Yellow Wife
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To Break Russia’s Chains: Boris Savinkov and His Wars Against the Tsar and the Bolsheviks
To Break Russia’s Chains: Boris Savinkov and His Wars Against the Tsar and the Bolsheviks
A Patriotic Pick: January 2022
Whether it’s via their tone, topic, or tenor, certain works just say “America.” Here is one such title, suggested by author and storyteller Dr. Ed Lengel, chief historian at the National Medal of Honor Museum in Arlington, Texas: Look Homeward, Angel by Thomas Wolfe. “This had a powerful effect on…
Chantal James in Conversation with Deesha Philyaw
Lyrical, riveting, and haunting from its opening lines, None But the Righteous is an extraordinary debut that signals the arrival of an unforgettable new voice in contemporary fiction. Chantal James lives in Washington, DC, and has been published across genres — as a poet, fiction writer, essayist, and book reviewer…
I’ve written before about how the rise of fake news pains me as a lifelong, and still practicing, journalist. But things have only gotten worse since that 2018 article, and bias reigns supreme in what used to a profession that at least viewed objectivity as a touchstone for what constitutes…
Yonder: A Novel
Wannsee: The Road to the Final Solution
Wannsee: The Road to the Final Solution
True, the 2022 Washington Writers Conference (May 13-14 in Rockville, MD) is a great place to network with fellow scribes and meet the agents who may get your book published. But it’s also an excellent chance to hear writing pros share their expertise! In addition to our fabulous husband-and-wife keynote…
Manifesto: On Never Giving Up
An Interview with David O. Stewart
Attorney and award-winning author David O. Stewart, the Independent’s former president, has long written about history in both nonfiction works and novels. What’s unusual this time around is that his latest book, The New Land, was partly inspired by his own ancestors, who came to America from Europe in the…
The Maid: A Novel
I read a book for this column, I really did — although, in my recent delight at starting the incomparable Dick Van Dyke’s memoir, My Lucky Life In and Out of Show Business, I’d forgotten what that book was by the time I got around to writing about it. (A…
The Center of Everything
An Evening with Zora Neale Hurston
We're celebrating the release of the boxed set of Zora Neale Hurston's works, all with reimagined covers illustrated by incredible Black artists, and her newest release of essays, You Don't Know Us Negroes and Other Essays. NYT bestselling author Morgan Jerkins will moderate a conversation with Lucy Ann Hurston (scholar…
In the Land of the Cyclops
The Vote Collectors: The True Story of the Scamsters, Politicians, and Preachers behind the Nation’s Greatest Electoral Fraud
Raise your hand if you spent New Year’s Eve finishing one novel so you could start another on January 1st. Just me? (It was Elle Cosimano’s forthcoming Finlay Donovan Knocks ‘Em Dead — highly recommended!) In any case, 2021 is in the rear view, and I’m looking forward to all…
Perhaps I had some inkling. On impulse, departing from our customary post-unwrapping leisure, I rousted my family out of pajamas on Christmas Day 2019. We headed for a matinee of “Little Women.” The ticket stub from the Avalon has been on my fridge for two years now, a souvenir of…
Coolest American Stories 2022
The 2022 Washington Writers Conference is thrilled to welcome you back in person on May 13-14! In addition to our one-on-one agent-pitch sessions, we’ll have an exciting array of panels covering everything from the business of writing to specialized craft workshops. Just who will be there? We’re glad you asked!…
Watching Darkness Fall: FDR, His Ambassadors, and the Rise of Adolf Hitler
Watching Darkness Fall: FDR, His Ambassadors, and the Rise of Adolf Hitler
Authors on Audio: Susan Orlean
A longtime staff writer at the New Yorker, Susan Orlean is also the author of multiple bestselling books, including The Bullfighter Checks Her Makeup, The Orchid Thief, and The Library Book. Her newest work is On Animals, which USA Today calls “a broad meditation on how the connections we make,…
The bookstore has made the decision that we need to move this event to the virtual setting. We were really hoping we could host this in the bookstore, but unfortunately because of the surge with the omicron variant, it is just not making any sense to promote in-person, indoor gatherings…
Her Name Is Knight
7 Most Favorable Reviews in December 2021
The Last King of America: The Misunderstood Reign of George III by Andrew Roberts (Viking). Reviewed by Paula Tarnapol Whitacre. “Historian Andrew Roberts urges us not to think of actor Jonathan Groff’s exaggerated portrayal of George III in the musical ‘Hamilton’ when judging the monarch who was, indeed, America’s last…
The phrase “Fail better” appears five times in Samuel Beckett’s 1983 story “Worstward Ho,” the first of which goes like this: “Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.” I came across this phrase not through Beckett (the truth: I have failed to read his work)…
The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present
The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present
5 Most Popular Posts: December 2021
“Our 51 Favorite Books of 2021.” “Hundreds of thousands of books are published annually, so it’s absurd to proclaim a handful ‘the best.’ But these are the ones that most stuck with us during this, our second — and hopefully final — pandemic year.” “The Washington Writers Conference Returns!” “Have…
The Sicilian Method
The Luckiest Man
Luckenbooth
Write Into Art: Creative Writing Inspired by Visual Art
Discover how visual art can spark creative writing and how writing can offer a powerful way to experience art. Join Mary Hall Surface, the founding instructor of the National Gallery of Art’s popular Writing Salon, for five online workshops that explore essential elements of writing and styles through close looking,…
Strange Fruit: Racism and Community Life in the Chesapeake — 1850 to the Present
