Saturday in the LA Times
In Saturday’s LA Times, I reviewed Benjamin Black’s A Death in Summer. My byline also appeared with a print version of this interview with author Patrick deWitt — whose novel…
Category Archives: book reviews
Present!
I don’t think I can come up with all the work I’ve done since February. Recently, I’ve reviewed for the LA Times: The Kid by Sapphire, Bright’s Passage by Josh…
On Damon Galgut’s In a Strange Room
In today’s LA Times, I review Damon Galgut’s In a Strange Room, beginning: The traveler at the center of Damon Galgut’s new novel “In a Strange Room,” a finalist for…
in the Columbia Journalism Review
In the November/December issue of the Columbia Journalism Review, I look at Blur: How to Know What’s True In the Age of Information Overload by Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel,…
Reviewing: David Sedaris
In Sunday’s LA Times, I reviewed David Sedaris’ Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk. Somewhere, David Sedaris is giggling. His new collection of short stories — of mice and chipmunks and dogs, of…
On The Lovers
My review of Vendela Vida’s new novel The Lovers is in today’s LA Times. It’s set in Turkey, and follows Yvonne, a 53 year-old widow. While it’s a sleek read,…
Nothing happened: a review
Jake Silverstein, the editor of the award-winning Texas Monthly and a contributing editor at Harper’s, has published his first book, Nothing Happened and Then It Did. Opening with his early…
Caroline Blackwood’s stories: crazy good
I knew nothing of Caroline Blackwood before I picked up her new collection, Never Breathe a Word. And wow! What a fantastic writer of short fiction. “Fantastic” as in brutally…
Oh, I’m the book critic
Jennifer Weiner just called me a book critic, and she didn’t mean it in a nice way. Weiner, of course, is the author of a heap of books, including Good…
Zoinks! Deadlines! Gadgets!
Sometimes when navigating a flurry of deadlines, which are totally uninteresting, the work appeas, which is interesting, with any luck. The latest: for Flavorwire, my review of Jaron Lanier’s You…
