The Best Books I Read in 2013 My fellow passengers on a flight to LA last month must have thought I was insane. Reading Meaty, Samantha Irby’s TMI-filled collection of essays (a recent Emily Books selection), I found myself one minute crying over a young Irby being smacked by her alcoholic dad because she’d washed a cast iron pan with soap; the next I was laughing out loud at her mediations on the indignities of sex between real, flawed humans […]
Over dinner after drinks, my friend and I eavesdrop and happen to hear two women talking about books. One of them summarizes The Love Affairs of Nathaniel P. as “all set in Brooklyn.” My friend and I make faces at each other and keep listening. Other books are brought up, but none of their selling points seem to us as crushing as the first. “All set in Brooklyn.” “I have to read that” was the response, in case you didn’t […]
A month or so ago, I went to an event for the Sarah Weinman-edited anthology of domestic suspense, Troubled Daughters, Twisted Wives. (Which, by the way, is fantastic.) The event featured Weinman in conversation with Hilary Davidson, and among the topics that came up were the definition of domestic suspense, and the way that it, as a genre, has passed in and out of popularity. I found myself thinking about domestic suspense a lot when I read Fiona McFarlane’s The Night Guest. […]
Adelle Waldman and Robert Coover are interviewed, Belle & Sebastian’s new collection gets reviewed, images of science fictional suburbs, thoughts on George W. Bush’s art, and more.
Amy Brill takes us into whaling history, Matthew Specktor and Nick Antosca are interviewed, Adelle Waldman shares her favorite sad young literary men, and more.
Interviews with Adelle Waldman and Kate Christensen on their upcoming books, Maris Kreizman shares her memories of Book Camp, J. Hoberman looks at Andrew Bujalski’s latest, and more.