Strange Fruit: Racism and Community Life in the Chesapeake — 1850 to the Present
Okay, I admit it: I’m a Santa Claus freak. I love all things Santa. My parents raised me with a mystical reverence for him, the Big Man brimming with whimsy and magic. A happy character filled with Christmas cheer whose only goal is to make children’s dreams come true. Every…
Our literary agents are making their “manuscript wish lists” for the 2022 Washington Writers Conference on May 13-14 at the Bethesda North Marriott Hotel & Conference Center. Register by Friday, December 31st, and you’ll get to pitch to four of them (after that, you’ll get three pitches). What are they…
Ferryman
“The Best Book I Read All Year”
Our contributors read widely, deeply, and often far afield of the bestseller list. Whether brand new or decades old, runaway hits or remainders, these were the titles that wouldn’t let them go during this second pandemic year… Save Me the Waltz by Zelda Fitzgerald. “We are blinded by our romantic…
These Precious Days: Essays
An Interview with Arnold Lehman
In 1999, the Brooklyn Museum exploded a bombshell on the battlefield of artistic freedom and First Amendment rights with its exhibition “Sensation: Young British Artists from the Saatchi Collection,” which the museum’s director, Arnold Lehman, brought to Brooklyn from the Royal Academy in London. Among the other provocative paintings in…
Children’s Book Roundup: December 2021
As much as the end of the year is about conclusions, it’s about the promise of new beginnings, too. Here are three recent or soon-to-be-released titles that celebrate the excitement of growth and change — and the sometimes-scary thrill of moving in unexpected directions! Stacey’s Extraordinary Words by Stacey Abrams…
L.A. Weather: A Novel
All About the Story
Yellowstone Wolves
Bedtrick
9 Feel-Good Reads for Christmas Eve
We love bloated, disheartening tomes as much as the next angsty word nerd. But if you’ve decided to embrace jólabókaflóð, Iceland’s Christmas Eve “Yule Book Flood” ritual, this year, you may be looking for something a bit lighter right now. In celebration of the long night of bookish snuggling ahead,…
An Impossible Love
It’s time for my annual end-of-the-year column about some the books, movies, and television that made an impression on me. (Since this is my first such column, and I don’t even buy green bananas, I’m not sure the “annual” thing will hold up. But I am ever hopeful.) By the…
Authors on Audio: Joe Lieberman
Former U.S. senator Joe Lieberman, the author of several earlier books, including In Praise of Public Life: The Honor and Purpose of Political Service and The Gift of Rest: Rediscovering the Beauty of the Sabbath, has long been known as a consensus-builder. In his latest work, The Centrist Solution: How…
Nazaré: A Novel
The Nazi regime preached an ideology of physical, mental, and moral purity. But as Norman Ohler reveals in this gripping new history, the Third Reich was saturated with drugs. On the eve of World War II, Germany was a pharmaceutical powerhouse, and companies such as Merck and Bayer cooked up…
Need a Last-Minute Bookish Gift?
D’oh! Santa’s already loading up his sleigh! If there’s nothing on it for the scribe in your life, don’t despair: Get them a spot in the 2022 Washington Writers Conference! Sign up by New Year’s Eve, and they’ll enjoy: Four (not the usual three) face-to-face pitch sessions with literary agents.…
An Interview with Cat Sebastian
Before her writing career took off, Cat Sebastian practiced law and taught high school and college writing. Now a prolific author of 14 novels, she is best known for her queer historical romances. Sebastian’s newest series, The Cabots, is set in the relatively recent — and turbulent — 1960s. You…
John Lewis: The Last Interview and Other Conversations
John Lewis: The Last Interview and Other Conversations
People Love Dead Jews: Reports from a Haunted Present
People Love Dead Jews: Reports from a Haunted Present
Carla Hall in Conversation with Tricia Elam Walker
We are elated to host Carla Hall and Tricia Elam Walker for a double-feature event on December 21st, 2021. The 6 p.m. program will be hosted out of our Columbia, MD, location. The livestream will be filmed there, too. (Click here for info on the other Carla Hall event happening…
Dolly Parton, Songteller
The Piano Student
Orphans of the Storm
I find myself returning to particular poems during specific months, almost as if they are old friends returning to herald the beginning of a season. As soon as the first true chill slices through my bones, I recall Robert Hayden’s “Those Winter Sundays,” where an adult recounts a childhood with…
I hated when police sirens would rush down the street outside my high school. I don't remember which class it was, but I do remember that it was my sophomore year and students in the class would point at me and chant, “GREEN CARD!” when they heard those sirens. The…
The Big Cheat: How Donald Trump Fleeced America and Enriched Himself and His Family
The Big Cheat: How Donald Trump Fleeced America and Enriched Himself and His Family
Hands-On Holiday: Winter Solstice
Join the Ivy and the Waldorf School of Baltimore for a safe, fun, and very special evening celebration on the covered patio. This program is best for children up to age 9, and will include songs, story time, a holiday craft, cocoa, and a beautiful walk around the Winter Spiral.…
What It Means to Be Independent
Some time ago, we at the Independent had a long and lively discussion about what’s in a name — more specifically, in our name. We were wrestling (intellectually, of course) over what we mean when we say we’re independent. It may help to know that we evolved from Washington Independent…
The Teller of Secrets: A Novel
The Teller of Secrets: A Novel
Eugene Lim’s work has been called “elegant,” “whimsical,” and “profoundly moving.” His new novel, Search History, like his previous three — Fog & Car, The Strangers, and Dear Cyborgs — balances humor and tragedy while drawing the reader in through the intensity of his ideas and the astonishing vitality of…
Sisters of the Great War: A Novel
Sisters of the Great War: A Novel
