Critical Notes

Roundup: Roddy Doyle, Jennifer Senior, Amy Chua, William Burroughs, B.J. Novak and more

By Eric Liebetrau

Your reviews seed this roundup; please send items to NBCCCritics@gmail.com.

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Don't forget to check out the 2013 30 Books in 30 Days, featuring reviews of the 30 NBCC finalists over the next month.

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Mary Ann Gwinn talks with Roddy Doyle, the author of The Guts.

NBCC board member Mark Athitakis reviews The Guts for the Houston Chronicle.

Grace Bello writes about Jennifer Senior's All Joy and No Fun for Dame Magazine and reviews Amy Chua and Jed Rubenfeld's The Triple Package for Christian Science Monitor.

NBCC board president Laurie Muchnick also reviews Jennifer Senior's parenting book.

Call Me Burroughs pins down the extreme life of William Burroughs.” Jim Ruland reviews the new biography from Barry Miles.

Claire Cameron's second novel, The Bear, is just published by Little Brown.

For the Brooklyn Rail, John Domini reviews a pair of debut titles.

Michael Klein reviews Cynthia Lowen's poetry collection, The Cloud that Contained the Lightning.

Celia McGee has a new column for the Center for Fiction.

NBCC board member Carolyn Kellogg talks to 2013 Nonfiction Award finalist George Packer about his recent Amazon article in the New Yorker. She also talks to Kim Cooper about her novel, The Kept Girl.

“One More Thing' Has A Few Too Many Things, But It's Still Funny.” Heller McAlpin on B.J. Novak's debut book.

Julia M. Klein reviews Rebecca Mead's My Life in Middlemarch for the Chicago Tribune.

NBCC board member Jane Ciabattari reviews Susan Minot's Thirty Girls for NPR.

Adam Kirsch reviews Alice Hoffman's The Museum of Extraordinary Things.

Jon Wiener has “7 Questions for Rachel Kushner” in the Nation.

NBCC board member Colette Bancroft reviews Sue Monk Kidd's latest novel.

Bill Williams reviews The Trip to Echo Spring: On Writers and Drinking by Olivia Laing.