This Week’s Hot Reviews!

Invasive species
Marwa Helal | Nightboat Books | 9781937658939 | January 2019
Invasive species . . . cuts through the din of the constant news cycle, arriving at a momentary understanding of the barbarity of American foreign policy and global immigration systems.”—Believer Magazine

When I Arrived at the Castle 
Emily Carroll | Koyama Press | 9781927668689 | April 2019
“As with any good fairy tale, there is magic (of sorts). Here it takes shape through Carroll’s incredible capacity to scare.”—The Comics Journal

Sooner or Later Everything Falls into the Sea: Stories
Sarah Pinsker | Small Beer Press | 9781618731555 | Small Beer Press | March 2019
“[C]annot be recommended enough for fans of LGBT+ sci-fi and fantasy. Pinsker’s collection has such a range and depth to it storytelling and emotional resonance that the reader will be left in complete awe after reading any chosen story. Pinsker’s collection invites the reader to truly imagine and be taken by her stories, and to see that, while the future may be full of frightening, there’s still a humanness that can be found in any corner of the universe or multiverse, and that by exploring as much as we can, there’s a way to end the journey more in tune with the space around them.”—Lambda Literary

Reenactments
Hai-Dang Phan | Sarabande Books | 9781946448286 | February 2019
“In the poem ‘Get to Know Your Ghost,’ Phan recommends you determine ‘whether it is free Saturday night / or Sunday afternoon for a visitation.’ This line, and the collection as a whole, is both gift and invitation. Phan’s vantage point is wide, but it won’t do all the work for you. You are going to have to ‘do something painful each day.’ You are going to have to ask the ghost something. And every something will begin to make all the difference.”—The Paris Review

Castle of Concrete
Katia Raina | Young Europe Books | 9780999541630 | June 2019
“In Katia Raina’s fascinating and sympathetic Castle of Concrete, the concerns of young adulthood are amplified tenfold against a background of historical upheavals. . . . [A] riveting story about growing up in dark political times.”―Foreword Reviews

From the Shadows
Juan Jose Millas, trans. Thomas Bunstead & Daniel Hahn | Bellevue Literary Press | 9781942658665 | August 2019
“A compelling stew of comedy, philosophy, and even tragedy, From the Shadows maintains a light touch, even as sinister undertones bubble underneath. Damian’s risky existence leads to unexpected twists and a climax that lingers long after Millas’s absurd lark comes to an end.”—Foreword Reviews

Make/Shift
Joe Sacksteder | Sarabande Books | 9781946448323 | April 2019
“Joe Sacksteder is one of those rare writers whose work brims with both brain and heart. His debut short story collection, Make/Shift . . . pairs fierce and strange innovation with raw emotion, longing, and obsessions. . . . Sacksteder’s stories span a wide-ranging and ever-engaging expanse of human experience. . . . Make sure you don’t miss out on this outstanding short story collection. It gets in your guts. It’ll never leave.”—The Adroit Journal

All Its Charms
Keetje Kuipers | BOA Editions | 9781942683766 | April 2019
“Kuipers has never published a poem that wasn’t beautiful, in one way or another, but she also leans a little dark. But it’s a gorgeous dark. A maturing dark, which all of us getting slower and grayer hope to attain. It’s the dark of the deep color of raspberries under storm clouds. . . . I find something new to love every time I open this book. All Its Charms is a collection of poems from a wonderful poet at the height of her powers. It is a book to be read in a sitting, then revisited, again and again, slowly, and savored.”—The Missoulian

Milwaukee Noir
edited by Tim Hennessy | Akashic Books | 9781617757013 | May 2019
“Luxuriate in the seedy, wallow in the angry and shiver at the horrors that surely await you around the corner. . . .  The sheer localness of Milwaukee Noir is superb, and the seediness of many characters here would qualify them for membership in a Tom Waits song.”—Milwaukee Journal Sentinal

Living on the Borderlines: Stories
Melissa Michal | The Feminist Press at CUNY | 9781936932467 | February 2019
“Melissa Michal writes about American Indigenous people with a power that will make you want to read and reread these stories. . . . Despite the tragedy in the lives in many of the stories . . . there is a deeper resonance here—a connection with family, with memory, and with story that speaks of a survival that moves beyond any attempt at erasure. These are voices that must be heard, stories that must be read.”—The Brooklyn Rail

Time Is the Thing a Body Moves Through
T Fleischmann | Coffee House Press | 9781566895477 | June 2019
“By turns blunt, confrontational, eloquent, exciting, original, and somewhat indescribable.”—The Gay & Lesbian Review

The Last Days of Mankind: A Visual Guide to Karl Kraus’ Great War Epic
Deborah Sengl with contributions by Marjorie Perloff, Anna Souchuk, Matthias Goldmann and Paul Reitter | DoppelHouse Press | 9780999754412 | January 2019
“Sengl’s art itself plays with the tensions of life and death in her use of taxidermied rats. . . . Cuteness and horror collide in these miniature scenes. . . . [Sengl’s] adaptation of Kraus’ war epic . . . makes it more accessible to audiences and helps to render the experimental play into a more comprehensible whole.”—New York Journal of Books

Sleepless Night
Margriet de Moor, trans. David Doherty | New Vessel Press | 9781939931696 | May 2019
“This sort of small (but abyss-deep) tale depends very much on the telling, and de Moor does a very fine job. . . . Sleepless Night is both melancholy and hopeful (but nowhere near cloyingly so), and doesn’t force too many answers; love and loss remain mysteries—but ultimately quite satisfyingly so.”—Complete Review

The Welsh Fasting Girl
Varley O’Connor | Bellevue Literary Press | 9781942658627 | May 2019
“O’Connor’s recreation of this world and its people is haunted and haunting, with marvelous poetry and human sorrow resonating in every line.”—Historical Hovel Society

Mentors: The Making of an Art Historian
Francis M. Naumann | DoppelHouse Press | 9780999754467 | May 2019
“[U]ndeniably an enjoyable book, full of humor and personality.”—Triumph of Now

Girl Gone Missing
Marcie R. Rendon | Cinco Puntos Press | 9781947627116 | June 2019
“Rendon is a natural storyteller and a consummate writer, and we’re indebted to Cinco Puntos Press in El Paso for bringing the unforgettable Cash Blackbear to life. There isn’t a protagonist in recent fiction with the bearing of Rendon’s creation, and we’re the better for knowing her.”—The Durango Telegraph

Leave a comment

Filed under Uncategorized

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *