Book Reviews

Out of Cabrini is a crackerjack police novel that rises above its genre with a subtly nuanced and very human story of crime and punishment from the perspective of cops, [...]

There is no getting around it.  William Kent Krueger’s 2013 novel Ordinary Grace has been a huge bestseller for a decade. Not only that, but it’s been honored as a [...]

I read a paperback copy of David Hare’s 1995 play Skylight that I found in one of the dozens of free little book boxes scattered across the neighborhoods I frequent [...]

In Old God’s Time by Sebastian Barry, Tom Kettle tells the nightmare story of his life in waves of ever-increasing pain, violence and abuse. It is a novel that features [...]

The enchanting image of a dancing woman on the cover of Gloria Fossi’s thickly illustrated 1989 Filippo Lippi is more ambiguous than it appears. Ribbons and linen skirts are tossed [...]

Anne Kraatz initially published her book Lace: History and Fashion in French in 1988 and then helped with the English version from Rizzoli the next year with a translation by [...]

“Look out! He’s got a daisy!” That’s what Moist von Lipwig shouts at one point in Terry Pratchett’s Making Money, his 36th Discworld novel, and, even as he does, Moist [...]

BettyJoyce Nash’s crackerjack novel Everybody Here Is Kin has been described as a coming-of-age tale, but that’s only half of it.  It’s also a coping-with-PTSD-after-military-service story.  And, really, it’s a [...]

In the seven stories in Ana Castillo’s new sparkling, gritty and compassionate collection Dona Cleanwell Leaves Home, there are a lot of common themes.  Ghosts, for one, including a beautiful [...]

Over the past 76 years, the Playtex brand of bras, girdles and other women’s products hasn’t been shy when it comes to advertising its merchandise.  In fact, in 1949, it [...]