Fantasy and sci-fi author Fonda Lee joins us on stage to talk about Jade Legacy, the final installment of The Green Bone Saga. Taking fantasy out of the European medieval ages, this is an action-packed gangster fantasy set in a period of rapid growth and economic modernization. It’s a story…
Five Tuesdays in Winter: Stories
Five Tuesdays in Winter: Stories
Charles Dickens’ 1843 novella, A Christmas Carol, is an enchanted book. I mean enchanted in the original sense of the word, as in “placed under a spell; bewitched.” (Though I would also agree it’s “filled with delight; charmed.”) For if not through the magic of an enchanter, how else could…
Memorial
Maryann Jacob Macias in Conversation with Jacqueline Woodson
East City Bookshop welcomes Maryann Jacob Macias with her picture book Téo's Tutu in conversation with Jacqueline Woodson. Tickets are available via Eventbrite here. Registration is required. About Téo's Tutu: This story of a boy’s first ballet recital celebrates gender-creativity, the joy of dance, and being yourself. Téo loves to…
The Nazi Spy Ring in America
Mothertrucker: Finding Joy on the Loneliest Road in America
Mothertrucker: Finding Joy on the Loneliest Road in America
A Patriotic Pick: December 2021
Whether it’s via their tone, topic, or tenor, certain works just say “America.” Here are two such titles, suggested by Max Rudin, president and publisher of Library of America: The Longest Day: The Classic Epic of D-Day, June 6, 1944 by Cornelius Ryan and The Warmth of Other Suns: The…
The Archivist: A Novel
Maybe it’s time to take another look at D.H. Lawrence and to dust off forgotten memoirist Mabel Dodge Luhan. Long regarded as one of the most significant writers of the 20th century, Lawrence has been out of vogue for decades. The obscenity trial of Lady Chatterley’s Lover in 1963 sparked…
This year, both virtual and in-person book lovers had the opportunity to attend the 38th annual Miami Book Fair, which was held in late November. The lineup featured more than 400 authors, including Les Standiford, Charles M. Blow, Lisa Taddeo, Asha Bromfield, Lauren Groff, and Anita Hill. It marked the…
A Guardian Angel Recalls
“Lem’s Bestiary Illustrated by Mróz”
Swing by and see the new “Lem’s Bestiary Illustrated by Mróz” exhibition presented by the Embassy of the Republic of Poland! Dive into the imaginative world of the famous Polish sci-fi novelist and discover Lem's bestiary according to artist and illustrator Daniel Mróz, plus grab a free copy of one…
Authors on Audio: David McCloskey
Former CIA analyst David McCloskey once wrote regularly for the classified President’s Daily Brief. Now he has written his first novel, Damascus Station, which People magazine says is a “propulsive thriller [that] is at once a master class in spy craft and a poignant story of forbidden love set during…
Many readers will remember Alan Cheuse, the golden-voiced, longtime book critic for National Public Radio. Cheuse, who was also a novelist, teacher, and mentor to countless writers, died in August 2015 from injuries sustained in a car accident. When he did, his widow, psychotherapist and former dancer and choreographer Kris…
The Last King of America: The Misunderstood Reign of George III
The Last King of America: The Misunderstood Reign of George III
The Least of Us: True Tales of America and Hope in the Time of Fentanyl and Meth
The Least of Us: True Tales of America and Hope in the Time of Fentanyl and Meth
The Most Interesting Man in the World
Phil Harvey, a sometime reviewer and longtime supporter of this journal, died last week. Let me try to explain why the news rocked so many people in so many places around the planet. Unless you live in a cave, you’ve seen the commercial. Hot babes cluster happily around a bearded…
The Fighting Bunch
Jason Reynolds and Raúl the Third in Conversation with Jerry Craft
We are absolutely delighted to welcome Loyalty faves Jason Reynolds, Raúl the Third, and Jerry Craft to celebrate the release of Stuntboy, In the Meantime! This event will be held virtually via Crowdcast. This is a ticketed event and you must purchase a copy of Stuntboy to be registered for…
The Cold Millions
7 Most Favorable Reviews in November 2021
My Monticello: Fiction by Jocelyn Nicole Johnson (Henry Holt and Co.). Reviewed by Carr Harkrader. “My Monticello begins in a fictional Charlottesville that, as Johnson subtly reveals, is about 20 years past 2017’s infamous ‘Unite the Right’ white-supremacist rally. It was at those protests that a young woman, Heather Heyer,…
Churchill’s Shadow: The Life and Afterlife of Winston Churchill
Churchill’s Shadow: The Life and Afterlife of Winston Churchill
Romance Roundup: December 2021
‘Tis the season for gifting, and I’m a big believer in rewarding myself for doing ALL THE THINGS in December. Here are a couple of romance novels I loved this month that would make perfect gifts for a friend — or yourself. Happy reading! ***** Denise Williams puts a modern…
How to Live. What to Do: In Search of Ourselves in Life and Literature
How to Live. What to Do: In Search of Ourselves in Life and Literature
We Usually Take All Nerdy Guests
Over the past four months, I’ve been introducing my children to the Wu-Tang Clan. Daily rides to and from school have been filled with chants of “Tiger Style” and “Up from the 36 chaaaaambers!” instead of our family’s usual diet of NPR’s “Morning Edition.” At various times when they were…
5 Most Popular Posts: November 2021
“Our 51 Favorite Books of 2021.” Hundreds of thousands of books are published annually, so it’s absurd to proclaim a handful “the best.” But these are the ones that most stuck with us during this, our second — and hopefully final — pandemic year. Daniel de Visé’s review of Led…
“Writing Fiction Set Close to Home”
Ellen Prentiss Campbell grew up in Rockville. She returns to the Rockville Memorial Library to talk about her recent novel, Frieda’s Song, set at Frieda Fromm-Reichmann’s Cottage at Chestnut Lodge. Please note: Until further notice, masks and social distancing are required for all participants attending MCPL indoor programs. Seating is…
The Washington Writers Conference Returns!
