Meredith Sell

book review

  • Book review: Before the Fall by Noah Hawley

    Before the Fall by Noah Hawley My rating: 5 of 5 stars A private plane crashes in the middle of a short flight from Martha’s Vineyard to New York City. Before the Fall tells the stories of the characters involved: the painter who survived, swimming the four-year-old child to safety; the flight attendant and the

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  • Everyone Leaves Behind a Name: True Stories by Michael Brick

    This past spring, I ordered a copy of Everyone Leaves Behind a Name after hearing about the book and its author, Michael Brick, on Gangrey: The Podcast. I frequently listen to podcasts like Gangrey, which interviews working narrative journalists, but this episode was different because instead of interviewing the headlining writer, all 51 minutes were a conversation

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  • Review of The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins

    Hawkins’ words don’t paint lush portraits or jump to poetic heights. They’re too busy drawing you close to the characters, especially Rachel whose perspective begins and ends the book. As you read, you immerse into the complexity that is a human being whose past she both regrets and can’t leave behind.

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  • Book Review: To the Letter by Simon Garfield

      A book recommendation, straight from the non-air conditioned apartment where I carry my fan around like a security blanket: To the Letter: A Celebration of the Lost Art of Letter Writing by Simon Garfield “They expose a grand truth, and often the same truth we may feel when we read Shakespeare and Austen: no matter how

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  • Book Review – Kiki Strike: The Darkness Dwellers

    In eighth grade, my best friend told me I should read Kiki Strike: Inside the Shadow City, a book that sat on her bedroom bookshelf under the typical scattered pile of young teenager stuff. “You’d like it,” she said. I don’t remember if I borrowed her copy or ordered one from the library, but I read it

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