Friends, we hope you’re doing well! Our members have been keeping busy with reviews of books by authors including Daniel Kehlmann, Ada Limón, Jenny Erpenbeck, Delaney Nolan, and Joy Williams, and interviews with writers such as Charlotte McConaghy and Cameron Crowe. Take care, and thanks for reading!
Member Reviews/Essays
DW McKinney wrote “Writing Into the Truth About Black Mental Health,” an essay about her obsessive-compulsive disorder and finding inspiration from Maya Angelou’s autobiography, for Memoir Land’s “Freedom Ways” collaboration with Literary Liberation.
Emily Hall reviewed Tamar Shapiro’s Restitution for Necessary Fiction.
Michael Quinn reviewed The Director, written by Daniel Kehlmann and translated from the German by Ross Benjamin, for The Village Star-Revue, and Christopher Tradowsky’s novel about a 1990’s San Franciscan gay love triangle, Midnight at the Cinema Palace, for The Gay & Lesbian Review.
NBCC board member Rebecca Morgan Frank highlighted seven new poetry books in her November Literary Hub column.
Noelle McManus wrote about Ada Limón’s Startlementfor Alta.
McKenzie Watson-Fore reviewed Tamara Jong’s Worldly Girls for Full Stop.
Randy Cepuch reviewed Unabridged: The Thrill of (and Threat to) the Modern Dictionary by Stefan Fatsis for the Washington Independent Review of Books.
Robert Rubsam reviewed Things That Disappear, written by Jenny Erpenbeck and translated from the German by Kurt Beals, for The Baffler.
NBCC board member Tobias Carroll wrote about October books in translation for Words Without Borders; reviewed Cadwell Turnbull’s A Ruin, Great and Free for Reactor; reviewed Jason Brown’s memoir Character Witness for the Portland Press Herald; and wrote about Delaney Nolan’s Happy Bad for On the Seawall.
Cory Oldweiler reviewed Joy Williams’ The Pelican Childfor The Minnesota Star Tribune.
Jeffrey Colvin wrote about the purge of books at the Naval Academy for Salon.
Christopher Kempf reviewed Valencia Robin’s poetry collection Lost Cities and Juliana Spahr’s poetry collection Ars Poeticas for the online reviews magazine Preposition.
Patricia Schultheis wrote an op-ed about Hillside Park in Baltimore for The Baltimore Sun.
Paul Wilner reviewed Joan Silber’s Mercy for ZYZZYVA.
Robert Allen Papinchak reviewed Mori Yoshida’s cookbook Gateaux: Sweets for Shelf Awareness.
Costa Beavin Pappas wrote about how indie bookstores are blending activism and literature for community care for Prism.
For the Duluth News Tribune, Jay Gabler reviewed Chris Kraus’ The Four Spent the Day Together—a novel with a title taken from the pages of that very newspaper.
Clea Simon reviewed Julia Ioffe’s Motherland for The Arts Fuse.
Genanne Walsh reviewed Lily King’s Heart the Lover for the Portland Press Herald – Maine Sunday Telegram.
Nell Beram reviewed four books for Shelf Awareness: A Complete Fiction by R.L. Maizes; Dark City Dames: The Women Who Defined Film Noir by Eddie Muller; Ferment: Simple Recipes from My Multicultural Kitchen by Kenji Morimoto; and Love Johnny Carson: One Obsessive Fan’s Journey to Find the Genius Behind the Legend by Mark Malkoff.
Member Interviews
Nina Palattella interviewed Charlotte McConaghy, author of Wild Dark Shore, for Kirkus Reviews’ Best Fiction of 2025 coverage.
Sullivan Summer interviewed diplomatic historian Dr. Ronald Angelo Johnson about his book, Entangled Alliances, for the New Books Network.
Eric Olson interviewed Cameron Crowe about his new memoir for The Seattle Times.
Costa Beavin Pappas profiled Margaret Hutton for the Washington City Paper.
Member News
Bill Marx is the president of the nonprofit Viva la Book Review, a new and innovative organization dedicated to growing and publicizing the publication of book reviews in local media across America. The organization connects media outlets with critics whose interests align with those of a publication, pairing reviewers with potential publishing opportunities through our media partners. Reviewers supported by Viva la Book Review will receive up to $250 for each critique. Critics looking to be published in community media outlets should contact Viva la Book Review at vivalabookreview.org/contact with their name, email, and a description of their reviewing interests.
“Strand bookstore” by Kathleen Conklin is licensed under CC BY 2.0.