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The Classroom Bookshelf
by Erika Thulin Dawes
August 27, 2012 by Angela Carstensen
Vaddey Ratner’s debut novel is being widely hailed as a new classic, likened to Loung Ung’s memoir, First They Killed My Father and another excellent debut from earlier this year, Running the Rift by Naomi Benaron. It seems likely to end up on summer reading lists and classroom syllabi. Accordingly, Simon & Schuster has provided a […]
August 24, 2012 by Angela Carstensen
Maria Semple honed her comic timing as a writer for Mad About You, Ellen, and Arrested Development. Where’d You Go, Bernadette is the best kind of summer read – funny and bitingly satirical, yet centered on a warm, loving mother/daughter relationship. And the plot moves quickly, thanks to a wonderful variety of narratives and voices. […]
August 23, 2012 by Angela Carstensen
What began with Feed and continued with Deadline, now concludes with Blackout. Oh, and there’s Countdown, a novella that goes back to the origins of the zombie plague. And another titled San Diego 2014, which takes place during Comic-Con. Seems like Grant is hardly finished with this world! There is a fun piece on the Orbit […]
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August 22, 2012 by Angela Carstensen
from our weekly graphic novel guest blogger, Francisca Goldsmith: Flannery O’Connor’s perceptive but incising fiction has captured many young intellectuals. Here is a storyteller who writes fluidly but with the sharpness of whitewater rather than a gentle stream. In bringing O’Connor’s earlier cartoon work to contemporary readers, Fantagraphics advances the case for image and text […]
August 21, 2012 by Angela Carstensen
Zoe Fishman‘s sophomore effort mirrors her own experience. “As a sassy, liberal and ragingly insecure Jewish girl amongst my overwhelmingly blonde and Baptist peers, I always felt like a bit of an outsider growing up. The novel reflects that perspective.” This and more can be found in a USA Today interview with the author, which also […]
August 20, 2012 by Angela Carstensen
Megan Abbott’s new psychological thriller is a dark look at high school cheerleading, a book referred to by its publisher as “Fight Club for girls” and by Amazon’s Best Books of August as “Glee on steroids.” Publishers Weekly did a profile of the author which includes this revealing tidbit: “When I was figuring out the plot […]
August 16, 2012 by Angela Carstensen
Frances Greenslade’s debut novel is about family, particularly mothers and daughters, and about survival. Shelter is also notable for its vivid British Columbia wilderness setting. The author provides all kinds of cool extras on her book clubs page, including a playlist, discussion questions, and a list of titles about British Columbia. Simon & Schuster also […]
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