Critical Notes

Aleksandar Hemon, Sarah Manguso, Harold Bloom, Per Petterson, Celeste Ng, and more

By Eric Liebetrau

Your reviews seed this roundup; please send items, including new about your new publications and recent honors, to NBCCCritics@gmail.com. Make sure to send links that do not require a subscription or username and password.

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Steven Kellman reviews The Making of Zombie Wars” by Aleksandar Hemon.

C.M. Mayo's “Metaphysical Odyssey Into the Mexican Revolution: Francisco I. Madero and His Secret Book” (Dancing Chiva, 2014) has won the 2015 National Indie Excellence Award for History.

Julia M. Klein reviews Richard Thaler's “Misbehaving” for the Chicago Tribune.

“Harold Bloom takes on 12 American greats in 'The Daemon Knows.'” A review by Mike Lindgren.

“The Fiction of Norway’s Per Petterson–The Early Bonds That Bind,” by Kai Maristed.

Clifford Garstang reviews Ravi Howard's “Driving the King.”

“BEA 2015: Does Diversity Matter in Book Reviewing?” A panel with NBCC board members Walton Muyumba and Miriam Markowitz.

Randon Billings Noble explores Heidi Julavits' “The Folded Clock.”

At the Daily Beast, Joe Peschel reviews “Ten Windows: How Great Poems Transform the World” by Jane Hirshfield.

Michelle Newby reviews “The Courthouses of Central Texas.”

In her BBC column, NBCC board member Jane Ciabattari notes top books to read in June, including Jami Attenberg's “Mazie,” a first novel from Naomi Jackson, Katherine Taylor's “Valley Fever,” new Vendela Vida, Galassi, Kundera, Schickel, Styron…

Piali Roy reviews Flood of Fire by Amitav Ghosh in the Toronto Star.

Adam Kirsch's “Rocket and Lightship, reviewed in the Jewish Chronicle.

NBCC board member Eric Liebetrau reviews Jeffrey A. Lieberman's “Shrinks.”

Micah McCrary reviews Sarah Manguso's “Ongoingness.”

Celeste Ng, author of “Everything I Never Told You,” interviewed by Robert Birnbaum.

Karen An-hwei Lee reviews Afaa Michael Weaver's “City of Eternal Spring.”

Philip Graham reviews “Trouble Using Light: The Complications of Art in the Fiction of Christine Sneed,” as well as “I Am the Deepest Side of You: The Short Stories of Antonio Tabucchi.” Graham also interviews Roy Kesey.

Tobias Carroll interviews Jason Little about his graphic novel “BORB” for Paste. Carroll also writes about the fiction and poetry of Silvina Ocampo for Electric Literature.

Rayyan Al-Shawaf reviews “Teaching Plato in Palestine.”

Lori Feathers writes about Violette Leduc’s “The Bastard” for the 2015 Daphne Awards.

“Spinster: Making a Life of One’s Own” by Kate Bolick, reviewed by Rachel Shteir.

Karl Wolff reviews “A Kingdom in Crisis” by Andrew MacGregor Marshall.

Ron Slate reviews “Paper Collage” by Georges Perro.