This Week’s Reviews

Stranger Faces
Namwali Serpell | Transit Books | 9781945492433 | September 2020
“A brilliant essay collection. . . . Serpell’s vital treatise is one readers will find themselves returning to again and again.”—Publishers Weekly, starred review

YOU DIED: An Anthology of the Afterlife
edit. Kel McDonald and Andrea Purcell | Iron Circus Comics | 9781945820632 | September 2020
“The editors tackle a huge and daunting subject with aplomb, resulting in a volume that embraces death as a concept with due complexity.”—Publishers Weekly, starred review

We Had No Rules
Corinne Manning | Arsenal Pulp Press | 9781551527994 | May 2020
“The unvarnished, unapologetic stories in Manning’s unflinching first fiction collection offer a warts-and-all look at contemporary queer people and the damage we knowingly or unknowingly inflict upon one another.”—O, the Oprah Magazine

Langosh and Peppi
Veronica Post | Conundrum Press | 9781772620443 | May 2020
“Post’s art . . . does well in portraying the personal aspects of the story. But the landscape is a character as well and she doesn’t skimp on its presence, adapting the intangible moods and physical intricacies into a style that doesn’t overtake.”—Comics Beat 

I Belong to Vienna
Anna Goldenberg, trans Alta L. Price | New Vessel Press | 9781939931849 | June 2020
“Anna Goldenberg explores questions of national identity and personal trauma. What emerges from the pages of I Belong to Vienna is a fascinating look at how two Jewish families navigated an increasingly hostile nation.”—Words Without Borders

Deep as Death
Katja Ivar | Bitter Lemon Press | 9781912242306 | June 2020
“At the end, the revelation of the killer’s identity will be enough of a shock to send the reader re-checking chapters and asking how she could’ve missed certain significant passages, at the same time proving Katja Ivar has written a novel in which the most dangerous lies are the ones we tell ourselves.”—New York Journal of Books

Bird Talk and Other Stories
Xu Xu, trans. Frederik H. Green | Stone Bridge Press | 9781611720556 | May 2020
“[A] quirky collection of stories.”—Asian Review of Books

The Tree and the Vine
Dola de Jong, trans. Kristen Gehrman | Transit Books | 9781945492341 | May 2020
“The intertwined sexual and political intrigue make THE TREE AND THE VINE a tightly plotted tour de force and a significant mid-twentieth century novel, exploring lesbian desire and the nature of our shared human condition.”—Jewish Book Council

Lisa Murphy Being Child Centered
Lisa Murphy | Redleaf Press | 9781605546155 | November 2019
“Sometimes a book leaves the reader crying ‘More!’ In this case, Lisa Murphy has harnessed her special talents and experience with children to create a small but powerful tool for building a solid foundation under the house we call childhood . . . Her experience, coupled with joy-filled (and often riotously funny) writing style seduce readers into exploring and accepting her nine attributes of a child-centered environment.”—Texas Child Care Quarterly

Softies
Kyle Smeallie | Iron Circus Comics | 9781945820489 | October 2020
“With laughs aplenty and a universe full of crazy situations, Softies is breezy, satisfying science fiction.”—Foreword Reviews

Penultimate Quest
Lars Brown | Iron Circus Comics | 9781945820502 | August 2020
“With the book’s appealing mix of highbrow philosophizing with lowbrow humor, the silly paves the way for the profound.”—Foreword Reviews

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