Have you finally finished that manuscript — or proposal — but aren’t sure what to do with it? Attend the 2022 Washington Writers Conference (May 13-14) in Rockville, MD, and pitch your project face-to-face to three literary agents! Register by December 31st, and you’ll get four one-on-one agent pitches! After…
The Island of Missing Trees: A Novel
The Island of Missing Trees: A Novel
Podcast: A Conversation with David M. Rubenstein
Longtime philanthropist and Carlyle Group co-founder David M. Rubenstein is also a bestselling author whose books include How to Lead: Wisdom from the World’s Greatest CEOs, Founders, and Game Changers and The American Story: Conversations with Master Historians. His new work is The American Experiment: Dialogues on a Dream, which…
There’s only one thing we love more than bringing you the reviews, features, podcasts, and other goodies you’ve come to expect, and that’s keeping the lights on! (If we had a clipart budget, we’d insert a sad-clown emoji here.) This Giving Tuesday, we’d be grateful for any amount you can…
An Interview with Linda Greenhouse
In her new book, Justice on the Brink, veteran Supreme Court correspondent Linda Greenhouse details, in month by month chronology, what she calls the transformation of the court in a term marked by the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg and the appointment of Amy Coney Barrett to the seat that…
The Heartbreak Bakery
Children’s Book Roundup: November 2021
It may still be November, but Chanukah is already in full swing, and Christmas and Kwanzaa are right around the corner! Whatever you’re celebrating now or in the coming weeks, these three titles will help make bedtime — or anytime — reading more festive for everyone. Jan Brett’s The Nutcracker…
So Many Books, So Little Time. Literally.
Earlier this year, I had the honor of being part of the selection committee for the 2022 Aspen Words Literary Prize in Fiction. Annually, this award honors an influential work of fiction that illuminates a vital contemporary issue and demonstrates the transformative power of literature on thought and culture. As…
The Storyteller: Tales of Life and Music
The Storyteller: Tales of Life and Music
Unsolaced: Along the Way to All That Is by Gretel Ehrlich (Pantheon). Reviewed by Christine Baleshta. “But even Ehrlich’s captivating prose does not disguise her underlying sadness. She laments that all the places we can go to find solace are getting smaller and wonders how society could allow this to…
Marita Golden in Conversation with Michelle Petties
Join us for our final in-person author event of 2021 as we host none other than Marita Golden, who will be in conversation with Michelle Petties. Meet us at our Anacostia location inside of the Arts Center for a personal and poignant discussion about Marita's latest work, The Strong Black…
High Tension
The Man Who Ate Too Much
The Wrong End of the Telescope: A Novel
The Wrong End of the Telescope: A Novel
Lean Your Loneliness Slowly Against Mine: A Novel
Lean Your Loneliness Slowly Against Mine: A Novel
Is there really such a thing as a literary thriller? Those pushing the notion trot out John le Carré, Alan Furst, and other moody writers as exhibits for novels of suspense that also have depth and follow the strictures of literary canons. Many of these books are quite good and…
The Gilded Page: The Secret Lives of Medieval Manuscripts
The Gilded Page: The Secret Lives of Medieval Manuscripts
Keep your bookish love — and your dollars — local by shopping at DMV-area indies in person or online via Bookshop this Small Business Saturday! Click here for a partial list of options to check out. Otherwise, just step outside, take a deep breath, and follow your nose to wherever…
The Hidden Child: A Novel
An Interview with Stephanie Gangi
When Stephanie Gangi published her debut novel, The Next, in 2016, she conjured a dead protagonist whose spirit lingers among the living to, among other things, carry out righteous revenge on an unfaithful lover. The challenges that Bea Seger, the main character in Gangi’s second novel, Carry the Dog, faces…
Unrequited Infatuations
The words of Danielle Evans sneak up on you. You might be reading a story employing deceptively straightforward, factual language ostensibly about visiting Alcatraz or attending a wedding or filming a music video and suddenly, bam! — here come lines like this: “‘You have no idea how much you take…
Kurt Vonnegut. “As I sit here at my desk, drinking coffee from a mug decorated with assorted quotes from Vonnegut, I will always be thankful for the words and thoughts he put into this world. Of course, some of those books will once again serve as banned-book fodder because they…
V2
Dave Zirin in Conversation with Nakeesha Ceran
In 2016, Colin Kaepernick first took a knee during the National Anthem before an NFL game to protest racial injustice, police brutality, and anti-blackness in the United States. He continued to do so during the 2016-2017 football season, and inspired Americans all over the country to follow suit in other…
Manipulating the Masses
A Good Ending for Bad Memories
A Good Ending for Bad Memories
A Carnival of Snackery: Diaries 2003-2020
A Carnival of Snackery: Diaries 2003-2020
Let us walk into November with a new direction as the year draws to a close. In the United States, November is both Native American Heritage Month and Puerto Rican Heritage Month. It’s also when we celebrate Thanksgiving. One can imagine the fraught emotions, misinformation, and mythologizing these occasions inspire,…
Dumb means unable to speak, also stupid. As a word person, when I can’t understand a language, can’t read, converse, or eavesdrop, I’m dumbstruck and feel stupid. It’s humbling, embarrassing, enlightening — a tiny, passing taste of the immigrant experience. The first time it happened, I was 10, living in…
The Young H.G. Wells: Changing the World
The Young H.G. Wells: Changing the World
Bedtime Stories: November 2021
Lisa Napoli: After writing one memoir and three biographies over the last dozen years, I decided I loved both genres so much that I leapt to enroll in a new Master’s program dedicated to their study at CUNY Graduate Center. This semester, along with many other super books by the…
A Long Way from Douala: A Novel
A Long Way from Douala: A Novel
An Interview with Lindsay Merbaum
The characters in Lindsay Merbaum’s The Gold Persimmon are all in a state of suspension — a ghostly purgatory — waiting to find relief from their grief, yet so utterly human in the way they go about it. Reading this book, I felt captive in a dream-like state. Here was…
David O. Stewart in Conversation with Marie Arana
