Kinsey’s taut novel tells a straightforward story, but it’s the voice that stands out most. The note of regret its narrator takes when recalling a woman named Asha hints that the story we’re about to hear won’t be a happy one. “I was afraid if I thought about her, her voice would wake up on […]
The story begins by likening words to people: specifically, the way each word is unique and lovely just the way it is. Every word does something no other word can, and when different words meet, “Words are like kids / Who see each other / And begin to play.” The author underscores the anxiety words […]
Alex and his mother (both portrayed with pale skin), along with their dog, Nico, sometimes go on adventures together—but often, “Mommy…wants to play with us but her body can’t.” Over a week, Mom experiences a new symptom each day—her specific illness isn’t disclosed—which Alex then explains to Nico, using easy-to-understand similes: “Mama can’t hike with […]
In 1926, a man named Robert Thomas and a male friend, both Black, had to fight off a white female usher, white manager, and six riot officers to be allowed to take the orchestra seats they had purchased rather than be banished to the balcony at Harlem’s Loew’s Victoria Theatre. This was just one of […]
Although candidate Donald Trump “vowed to drain the influence peddling swamp in Washington, DC,” author Lewis asserts in the book’s introduction, “he did the exact opposite” as president. Particularly egregious is the administration’s intermingling of corporate and foreign interests, which, the author says, benefited many with access to the Oval Office. As an advisor to […]
An unnamed stage actress sits in her apartment, telling her young son a fairy story. Urged on by the ghosts of blood-drenched women that only she can see, she speaks of a boy born in a stately home. A curious, perpetually hungry child with sharp nails and pointed teeth, the boy is abandoned by his […]
Forty-year-old Jaycee Grayson, fresh from a stint in the Betty Ford rehab center after having been fired from her job at a big-name Hollywood studio, is about to embark on a new adventure. Her older sister Meredith Grayson-O’Cochlain, a high-powered attorney, has negotiated a contract for Jaycee to be the new executive producer and vice […]
Trying to forget a violent encounter with a serial killer, Arista settles into her new home in Sedona, Arizona. The New-Agey town seems like a good fit. Interested in magic, she works at a shop called Cosmic Prisms that sells items like crystals and candles. Living with her Aunt Bethie, the co-leader of a coven, […]
For decades, biographers have focused on Martin Luther King Jr.’s successful leadership in the South while suggesting that his Northern activism failed because it lacked direction and local support. Theoharis, a professor of political science at Brooklyn College, upends this narrative by painstakingly documenting King’s relentless and impassioned battles against Northern discrimination and police brutality, […]
Although Charlie Wags may seem like an ordinary little dog, he has an extraordinary secret: By wagging his tail, he can take flight and explore different places all over the globe. In his latest adventure, he’s off to explore the capital of the United Kingdom. Beginning at Buckingham Palace and ending atop the London Eye, […]