Purchase a copy for yourself here! On the evening of her 25th birthday, Libby Jones receives a letter that comes to totally transforms her understanding of her origins, and open the doors to her mysterious past. Lisa Jewell’s 17th novel, The Family Upstairs, tells the story of Libby’s efforts to answer the questions posed by… Continue reading The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell
Category: Fiction
Mudbound by Hillary Jordan
Purchase a copy for yourself here! In 1946, during the height of Jim Crow South, the Mississippi Delta was a community still beholden to the values of the Antebellum South: racial discrimination and violence were the norm. It is in this fraught landscape that Hillary Jordan set her debut novel, Mudbound, which explores the lives… Continue reading Mudbound by Hillary Jordan
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
Purchase a copy for yourself here! In 1990’s England, Kazuo Ishiguro imagines a dystopian alternate reality—a boarding school beset with human clones. This school, Hailsham, is the setting of Ishiguro’s 2005 novel, Never Let Me Go. The novel is constructed as a sort of memoir, narrated by Kathy, an adult female “carer” (the meaning of… Continue reading Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
Purchase a copy for yourself here! The community of Shaker Heights, Ohio was the first fully planned community to spring up in America. The Shakers built a town beholden to strict aesthetic and moral codes, laying out residential streets, schools, and businesses according to rigorous family-friendly standards. This suburban oasis is the setting for Celeste… Continue reading Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
The Immortals of Tehran by Ali Araghi
Purchase a copy for yourself here! Few nations experienced as much political turmoil as Iran did in the twentieth century. Colonialist interests and corrupt government robbed the country of its main natural resource and profit generator, oil, sparking years of unrest and bloody conflict. For a brief history lesson: after the Second World War, Iran… Continue reading The Immortals of Tehran by Ali Araghi
Long Bright River by Liz Moore
Purchase a copy for yourself here! For the title of her fourth novel, Long Bright River, Liz Moore borrowed a phrase from an Alfred Lord Tennyson poem, which describes a race of people who, “Sow the seed, and reap the harvest with enduring toil,Storing yearly little dues of wheat, and wine and oil;Till they perish… Continue reading Long Bright River by Liz Moore
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
Purchase a copy for yourself here! Literary criticism in the modern age has been forced to confront the increasing democratization of the art space, as tools like the internet allow greater access to what was previously considered “high art”, reserved for only the most sophisticated intellectuals. As the distinction between highbrow and lowbrow entertainment has… Continue reading The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
The Female Persuasion by Meg Wolitzer
Purchase a copy for yourself here! The Female Persuasion is Meg Wolitzer’s eleventh novel, and feels in many ways like a response to the #MeToo movement and the reemergence of feminism in the cultural conversation. The novel focuses on women of different generations coming to terms with the ways that the world works, offering and… Continue reading The Female Persuasion by Meg Wolitzer
A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James
Purchase a copy for yourself here! Marlon James’ 2015 Man Booker Prize-winning novel, A Brief History of Seven Killings, is virtually impossible to summarize in any meaningful way. The novel is a sprawling epic said amid a time of political chaos in Jamaica during the 1960s and 70s, featuring fifteen narrators, each with unique dialects… Continue reading A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James
Olive, Again by Elizabeth Strout
Purchase a copy for yourself here! It’s been over a decade since Elizabeth Strout published her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, Olive Kitteridge. In the intervening years, the novel was adapted as an award winning series for HBO starring Frances McDormand. Strout has returned to her eponymous heroine in Olive, Again, a collection of stories about the… Continue reading Olive, Again by Elizabeth Strout