From bestselling historian and storyteller David O. Stewart, The New Land brings the reader back in time to tell uniquely American stories — full of adventure, excitement, heartbreak, and a tapestry of richly developed characters. After many years as a trial and appellate lawyer, David O. Stewart became a bestselling…
Shelf Life: Chronicles of a Cairo Bookseller
Shelf Life: Chronicles of a Cairo Bookseller
As a journalist, and especially as a journalist during the pandemic, I feel there’s been a reportage dearth. My social calendar (aka my story-idea generator) has been wide open, and people in masks are harder to approach (are they welcoming a nosy neighbor like myself or silently cursing my name?)…
To Be a Man
Supreme Disorder
A Patriotic Pick: November 2021
Whether it’s via their tone, topic, or tenor, certain works just say “America.” Here is one such title, suggested by Edgar Dobie, executive producer and president of Arena Stage: Mayflower: Voyage, Community, War by Nathaniel Philbrick. “As an immigrant studying for my citizenship exam in 2008, I took my adopted…
The Pastor
Dawn Perry in Conversation with Olga Massov
Former food director of Real Simple Dawn Perry used to wake up at the crack of dawn to hit the farmers market and scour specialty food stores for peak-season vegetables and lesser-known spices. But as she started to have a family, she became less interested in spending her mornings and…
“I own me!” That’s the lesson in attorney/author Faith Jones’ TEDx Talk about women understanding property rights to our own bodies. This declaration is significant for many reasons, but for Faith, it was her concrete realization that she’d freed herself from the obligation and guilt of her upbringing in the…
Led Zeppelin: The Biography
On Animals
Journalist Chaney Kwak has written for multiple publications, including the New York Times, Food & Wine, and Condé Nast Traveler. His first book, which came out in June, is The Passenger: How a Travel Writer Learned to Love Cruises & Other Lies from a Sinking Ship. The Washington Post called…
Interview with Leslie Pietrzyk
If you want to write about power — and the resulting dynamics across a variety of relationships — author Leslie Pietrzyk says DC is open territory. In fact, the title of her newest collection of short stories, Admit This to No One, shaped her thinking: What are people in DC…
Lemon: A Novel
Harmony Becker in Conversation with Sloane Leong
East City Bookshop welcomes Harmony Becker with her new book, Himawari House, in conversation with Sloane Leong. Tickets are available via Eventbrite here. Registration is required. About Himawari House: A YA graphic novel about three foreign exchange students and the pleasures, and difficulties, of adjusting to living in Japan. Living…
Some of the historic battles through the ages concern attempts to censure books. When they happen, booklovers especially have joined the fight against burnings, banning, and censorship. So it comes as a shock when an author contributes to the ageless attempts to dictate who may or may not read their…
Castaway Mountain: Love and Loss Among the Wastepickers of Mumbai
Castaway Mountain: Love and Loss Among the Wastepickers of Mumbai
A Country for Dying
Here We Are
Glory Edim in Conversation with Christine Platt
Proudly introducing the Well-Read Black Girl Library Series! On Girlhood is a lovingly curated anthology celebrating short fiction from such luminaries as Rita Dove, Alice Walker, Toni Morrison, and more. Glory Edim is the founder of Well-Read Black Girl, a book club and digital platform that promotes Black literature and…
7 Most Favorable Reviews in October 2021
How to Survive a Human Attack: A Guide for Werewolves, Mummies, Cyborgs, Ghosts, Nuclear Mutants, and Other Movie Monsters by K.E. Flann (Running Press). Reviewed by Drew Gallagher. “The questions that arise from How to Survive a Human Attack are both troubling and hysterical. And as much as we assume…
Romance Roundup: November 2021
I feel like I spent the entirety of summer wishing for autumn and then blinked and — poof! — now I’m trying to keep up as we careen from one holiday activity to the next! But before I’m knee-deep in Thanksgiving prep, I want to take a moment to reflect…
Bonhoeffer’s America: A Land without Reformation
Bonhoeffer’s America: A Land without Reformation
I Am Not Who You Think I Am: A Novel
I Am Not Who You Think I Am: A Novel
At the racetrack, my “sure winner” nags were almost always overtaken at the finish line. Actually, many were often passed on the backstretch. And I seem to remember one thoroughbred who probably would’ve been lapped had the thundering herd done another circuit. I think the horse was a gelding and…
5 Most Popular Posts: October 2021
Kitty Kelley’s review of Robert E. Lee and Me: A Southerner’s Reckoning with the Myth of the Lost Cause by Ty Seidule (St. Martin’s Press). “Few others could write this book with such sterling credibility. Only a man of the South, a Virginian, and a soldier with a Ph.D. in…
Anvils, Mallets & Dynamite: The Unauthorized Biography of Looney Tunes
Anvils, Mallets & Dynamite: The Unauthorized Biography of Looney Tunes
Grace Cavalieri has led, and continues to lead, a remarkable artistic life, not only as a prolific and well-honored poet (she is Maryland’s poet laureate) but as a playwright of some 20 plays and producer/host of “The Poet and the Poem,” an interview series from the Library of Congress which…
Best known as anchor of “Special Report with Bret Baier” on the Fox News Channel, Bret Baier is also the author of several books, including, most recently, To Rescue the Republic: Ulysses S. Grant, the Fragile Union, and the Crisis of 1876. Publishers Weekly calls the book, co-written by Catherine…
From the former news policy lead at Google, an urgent and groundbreaking account of the high-stakes global cyberwar brewing between Western democracies and the autocracies of China and Russia that could potentially crush democracy. From 2016 to 2020, Jacob Helberg led Google’s global internal product policy efforts to combat disinformation…
An Interview with Melissa Guida-Richards
While there is an overabundance of adoption handbooks churned out by adoptive parents, virtually none are written by those who are purportedly the subject of these books, the adoptees themselves. This is indicative of a larger problem within the community: the domination by adoptive parents and the adoption industry of…
My Monticello: Fiction
World War C: Lessons from the Covid-19 Pandemic and How to Prepare for the Next One
World War C: Lessons from the Covid-19 Pandemic and How to Prepare for the Next One
