A few of these lists began appearing in early November, but I refuse to start my year-end summaries that early. I haven’t put my Christmas decorations up yet, either. Our Fiction Editor Shares Some Favorites From the Best Books of 2019 From the fiction editor of Kirkus The Best Books of 2019 Amazon’s portal to […]
Let the Best of 2019 Lists Begin! Read More »
And for your reading pleasure: From Zeus to Williams-Sonoma: The History of the Cornucopia
Happy Thanksgiving (in the U.S.)! Read More »
The first fairytales were feminist critiques of patriarchy. We need to revive their legacy Melissa Ashley finds the origin of fairytales to “a coterie of 17th century French female writers known as the conteuses, or storytellers.” Fairytales “crystallised as a genre” in this time when women, sometimes as young as 15, were married off—often to
America’s First Banned Book Really Ticked Off the Plymouth Puritans A portrait of Thomas Morton, an English businessman who came to the New World with the Puritans but didn’t share their religious zeal. Morton “had the audacity to erect a maypole in Massachusetts.” The Rise and Fall of Booth Tarkington “How a candidate for the
Related Post: 5 “You Can’t Go Home Again” Novels The characters in “you can’t go home again” novels discover that going back home can often be a mistake because the secrets, lies, and betrayals they had hoped to leave behind are still there waiting to suck them back in. The characters in domestic thrillers often
5 Domestic Thrillers: Terror at Home Read More »
In the rush to harvest body parts, death investigations have been upended Maybe I just read too many crime novels and watch too many cop shows. Or maybe I’m just gruesome by nature. Yet I often think of exactly this problem when I’m reading a novel or watching a show. A medical examiner needs time
Monsters, villains, and antiheroes are largely just like us—with one key difference. They have the power to fulfill self-interests because they live beyond the dictates of morality. They care little for how their actions affect others, so nothing is forbidden. For them, it’s not a matter of “Should I do this?” but “Can I do
“Monsters, villains, and antiheroes are largely just like us” Read More »
Learning to Write Mysteries the Mystic River Way Angie Kim’s recently published debut novel Miracle Creek is one of the best books I’ve read in a long time. Dennis Lehane’s 2001 book Mystic River is a novel I still remember well even after all these years. Coming across this article, in which Angie Kim explains
It’s time for another adventure in Kate’s 6 Degrees of Separation Meme from her blog, Books Are My Favourite and Best. We are given a book to start with, and from there we free associate six books. This month we begin with a classic, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. 1. Another book with the
6 Degrees of Separation: 1 Woman and 6 Others Read More »
SOME OBSERVATIONS FROM LIBRARY TOURISM Jen Sherman declares “public libraries should be a tourist destination the way museums are.” And she knows whereof she speaks: I started doing a PhD about public libraries in 2012, and in the past eight years, I have visited 112 libraries in six different countries (primarily USA and Australia). I
