Reviewer …the story is not a downer. What it is, is real. Its fidelity to the way things actually are and to what people actually feel is inspiring.”
BOOK REVIEW: Pachinko by Jin Min Lee – January 2018
Lee secures our attention and keeps it on a tight leash throughout. Her characters are complex, sympathetic, and highly individuated.
BOOK REVIEW: Surfing with Sartre: An Aquatic Inquiry into a Life of Meaning, by Aaron James — October 2017
Reviewed by Jane Tompkins I’ve always had a vague idea that in another life I’d like to be a surfer. Now I know for sure I’d like to be one, having read Surfing with Sartre, and wish I weren’t too old to start now. This is a book of popular philosophy—not written for academic philosophers…
BOOK REVIEW – September 2017
Jane reviews two books.
BOOK REVIEW: Mother Land by Paul Theroux – July 2017
Readers of Paul Theroux’s travel books will want to read his new memoir.
They should also read our book reviewer’s insightful exploration into this book and its author.
BOOK REVIEW: Anything is Possible by Elizabeth Strout – June 2017
The reviewer felt herself, when reading, to be “in the presence of something recognizably, and at times, shockingly, real.”