Author Archives: Teresa

How It Went Down

Posted on June 25, 2017

This novel by Kekla Magoon begins with a brief description of the incident: The known facts about the shooting death of sixteen-year-old Tariq Johnson are few. On the evening of June 2, at approximately 5:30 P.M., Johnson sustained two nine-millimeter … Continue reading →

Posted in Children's / YA Lit, Contemporary, Fiction | 1 Comment

The Truelove/Clarissa Oakes

Posted on June 24, 2017

Captain Jack Aubrey has never much liked having women on his ships, and in the 15th book in Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey/Maturin series, we can see why. Titled The Truelove in the U.S. and Clarissa Oakes overseas, this book follows the HMS Surprise through … Continue reading →

Posted in Fiction, Historical Fiction | Leave a comment

What Is the Bible?

Posted on June 22, 2017

People have lots of ideas about the Bible. A lot of those ideas are incomplete, misguided, or just plain wrong. And often those mistaken ideas lead people to miss the richness of the biblical stories. That’s what Rob Bell is … Continue reading →

Posted in Nonfiction, Religion | 4 Comments

We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves

Posted on June 21, 2017

Rosemary Cooke grew up in a farmhouse with her brother, sister, parents, and a whole team of graduate students. But when she was five years old, everything changed. She went away to her grandparents and came back to a different … Continue reading →

Posted in Fiction | 5 Comments

Rolling Blackouts: Dispatches from Turkey, Syria, and Iraq

Posted on June 16, 2017

In 2010, cartoonist Sarah Glidden traveled with journalist friends Sarah Stuteville and Alex Stonehill through Turkey, Iraq, and Syria. The journalists, founders of the Seattle Globalist, were there to meet and interview people and develop stories for their website and … Continue reading →

Posted in Graphic Novels / Comics, Nonfiction | 4 Comments

The Essex Serpent

Posted on June 13, 2017

I’ve been very much looking forward to the U.S. release of this novel by Sarah Perry. It has a Victorian lady naturalist, a minister, and a mysterious sea monster. What could be better? And the reviews from the U.K. have … Continue reading →

Posted in Fiction, Historical Fiction | 18 Comments

Fever Dream

Posted on June 11, 2017

The entirely of this novel by Samanta Schweblin and translated from Spanish by Megan McDowell takes place in a single hospital room, over the course of an hour or two—basically the time it takes to read the book. A woman … Continue reading →

Posted in Fiction | 2 Comments

The Gustav Sonata

Posted on June 9, 2017

Gustav Perle and Anton Zweibel first became friends in kindergarten. New to their small Swiss town, Anton cried on his first day at school, and Gustav was the only one who could cheer him up. Their friendship was complicated at … Continue reading →

Posted in Fiction, Historical Fiction | 14 Comments

Dimestore: A Writer’s Life

Posted on June 7, 2017

When I was in college and away from my rural southwest Virginia home, I discovered the novels of Lee Smith. Although her hometown of Grundy was a couple hundred miles west of my hometown, her writing felt culturally close to … Continue reading →

Posted in Memoir, Nonfiction, Short Stories/Essays | 6 Comments

Universal Harvester

Posted on June 3, 2017

This book by John Darnielle starts off feeling like a horror novel (and it is marketed as such). It’s the late 90s, and Jeremy is in his 20s and working at a small-town video store in Nevada, Iowa. His mom … Continue reading →

Posted in Fiction | 2 Comments