful than a reiteration of Schumer's... Continue Reading →
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 →
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 →
Book review: Priestdaddy, by Patricia Lockwood (Amazon / Book Depository) "We are congregating in the dining room of my father's rectory in Kansas City, where I have returned to live with my parents after twelve long years away...We are penniless and we are exhausted, and in the grand human tradition, we have thrown ourselves on the mercy of... Continue Reading →
What's Nonfiction? 