Mark Stevens's Blog, page 22
January 28, 2020
Kate Weinberg, “The Truants”
A review of The Truants, by Kate Weinberg, for The New York Journal of Books.
January 26, 2020
Ted Chiang, “Exhalation”
The opening story in this collection, “The Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate,” is fanciful and fun. As Ted Chiang describes in his (very helpful) author’s notes, he wanted to try and write a time-travel story without the well-worn question of … Continue reading →
January 9, 2020
Q & A #79 – Christopher Bartley, “A Season Past”
Christopher Bartley is back. His new book is A Season Past. That title sounds like it could belong to one of his noir gangster novels about Ross Duncan (there are eight), but it’s not. It’s a trilogy of stories – … Continue reading →
January 1, 2020
2019: Top Books
Highlights from reading in 2019. The order is irrelevant. These are from titles I read last year, not necessarily published in 2019. FICTION 1. The Other Americans by Laila Lalami 2. Heaven My Home by Attica Locke 3. The … Continue reading →
December 21, 2019
Laila Lalami, “The Other Americans”
The details are all, well, so normal. American. After hearing the news of her father’s death, Nora Guerraoui rushes home from Oakland to her family home in the Mojave desert. She drives “in the foggy darkness that cloaked almond groves … Continue reading →
December 1, 2019
Amy Rigby, “Girl to City”
My review of Amy Rigby’s Girl to City for the New York Journal of Books is posted here.
November 12, 2019
Attica Locke, “Heaven, My Home”
My review of Heaven, My Home by Attica Locke, for the New York Journal of Books, is posted here.
November 3, 2019
Adrian McKinty, “The Chain”
The Chain will tie you in knots. It’s tense from the first few paragraphs. The premise is chilling. The jeopardy is real; it’s jeopardy on steroids. So your daughter has been kidnapped? The only way to ensure her release is … Continue reading →
October 31, 2019
Rob Hart, “The Warehouse”
In “The Unstoppable Machine,” in the Oct. 21 (2019) edition of The New Yorker, reporter Charles Duhigg looks behind the scenes of the mammoth operation that is Amazon. The article recounts worrisome stories of the rugged working conditions, details the … Continue reading →
October 24, 2019
Ben Lindbergh and Travis Sawchik, “The MVP Machine”
On the surface, the game of baseball is perfection. It’s the sheer beauty of the way the game is structured around athletes who are attempting to do two of the hardest things in sports. Pitch a ball past a major … Continue reading →
