1. Jenny Ferguson’s review of So You Want to Talk about Race by Ijeoma Oluo. “Oluo is intellectually sharp and even funny, and this is one of the strengths of her book. For instance, she writes: ‘White supremacy is this nation’s oldest pyramid scheme. Even those who have lost everything to this scheme are still hanging in there, waiting for their turn to cash out.’ With such punchy one- and two-liners, Oluo builds understanding. Readers may find the direct address — the ‘you’ she points at frequently — uncomfortable, but it’s appropriate. Combined with the book’s overall tone, it offers an intimate experience where readers can process situations before they enter into their own conversations about race.”


2. Alice Stephens’ review of The Perfect Nanny: A Novel by Leila Slimani. “[The author] examines the tension between guilt and self-fulfillment that many working mothers experience, especially those with consuming jobs. She probes at the stigma of the mother who outsources her sacred maternal obligation to a ‘fake mother.’ She exposes the inequality inherent in the servant-master relationship, with the servant performing familial duties and yet never wholly being welcomed into the family.”


3. The 2018 Washington Writers Conference. The big event doesn’t happen until May 4-5, but interest in our annual author extravaganza is already sky-high. (Want to register? Click HERE.)


4. “The Harsh Lessons of Frankenstein.” Though it’s a year old, Dorothy Reno’s erudite look at Mary Shelley’s modern Prometheus drew scores of intrigued readers to January’s “Considering the Classics.”


5. “Nevertheless, She Persisted.” Everybody loves a good success story, and Alice Stephens’ announcement, in “Alice in Wordland,” that she finally sold her novel is about as good as it gets!

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