Clark Kent is a Super Hipster: Finding Beauty in the Absurd & the Mundane: Reading Shawnte Orion’s ‘The Existentialist Cookbook’
Here I am, attempting to think of what to say, but my coffee spilled, and it made such a lovely and dark display across my table. This is the sort of mindset in which Shawnte Orion places me: an area of in-the-moment appreciation, the odd humor of something spilled...
The Surrealist and Bodily Nature of Grief: Reading Kristin Bair O’Keeffe’s ‘The Art of Floating’
Even when you read regularly, it takes time to find something truly great; but every once in a while, there will be a book, a poem, a story, that truly turns you on your heel, holds you in place, and keeps you loving, recommending and discussing that piece for months....
One Step Forward, One Step Back: The Complexities of Jason Odell Williams’ ‘Personal Statement’
We’ve all been there. We reached the final year of high school and discovered the college, the school, the job, and the career that we wanted, and we attempted to move forward. We did everything we thought we needed to do---and more---to ensure that we would land one...
Grief as Meditation, Grief as Art: Reading Meg Day’s ‘Last Psalm at Sea Level’
Writing reviews can be extremely difficult. What’s ironic, though, is that I tend to find greater difficulty in writing a review about a book that I loved, rather than one I was unimpressed with. Perhaps this is because I tend to find some angle of merit in each work...
We’ll Never Know What We’re Leaving Behind: Reading ‘Swimming Lessons’ by Claire Fuller
I’ll be honest: I’ve spent the last two days trying to let this book go (or rather, to pry its hooks out of me). This book is all at once startling and overwhelming, beautifully composed, and thieving (as ‘haunting’ in this case is not a strong enough word). I flipped...
The Power of Grief, The Power of Hallucination, The Power of YA Literature: Reading Rebekah Crane’s ‘Aspen’
Let me point one fact out from the beginning: I admire young adult literature, and I believe it can be extremely powerful when the central characters are confident, self-possessed individuals, dealing with both personal and more widely-recognized issues. Rebekah...
‘Gone Girl’ Meets ‘Little Fires Everywhere’ In Jean Hanff Korelitz’s ‘The Plot’
Happy Friday, readers and shark fans! Here is Jean Hanff Korelitz’s THE PLOT, which bears incredible ties to LITTLE FIRES EVERYWHERE and GONE GIRL in a dark academic thriller.
Your Next YA Graphic Novel Pick Is Sprinkled with Spooks, Awkward Love, and Magic in Balazs Lorinczi’s ‘Doughnuts and Doom’
Happy Friday, readers and shark fans! Here’s our next review—a spooky and queer YA graphic novel, DOUGHNUTS AND DOOM by Balazs Lorinczi.
The Precision of Language, Nature, and Violence in Shaindel Beers’ ‘Secure Your Own Mask’
Happy Friday, readers and shark fans! Here is our latest book review: SECURE YOUR OWN MASK by Shaindel Beers, a beautifully striking poetry collection from White Pine Press.