Critical Notes

Aleksandar Hemon, Taffy Brodesser-Akner, and Plenty of Summer Reading

By Mark Athitakis

New member Constance Grady of Vox has been busy, covering Elizabeth Gilbert’s novel City of Girls, Jim DeRogatis’ investigative book on R. Kelly, the Cinderella story, and anticipated summer reading

Kathleen Rooney reviewed Deborah Shapiro’s novel The Summer Demands for the Chicago Tribune. .

Clea Simon wrote about the crime-fiction gender wars for the Boston Globe.

Oline H. Cogdill reviewed Louise Candlish's novel Those People and Daniela Petrova’s novel Her Daughter’s Mother for the Associated Press, and Lori Roy’s novel Gone Too Long for the Fort Lauderdale Sun Sentinel.

Allen Adams reviewed Blake Crouch’s novel Recursion and Jason Turbow’s chronicle of the 1981 L.A. Dodgers, They Bled Blue, for the Maine Edge.

Pam Munter reviewed Katy Butler’s The Art of Dying Well: A Practical Guide to a Good End of Life for Fourth and Sycamore.

Alexander C. Kafka reviewed Casey Rae’s Williams S. Burroughs and the Cult of Rock ‘n’ Roll for the Washington Post.

Troy Jollimore reviewed Campbell McGrath’s Nouns & Verbs: New and Selected Poems for the New York Times.

Robert Allen Papinchak calls Robert Hillman's novel The Bookshop of the Broken Hearted “transcendent” in his review for the Washington Independent Review of Books.

Paul Wilner beats the drum for City Lights and Lawrence Ferlinghetti on his 100th birthday in the Nob Hill Gazette, and contrasts the literary odd couple Ben Lerner and James Lee Burke for SpliceToday:

Claire Fallon reviewed Taffy Brodesser-Akner's novel, Fleishman Is in Trouble, and profiled sci-fi author Charlie Jane Anders for HuffPost.

Brian Haman interviewed poet and translator Eleanor Goodman for The Shanghai Literary Review.

Kamil Ahsan reviewed Daniel Brook’s The Accident of Color: A Story of Race in Reconstruction for NPR Books.

Julia M. Klein reviews Aleksandar Hemon's memoir My Parents/This Does Not Belong to You for the Chicago Tribune and Linda Hirshman's Reckoning: The Epic Battle Against Sexual Abuse and Harassment for the Forward.

Hamilton Cain covered new titles from Chanelle Benz, Casey Cep, Catherine Chung, Sara Collins, Jean Kwok, Joyce Carol Oates and others for O: The Oprah Magazine.

NBCC members: Send us your stuff! Your work may be highlighted in this roundup; please send links to new reviews, features and other literary pieces, or tell us about awards, honors or new and forthcoming books, by dropping a line to NBCCcritics@gmail.com.

Photo of Aleksandar Hemon by slowking, used under Creative Commons noncommercial license.