Sometimes, when I think about the professions I could be pursuing instead of writing, I reflect on other people — nurses, faith leaders, scientists, musicians, actors — fulfilling their purpose admirably, rising early, sleeping late, or doing whatever it is they do to get up in the morning. I remind…
The DMV isn’t normally seen as a place full of truth and honesty, but it’s those ideals that writers here, whether they be poets, fiction, or nonfiction writers, are trying to find. And the beauty of living and writing in this nexus of local, national, and international life is that…
We Need to Talk
Shoddy
Michaela Stith in Conversation with Alice Mayne-Ashworth
Welcome Michaela Stith in discussing her memoir, Welp: Climate Change & Arctic Identities, with guest Alice Mayne-Ashworth! This in-person event is limited to 40 attendees. Masks will be required during the event. Accessibility note: This event is held up two flights of stairs. Lost City Books does not have an…
Still Mad: American Women Writers and the Feminist Imagination
Still Mad: American Women Writers and the Feminist Imagination
Here we arrive at late October, these days of thinning veils, witches, and ghosts. This is a month made for poets, as words are our spells, our offerings. In my home state of New Mexico, October is when we build ofrendas with pictures, food, and flowers, and tell stories to…
The Dog of Tithwal: Stories
I need to issue a correction. Well, okay, not really a correction. I wrote a column a while back that I don’t necessarily agree with anymore. At its worst, it came across as exhausted of other writers. And, hey, writers can be exhausting. We’re very needy people. I’m a writer.…
“The First Book that Truly Terrified Me Was…”
These titles may be vastly different from one another, but they share something in common: They’re each frightening — to somebody, at least — in their own way. (Except for a certain work by Truman Capote, which is apparently scary to a lot of people in a very similar way.)…
Travels with George: In Search of Washington and His Legacy
Travels with George: In Search of Washington and His Legacy
Farah Ali: Nine Shiny Objects by Brian Castleberry. I was drawn to this book for so many reasons: seekers; unidentified flying objects; history. It is a book about a wide cast of people at different intervals in time. They are all connected to each other directly or indirectly. Older characters…
Burning Boy: The Life and Work of Stephen Crane
Burning Boy: The Life and Work of Stephen Crane
Venita Blackburn in Conversation with Rion Amilcar Scott
Loyalty is thrilled to celebrate How to Wrestle a Girl: Stories with Venita Blackburn and Rion Amilcar Scott! This event will be held digitally via Crowdcast. Click here to register for the event with a donation of any amount of your choice or you can order the book below to…
Children’s Book Roundup: October 2021
October’s shorter days and longer nights mean extra reading time before bed! Here are three terrific new titles to explore with your budding bookworm, whether he’s obsessed with all things Halloween and monstrous or just feels like getting lost in a charmingly hypnotic yarn. Red by Laura Vaccaro Seeger (Neal…
In Cathy Park Hong’s essay collection, Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning, the author interrogates her writing trajectory: “I’ve been raised and educated to please white people and this desire to please has become ingrained into my consciousness. Even to declare I was writing for myself would still mean I’m…
The Body Scout: A Novel
Mary Beard in Conversation with Daniel Mendelsohn
From Mary Beard's reconstruction of Titian's extraordinary lost Room of the Emperors to her reinterpretation of Henry VIII's famous Caesarian tapestries, Twelve Caesars includes fascinating detective work and offers a gripping story of some of the most challenging and disturbing portraits of power ever created. Beard is one of the…
There Is Nothing for You Here: Finding Opportunity in the 21st Century
There Is Nothing for You Here: Finding Opportunity in the 21st Century
Crossroads: A Novel
For National Poetry Month, my university always hosts an event where poets read aloud their favorite poem by another poet, living or dead. While I have many “favorite” poets — from Tim Seibles to Derek Walcott to Harryette Mullen — the poem I always want to read is one called…
An Interview with Sarah MacLean
New York Times bestselling romance author Sarah MacLean is a widely sought-after, knowledgeable, and noteworthy proponent of the romance genre in mainstream and social media. Bombshell, the first in her Hell’s Belles series, was one of the most anticipated romance releases of this past summer. What’s the story behind the…
Silverview: A Novel
The Mother Next Door: A Novel
10 Latinx Works You Should Be Reading
There’s nothing like curling up with a good book and immersing yourself in someone else’s story. It’s even better when that story introduces you to a possibly unfamiliar world. As Hispanic Heritage Month comes to an end, here’s a look at several Latinx works that deserve to be read and…
Shelter in Place
The Enduring Civil War
Socially distanced, outdoors, and masked! Join local romance novelist Charis Michaels for this interactive workshop on the basics of writing a romance and getting it (traditionally) published. We’ll cover everything from high-concept idea, to plotting outline, to a daily writing schedule, and have plenty of time left over for a…
The Limits of Limelight: A Novel
The Limits of Limelight: A Novel
A Patriotic Pick: October 2021
Whether it’s via their tone, topic, or tenor, certain works just say “America.” Here is one such title, suggested by Michael B. Poliakoff, president of the American Council of Trustees and Alumni: Finale: A Novel of the Reagan Years by Thomas Mallon. “Especially in this time of identity politics and…
The Illimitable Freedom of the Human Mind: Thomas Jefferson’s Idea of a University
The Illimitable Freedom of the Human Mind: Thomas Jefferson’s Idea of a University
Readers who appreciate Civil War memoirs and enjoy biographies will treasure Mark Perry’s 2004 double-barreled book, Grant and Twain: The Story of a Friendship that Changed America. With a respectful nod to Pulitzer Prize winners Ron Chernow (Grant) and Justin Kaplan (Mr. Clemens and Mark Twain), one salutes Perry for…
Audiobooks have come a long way. What began as a bulky package of vinyl records put out by the Library of Congress for the benefit of the blind has become a digital stream downloadable to the ubiquitous smartphone. My favorite time for listening is on a road trip, watching the…
It’s Time to Fall for the Book!
