Music for Wartime: Stories by Rebecca Makkai My rating: 5 of 5 stars I bought this book after attending a reading by Rebecca Makkai and connecting with her writing. This collection of short stories marries creativity and originality with compelling characters in sometimes absurd situations. Stories vary in length and subject matter, but all connectContinue reading “Book Review: Music for Wartime by Rebecca Makkai”
Tag Archives: recommendations
Good reads: Quests, real and hypothetical
Longform stories I’ve read lately and enjoyed. Keepers of the Secrets by James Somers, The Village Voice Step into the archives at the New York Public Library and meet “the most interesting man in the world.” He’s 39 and knows the archives more intimately than many parents know their own children. Those boxes of paper artifactsContinue reading “Good reads: Quests, real and hypothetical”
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.
Good Reads: Life and death on the high seas
This post is part of a series recommending writing you should read — especially nonfiction. Good writing can transport you to any time or place so seamlessly that you feel like you were actually there, actually experiencing those things. Since I learned to read at five years old, doing phonetic worksheets to a cassette tape in theContinue reading “Good Reads: Life and death on the high seas”
Good Reads: My favorites from this week’s longform/narrative nonfiction
I read a lot of articles every week, and I try to focus my reading on the pieces I want to write, meaning longform or narrative nonfiction. This is a genre that’s published all over the place: in marketing materials (typically company magazines), consumer and trade publications, newspapers, web site — even BuzzFeed publishes longform.Continue reading “Good Reads: My favorites from this week’s longform/narrative nonfiction”
Meredith Sell 