Lily Meyer : NPR

'The Gimmicks' Has Heart, But A Few Too Many Gimmicks

Harper

Review

'The Gimmicks' Has Heart, But A Few Too Many Gimmicks

January 9, 2020 • Chris McCormick's new novel layers the glitz and artifice of pro wrestling over a wrenching tale of two Armenian cousins whose involvement with a militant Armenian liberation group goes badly awry.

Other Press

Nicole Krauss And Zeruya Shalev On Israel, Jewishness And Defying Reader Expectations

November 16, 2019 • Nicole Krauss and Zeruya Shalev are friends — and authors whose work is deeply bound up in their Jewish and Israeli identities. But both struggle with the pressure to represent those identities.

'Space Invaders' Maps Pixelated Battles Onto Real-Life Conflict

Graywolf Press

Review

'Space Invaders' Maps Pixelated Battles Onto Real-Life Conflict

November 11, 2019 • The characters in Nona Fernández' new book are coming of age during Chile's brutal military dictatorship — and for them, video games are a useful framework for understanding the dangers all around.

Jenny Slate's 'Little Weirds' Is Just Not Weird Enough

Little Weirds by Jenny Slate Little Brown & Co. hide caption

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Little Brown & Co.

Review

Jenny Slate's 'Little Weirds' Is Just Not Weird Enough

November 5, 2019 • The stand-up comic's essays have soft and lovely moments, steering readers toward finding their own vulnerabilities. But Slate is not as open to self-exposure on the page as she is on the stage.

Surrealist Silvina Ocampo Shines In Two New Translations

City Lights Publishers

Review

Surrealist Silvina Ocampo Shines In Two New Translations

October 26, 2019 • Surrealist writer and poet Silvina Ocampo has been called "the best kept secret of Argentine letters," and two new translations have beautifully captured her evocative prose style for new readers.

In 'Doxology,' The Comedy Is Never Quite In Tune

Beth Novey/NPR

Review

In 'Doxology,' The Comedy Is Never Quite In Tune

September 19, 2019 • Nell Zink is a very funny writer, but the comedy never quite works in her new novel, which follows two aging punks and their daughter, from the Lower East Side of Manhattan in the '80s to D.C. today.

'Homesick' Is A Boundary-Expanding Story Of Devotion And Growing Up

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The Unnamed Press

Review

'Homesick' Is A Boundary-Expanding Story Of Devotion And Growing Up

September 15, 2019 • Accomplished translator Jennifer Croft's first non-translated work is a hybrid, mixing photography and impressionistic autobiographical writing to tell the story of Croft's artistic coming of age.

In 'Apple, Tree,' Writers Touchingly Reflect On Their Parents With Humor And Love

Apple, Tree: Writers on Their Parents, edited by Lise Funderberg University of Nebraska Press hide caption

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University of Nebraska Press

Review

In 'Apple, Tree,' Writers Touchingly Reflect On Their Parents With Humor And Love

September 6, 2019 • In the new collection, Ann Patchett tells of her resemblance to her mother, Lizzie Skurnick and Mat Johnson offer thoughts on mothers with dementia, and John Freeman contemplates his father's legacy.

'Fashionopolis' Tells Us Why We Should Care About Clothes

Fashionopolis: The Price of Fast Fashion and the Future of Clothes, by Dana Thomas Penguin Press hide caption

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Penguin Press

Review

'Fashionopolis' Tells Us Why We Should Care About Clothes

September 4, 2019 • Fashion journalist Dana Thomas' book is a snappy, clear-minded attack on the fashion industry's rampant labor and environmental abuses — and also offers a path forward for consumers and the world.

Structural Injustice Is At The Core Of 'We, The Survivors'

Beth Novey/NPR

Review

Structural Injustice Is At The Core Of 'We, The Survivors'

September 2, 2019 • Tash Aw's beautifully written new novel focuses on class issues in contemporary Malaysia, where his compelling protagonist is struggling to lead a quiet life after a long-ago murder conviction.

Beth Novey/NPR

'Inland' Creates A New Myth Of The Old West

August 15, 2019 • Téa Obreht's new novel is set against a familiar old West backdrop, but it tells a fresh story of two people, both haunted in their own ways — a tough frontier woman and an immigrant camel driver.

Spirited 'Family Of Origin' Defends The Maligned Millennial

Doubleday

Review

Spirited 'Family Of Origin' Defends The Maligned Millennial

July 20, 2019 • CJ Hauser's new novel centers on two estranged siblings trying to unravel their late father's work with a group of fringe biologists who believe evolution is running backward, away from millenials.

Girls Captured By Boko Haram Brought Into Focus In 'Beneath The Tamarind Tree'

People attend a demonstration calling on the government to rescue the kidnapped girls of the government secondary school in Chibok, in Abuja, Nigeria on Oct. 14, 2014. Olamikan Gbemiga/AP hide caption

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Olamikan Gbemiga/AP

Review

Book Reviews

Girls Captured By Boko Haram Brought Into Focus In 'Beneath The Tamarind Tree'

July 10, 2019 • Former CNN journalist Isha Sesay argues that the Nigerian government, the media and the public have failed the 276 Chibok schoolgirls kidnapped by the terrorist group five years ago.

In 'The Gifted School,' Ripped-From-The-Headlines Parental Scheming

Riverhead Books

Review

Book Reviews

In 'The Gifted School,' Ripped-From-The-Headlines Parental Scheming

July 2, 2019 • Bruce Holsinger's new novel — about overprivileged parents cheating to get their kids into a magnet school — is very topical, but the characters are too flat to hook readers' attention for long.