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Compulsive Reader News
maggieball@compulsivereader.com
http://compulsivereader.com
Volume 24, Issue 2, 1 February 2022
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IN THIS ISSUE
New Reviews at Compulsive Reader
Literary News
Competition News
Sponsored By
Coming soon
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Hello readers. Here is the latest batch of reviews and interviews:
A review of Baltimore Sons by Dean Bartoli Smith
For Baltimore has faded from its glory days, whenever those were. Some might say it was the nineteenth century, when Francis Scott Key and Edgar Allan Poe roamed the streets and major political parties held their nominating conventions in Baltimore. Smith’s nostalgia is for the sports heyday of the 1960’s when Unitas and the Colts ruled football and the Orioles were always in contention, and the NBA Bullets hadn’t yet left town for Washington. Read more: http://compulsivereader.com/2022/01/27/a-review-of-baltimore-sons-by-dean-bartoli-smith/
Paltry Arguments Lead to Ugly Consequences:A review of The Proud & the Dumb by Bob Freville
To sum it all up, The Proud and the Dumb is a fast-paced and funny political horror story that plays well with genre tropes while presenting its “monsters” with a opportunity for redemption. It is part dark comedy and part battle cry for reform. This short but sweet tale shines a light on the issues facing society today in a wholly entertaining yet less than fleshed out way. It seems to offer a brilliant but kind of stilted suggestion for how we might change course. Read more: http://compulsivereader.com/2022/01/21/paltry-arguments-lead-to-ugly-consequencesa-review-of-the-proud-the-dumb-by-bob-freville/
A review of Love Letter To Who Owns The Heavens by Corey Van Landingham
Van Landingham, fortunately, is in no danger of taking herself too seriously. The first page greets us with the dismembered hand of a statue thrusting its lone, attached finger to the heavens. The poems that serve as prologue and epilogue are separated from the first section of the book not by numerals or titles but with that image, which does its job and detaches us from any mood set by the lyrics. This image appears five times. Read more: http://compulsivereader.com/2022/01/19/a-review-of-love-letter-to-who-owns-the-heavens-by-corey-van-landingham/
An interview with Joel Agee
Joel Agee, the author of The Stone World talks about his new book and the inspiration for it, the relationship between memory and fiction, his characters and themes, how he became interested in writing and translation, writing through quarantine, his favourite scene, and lots more. Read more: http://compulsivereader.com/2022/01/16/an-interview-with-joel-agee/
A review of This Dark Country: Women Artists, Still Life and Intimacy in Early C20 by Rebecca Birrell
I adore this book, particularly as, growing up with a very creative single mother, I have intimate memories of spending one weekend where she, my brother and I painted all the bath panels, doors and cupboards of one of our houses with mermaids, nudes and still-lifes, inspired by the Charleston Homestead. I was enthralled from a young age with the worlds these femme artists created, their dreaminess and boldness to go against the grain of strict class, sexuality and gender expectations. Read more: http://compulsivereader.com/2022/01/14/a-review-of-this-dark-country-women-artists-still-life-intimacy-in-early-c20-by-rebecca-birrell/
A review of The Accidental Suffragist By Galia Gichon
All in all, The Accidental Suffragist is an intriguing, poignant, and gripping story that takes its readers on a whirlwind ride through vital history and does so with admirable pacing, authentic world building, and well-crafted sentences, along with its sympathetic and vivid characters—and above all else, a captivating story. Read more: http://compulsivereader.com/2022/01/11/a-review-of-the-accidental-suffragist-by-galia-gichon/
A review of A Girl Should Be by Ruth Latta
The descriptive narrative sets the stage, allowing the reader to step into the story and feel a part of it. Dialogue is well constructed, paying particular attention to the topics of discussion and the vocabulary relevant to this era. The protagonist, Annie, is a fun-loving young woman with a passion to succeed, to make something of herself, and to follow her dreams. Read more: http://compulsivereader.com/2022/01/08/a-review-of-a-girl-should-be-by-ruth-latta/
A review of Rain Violent by Ann Spiers
Spiers’ poems are haiku-like. In addition to what we may have learned about haiku in grade school—the tight syllable count, the reference to a season—haikus also juxtapose images and create a sudden sense of enlightenment. Instead of three lines, Spiers consistently makes these poems all four with syllables ranging from 7-10 a line, but they still retain a haiku’s compression, focus on imagery, and juxtaposition. Read more: http://compulsivereader.com/2022/01/07/a-review-of-rain-violent-by-ann-spiers/
A review of The Other Life by Patrick Connors
Patrick Connors’ poems are unpretentious and refreshingly authentic. The Other Life is a flowing read. There were times I stopped to savor and ponder his words. We readers are invested and interested in learning the nuances of specific character’s lives. Connors speaks clearly. Read more: http://compulsivereader.com/2022/01/05/a-review-of-the-other-life-by-patrick-connors/
A review of Morning Will Come by Billy Lombardo
Billy Lombardo’s novel Morning Will Come captures a family in the unrelenting grip of grief. When Audrey and Alan Taylor’s teenage daughter Isabel goes missing, they and their two younger sons Dex and Sammy must contend with what remains, with the continuous presence of her absence. Lombardo both magnifies and expands this absence through language tight and unsparing. Read more: http://compulsivereader.com/2022/01/03/a-review-of-morning-will-come-by-billy-lombardo/
All of the reviews and interviews listed above are available at The Compulsive Reader on the front page. Older reviews and interviews are kept indefinitely in our extensive (and growing) categorized archives (currently at 2,896, which can be browsed or searched from the front page of the site.
