Critical Notes

Roundup: Kathryn Harrison, Alice Munro, Richard Ford, Gregory Maguire, and more

By Eric Liebetrau

Your reviews seed this roundup; please send items to NBCCCritics@gmail.com. Make sure to send links that do not require a subscription or username and password.

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Call for Entries: Nona Balakian Award for Excellence in Reviewing.

NBCC Board of Director Elections: Deadline December 8.

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Carl Rollyson reviews “Mademoiselle: Coco Chanel and the Pulse of History,” by Rhonda Garelick.

Sarah Katz reviews Laura Kasischke's “The Infinitesimals.”

Natalie Bakopoulos reviews “Electric City” by Elizabeth Rosner.

“The Four Most Beautiful Words,” from Robert Birnbaum.

Meredith Maran reviews Kathryn Harrison's biography of Joan of Arc. She also reviews Kate Shindle's “Being Miss America.”

Diane Scharper reviews “Skirting Heresy” by Elizabeth MacDonald.

Lanie Tankard reviews Linda Leaming's “A Field Guide to Happiness.”

NBCC board member Steven Kellman on “How James Laughlin Remade the Canon.”

David Cooper reviews “Gina Nahai’s fifth novel, The Luminous Heart of Jonah S.”

Karl Wolff reviews “Taxidermy Art” by Robert Marbury.

Linda Simon's book “The Greatest Shows on Earth” was just released by the University of Chicago Press.

John Domini reviews Blake Butler's “300,000,000.”

NBCC board member Jane Ciabattari reviews NBCC award winner (and Nobelist) Alice Munro's “Family Furnishings: Selected Stories, 1995-2014” for NPR.

Jeff Turrentine reviews RIchard Ford's “Let Me Be Frank with You.”

NBCC board member Kate Tuttle reviews four recent nonfiction titles for the Boston Globe.

Joe Peschel reviews Richard Bausch's novel “Before, During, After.”

Julie Hakim Azzam interviews Gregory Maguire about his new book “Egg and Spoon.” She also speaks with R.J. Palacio, author of the middle grade novel “Wonder” and reviews Nuruddin Farah's “Hiding in Plain Sight.”