Plagues, pandemics, and quarantines aren’t good for much, but they can provide the perfect recipe for creativity. And just like when the bubonic plague swept across Europe in the 1590s, giving Shakespeare the impetus and time to write Romeo & Juliet, King Lear, and The Merchant of Venice, so, too,…
King of the Blues: The Rise and Reign of B.B. King
King of the Blues: The Rise and Reign of B.B. King
Rachel Long in Conversation with Raymond Antrobus
Loyalty is super psyched to welcome Rachel Long and Raymond Antrobus to celebrate My Darling from the Lions! This event will be held digitally via Crowdcast. Click here to register for the event with a donation of any amount of your choice, or you can order the book below to…
The Lincoln Highway: A Novel
An Interview with Carolyn Ferrell
Imagine three young girls in Queens who dream of leaving their dysfunctional homes for someplace better. Fern, Gwin, and Jesenia are all different from each other but find themselves part of the same horrific situation when “Boss Man” kidnaps them and keeps them locked in the basement of a rundown…
7 Most Favorable Reviews in September 2021
Almost Hemingway: The Adventures of Negley Farson, Foreign Correspondent by Rex Bowman and Carlos Santos (University of Virginia Press). Reviewed by Kristin H. Macomber. “Like Hemingway, Farson was fond of fishing, drinking, and womanizing. But whereas Farson reveled in the world as he met it and wrote the truest versions…
Peril
5 Most Popular Posts: September 2021
Kitty Kelley’s review of Graceland, at Last: Notes on Hope and Heartache from the American South by Margaret Renkl (Milkweed Editions). “So far, this lovely little book is bright, courteous, and informative, even lady-like, but then Renkl ventures into territory that more timid Southerners would avoid: sex, religion, and politics.…
I may be biased, but I don’t think there are many greater places to be a writer than the DMV. While drafting and editing are solitary tasks, sustaining the writing practice demands community. Through community, we learn about the writing world, gain confidence in our craft, get valuable feedback, make…
Despite Amazon repeatedly including Rupi Kaur’s poetry books in their “Top picks for you” section, I had no intention of reading her anytime soon. And I didn’t even have a good reason: I was just jealous. Kaur, a 28-year-old Canadian poet, artist, and performer, self-published her first book, milk and…
Derecka Purnell in Conversation with Michelle Alexander
In Becoming Abolitionists, Purnell draws from her experiences as a lawyer, writer, and organizer initially skeptical about police abolition. She saw too much sexual violence and buried too many friends to consider getting rid of police in her hometown of St. Louis, let alone the nation. But the police were…
Welfare for the Rich
Of Bears and Ballots
How to Survive a Human Attack: A Guide for Werewolves, Mummies, Cyborgs, Ghosts, Nuclear Mutants, and Other Movie Monsters
Happy October — my favorite month of the year! It’s starting to feel like fall in Virginia, which means I’m wearing a hoodie with a book tucked in my kangaroo pocket. Okay, just kidding. (Or am I?) I’m the only person I know who actually likes the shorter days. I…
Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law
Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law
We had to make El Paso in time for Martha’s first day of work, right after Labor Day. Car-packing is my husband Harry’s superpower; he’s a former college hunk hauling junk. He packed our daughter’s rented Chevy Malibu solid: big boxes, mostly books, bags of clothes, and two bikes strapped…
Join us for an early Fall poetry reading on our back patio! We'll hear from three wonderful poets: Michael Collier is the author of eight collections of poems, including The Missing Mountain: New and Selected Poems (University of Chicago Press, 2021). He has been a finalist for the National Book…
Authors on Audio: Olivia Campbell
Olivia Campbell — an independent journalist and essayist whose work has appeared in multiple publications, including the Atlantic, New York Magazine, and the Guardian — recently released her first book, Women in White Coats: How the First Women Doctors Changed the World of Medicine. Says Publishers Weekly, “This entertaining account…
Things I Have Withheld: Essays
Things I Have Withheld: Essays
An Interview with Kate Clifford Larson
Historian Kate Clifford Larson is also the New York Times bestselling author of several biographies, including Bound for the Promised Land: Harriet Tubman, Portrait of an American Hero and The Assassin's Accomplice: Mary Surratt and the Plot to Kill Abraham Lincoln. Her new book, Walk with Me: A Biography of…
Humane: How the United States Abandoned Peace and Reinvented War
Humane: How the United States Abandoned Peace and Reinvented War
Children’s Book Roundup: September 2021
Learning shouldn’t stop when the school day ends, so don’t let it! Share these three recent or forthcoming titles with your child, and you’ll be exposing her to new worlds (or new-to-her aspects of our existing world). Each one boasts so many interesting tidbits and splashy illustrations that it’s sure…
This past July, I got on the Metro in DC and rode it out to New Carrollton, MD. This was significant for two reasons: It was my first time taking public transportation since March 2020, and it was my first time since lockdown reporting a story in person. Once the…
Against White Feminism: Notes on Disruption
