If you’ve been on the internet at any point since 2016, you’ve probably seen Maggie Smith’s viral poem “Good Bones.” It’s breathtakingly sad and also the tiniest bit hopeful, and any time the world seems especially disastrous, it pops up all over social media as a way to put words to unspeakably hard situations. At…
One of the small-but-significant joys of reading is figuring out the meaning behind the title. The moment when I make the connection – “oh, that’s what the author was going for” gives me the same sense of delighted satisfaction as finding the a tricky piece in a jigsaw puzzle. In the case of Rebecca Makkai’s…
First, a disclaimer: I like my job very much. I did not pick up The McMasters Guide To Homicide, Volume 1: Murder Your Employer for any reason other than my love of classic mysteries and the delightfully fussy cover. Second, if you are looking for a classic mystery…this book is not it. Think of it…
One of the hazards of working in a library is that I often put a book on hold and promptly forget about it. There are a lot of books in the world, they all sound delightful, and I have the memory of a goldfish, so it is not unusual that I come into the library…
When I think about my reading life in 2022, it feels like a blur. I really enjoyed some books, went through an alarming number of slumps, and had one glorious stretch where every title was an absolute delight. But overall, my year in books felt sparse and unsatisfying – something I’m determined to change. After…
Sure, you could spend Black Friday battling other shoppers in the stores, or planning your Cyber-Monday purchases. But there’s another alternative for this long weekend: curling up in your favorite reading spot with some leftover pie, a hot beverage, and a great book. And if you need recommendations for a seasonally-appropriate read, we’ve got you…
Mysteries with elderly protagonists are all the rage lately, whether the seniors in question are solving crimes or committing them. So you’d be forgiven for assuming that Deanna Raybourn’s latest, Killers of a Certain Age, was merely chasing a trend, but you’d be wrong – and that’s the whole point. Killers of a Certain Age…
Here is the thing you should know before you read Mary Laura Philpott’s Bomb Shelter: Love, Time, and Other Explosives: Everyone is FINE. Kids, parents, pets: they all make it through. Normally, I am spoiler-averse, but the description of this book does not put one’s mind at ease, especially if, like me, one is prone…
Jaq Walker is an aspiring filmmaker whose subject is her hometown of Savannah, Georgia, a “town out of a fable.” Many of Savannah’s denizens agree – the city does resemble a fairy tale, with its lush beauty, storied history, and high society trappings. But Jaq knows that fairy tales and fables are two very different…
At first glance, The Return of Faraz Ali reads like noir fiction: A police inspector in 1960s Pakistan is sent to the Mohalla, Lahore’s red light district, to cover up the murder of a child prostitute, but his conscience urges him to investigate instead. That is the central mystery of Aamina Ahmad's novel: who killed…
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