In her outstanding new collection of short stories, Marry or Burn, Valerie Trueblood uses the threads of familiar topics—love, marriage, separation, general angst—to spin affecting, utterly unexpected yarns.
Allegra Goodman has been compared to George Eliot and Jane Austen. Her new novel, The Cookbook Collector (Dial), is enormously satisfying and well worth the investment.
Little Bird of Heaven is vintage Oates: tragic violence, outsize ambitions, dashed hopes, strained family bonds, manly-men roughing up sassy-yet-submissive women, and, of course, sex-crazed teenagers.
In exploring how the ability to buy a home reflects on our identity and sense of worth, Mary Elizabeth Williams sheds light on why so many people are willing to gamble their financial security and even their sanity for the sake of a home to call their own.
As a parable of the destructive powers of idealism, The Last of Her Kind will undoubtedly speak to anyone who lived through the ’70s. But unlike the art that deals superficially or smugly with that era, it will also speak to the generations that follow.
Ellen Willis rocked. Read why in the new anthology of her music writing.
I wrote a short review of Out of the Vinyl Deeps for the music issue of Elle (May 2011).