Against White Feminism: Notes on Disruption
Escaping Dreamland
Breeana Shields in Conversation with Lizzy Mason
We are thrilled to welcome Breeana Shields to celebrate the release of her new novel, The Splendor, not just because the cover is gorgeous, but that is a plus! She will be in conversation with another local favorite, Lizzy Mason. ABOUT THE BOOK: Within the Enchanted Walls of the Hotel…
Around the World in 80 Words
Believing: Our Thirty-Year Journey to End Gender Violence
Believing: Our Thirty-Year Journey to End Gender Violence
7 Summer Releases You Might’ve Missed
“So many books, so little time.” Isn’t that how the saying goes? Okay, maybe not. But it’s true that we were overwhelmed — in the best possible way — this summer by noteworthy fiction releases. There were so many, in fact, that some didn’t get as much love as they…
The Book of Form and Emptiness: A Novel
The Book of Form and Emptiness: A Novel
I’ve only ever cried over two books, and Jenna Blum’s forthcoming memoir, Woodrow on the Bench: Life Lessons from a Wise Old Dog, is one of them. In it, the bestselling author chronicles life with her 15-year-old black Lab, Woodrow, in their final seven months together. I’d never considered myself…
On Freedom: Four Songs of Care and Constraint
On Freedom: Four Songs of Care and Constraint
When Kurt Vonnegut’s eighth novel, Slapstick was published in 1976, most reviewers hated it. Roger Sale, in the New York Times, called it “flashy, clever, and empty,” chiding Vonnegut for his formulaic writing, dumb notions, and sentimental cynicism. In the New York Review of Books, James Wolcott deemed it “a…
TJ Klune in Conversation with Rin Chupeco
Loyalty is ridiculously excited to celebrate the release of Under the Whispering Door with TJ Klune and Rin Chupeco!! This event will be held digitally via Crowdcast. Click here to register for the event with a donation of any amount of your choice or you can order the book below…
The Peculiarities
An Interview with James Magruder
You might call James Magruder a quadruple threat. Not only can he sing, dance, and act; he can also write, capably and hysterically, the playbill. The author of multiple titles, including 2014’s Let Me See It, Magruder, a playwright himself, now finds his métier in Ithaca, New York, following the…
The Right to Sex: Feminism in the Twenty-First Century
The Right to Sex: Feminism in the Twenty-First Century
Talland House
Dave Zirin in Conversation with Michael Lee
Critically acclaimed sports journalist and author of A People's History of Sports in the United States Dave Zirin chronicles “the Kaepernick effect” for the first time, through interviews with a broad cross-section of professional athletes across many different sports, college stars and high-powered athletic directors, and high school athletes and…
A Saint from Texas
Saving Us: A Climate Scientist’s Case for Hope and Healing in a Divided World
Saving Us: A Climate Scientist’s Case for Hope and Healing in a Divided World
The Ocean in Winter: A Novel
September is a time to search for a bit of stillness in that liminal place between summer’s end and fall’s beginning. It’s a good time to meditate on the current situation we find ourselves mired in, somehow still trying to claw our way out of a pandemic, take a deep…
I’ve been writing this column since saber-toothed tigers roamed the earth during the Pleistocene Epoch. Or at least it seems that long. So, it occurred to me that some of the things I wrote might have made sense. I’m not being pretentious. According to the infinite-monkey theory, a monkey hitting…
Tyler Merritt in Conversation with Michael Steele
In I Take My Coffee Black, Tyler tells hilarious stories from his own life as a black man in America. He talks about growing up in a multi-cultural community and realizing that he wasn't always welcome, how he quit sports for musical theater (that's where the girls were) to how…
Wildland: The Making of America’s Fury
Wildland: The Making of America’s Fury
Authors on Audio: Annette Gordon-Reed
In this week’s podcast, courtesy of Biographers International Organization, Sonja Williams and Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Annette Gordon-Reed discuss Gordon-Reed’s latest book, On Juneteenth, which the Christian Science Monitor calls “a perfectly quilted work of history seen through the eyes of an African American family in Texas.” Listen to the podcast…
An Interview with Frank Haberle
Frank Haberle is a Brooklyn writer whose short stories have appeared in more than 30 magazines, winning awards from Pen Parentis, Beautiful Loser Magazine, Freshwater Review, and the Sustainable Arts Foundation. Spare, funny, and brutal, his writing has been compared to the work of Denis Johnson, Charles Bukowski, and Hubert…
No Gods, No Monsters: A Novel
At the beginning of Ian McEwan’s Black Dogs, the young narrator says, “Ever since I lost my mother and father in a road accident when I was eight, I’ve had my eye on other people’s parents.” When I first read this line, I must have been 22 or so, and…
Unfollow Me: Essays on Complicity
Unfollow Me: Essays on Complicity
Cool for America
Kei Miller in Conversation with Maisy Card
Loyalty is thrilled to welcome Kei Miller and Maisy Card for Things I Have Withheld! This event will be held digitally via Crowdcast. Click here to register for the event with a donation of any amount of your choice or you can order the book below to be added to…
Universe of Two
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