1. “Writing Outside the Color Lines.” For the second month in a row, columnist Alice Stephens reigns supreme, this time for her insightful look at literature, cultural appropriation, and the lessons of history.


2. Josh Trapani’s review of Astrophysics for People in a Hurry by Neil deGrasse Tyson. “Tyson also has a knack for providing compelling tidbits that stick in your head and make concrete what might otherwise be hopelessly abstract. For example: The contents of a super-jumbo box of Cheerios would fit easily into a spherical carton with a four-and-a-half-inch radius. Two cubic feet of iridium weighs as much as a Buick. To imagine the density of a pulsar, think about stuffing a hundred-million elephants into a ChapStick casing.”


3. Straight Talk about Self-Publishing. Did you compulsively click on this piece about our popular June workshop again and again? If so, you weren’t alone. (Missed the big event? Stay tuned for updates about what we’ve got planned for the fall!)


4. Tania Heller’s review of The Baker’s Secret: A Novel by Stephen P. Kiernan. “This thought-provoking novel is both heart-wrenching and inspiring. While addressing the horrors of war, it also portrays the resilience that is deep within all of us. It speaks to the innate need to have a purpose in life and to be able to hold onto the dream for a better future. For [protagonist] Emma, that dream is ‘to keep as many people alive as possible.’” 


5. Virginia Pasley’s review of I Liked My Life: A Novel by Abby Fabiaschi. “We meet the first narrator of I Liked My Life as she is choosing a new wife for her husband. Madeline is in this position because she is dead — watching her family from a place she suspects is like purgatory. Madeline vaguely says, ‘I put myself here.’ Her daughter, Eve, the next narrator, tells us more bluntly that her mother jumped off a building. From there, we are left to try to deduce what made Madeline do it.”

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