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LITERARY NEWS
In the literary news last month, Anuradha Bhowmik has been named the 2021 winner of the Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize for her collection Brown Girl Chromatography. The Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize is administered by the University of Pittsburgh Press. Named in honor of Agnes Lynch Starrett, the press’s first director, the prize is awarded for a first full-length book of poems. It carries a cash award of $5,000 and publication by the University of Pittsburgh Press as part of the Pitt Poetry Series.
Australian independent booksellers have announced their Shortlist for the Indie Book Awards 2022, their favourite Australian books published in 2021. The Category Winners and the Overall Book of the Year Winner will be announced at a virtual awards event on Monday 21 March 2022. The Shortlist for the Indie Book Awards 2022 includes, for fiction, Treasure and Dirt by Chris Hammer (Allen & Unwin), Devotion by Hannah Kent (Picador Australia), Once There Were Wolves by Charlotte McConaghy (Hamish Hamilton Australia), and The Last Woman in the World by Inga Simpson (Hachette Australia). For nonfiction, Love Stories by Trent Dalton (Fourth Estate Australia), Who Gets to Be Smart by Bri Lee (Allen & Unwin), Toxic: The Rotting Underbelly of the Tasmanian Salmon Industry by Richard Flanagan (Penguin Australia), and Larrimah by Caroline Graham and Kylie Stevenson (Allen & Unwin). The full list can be seen here: https://www.indiebookawards.com.au/post/shortlist-announced-for-the-2022-indie-book-awards
Jewish Book Council has announced the winners for the 2021 National Jewish Book Awards, North America’s longest-running awards program in the field of Jewish literature, which is now in its 71st year. The winners will be honored during a virtual ceremony on April 6. This year’s winning books include A Play for the End of the World by Jai Chakrabarti; The Netanyahus by Joshua Cohen; A Fortress in Brooklyn by Nathaniel Deutsch and Michael Casper; To Repair a Broken World by Dvora Hacohen; People Love Dead Jews by Dara Horn; and The Empathy Diaries by Sherry Turkle. The full list can be found here: https://www.jewishbookcouncil.org/pb-daily/2021-national-jewish-book-award-winners
The finalists in six categories for the 2021 National Book Critics Circle Awards and the John Leonard Prize for First Book have been announced. In addition, Percival Everett is receiving the Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award, Merve Emre has won the Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing, and the winner of the inaugural Toni Morrison Achievement Award, recognizing “institutions that have made lasting and meaningful contributions to book culture,” is the Cave Canem Foundation. The full list of finalists can be found here: https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/awards-and-prizes/article/88324-nbcc-awards-finalists-announced.html
David Gerrold, novelist and screenwriter, was named the 2022 winner of the Robert A. Heinlein Award. The Heinlein committee said Gerrold was named the winner “in recognition of [his] body of work, including his emphasis on young adult space travel novels and inspired creation during Star Trek screenwriting.” Hella, released in 2020, was his most recent YA novel about space colonisation. The Heinlein Award is given to an author for outstanding published works in science fiction and technical writings that inspire the human exploration of space.
The American Library Association announced the winners of the 2022 Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction. The medal winners each receive $5,000; all finalists will be honored in June during the ALA’s annual conference. The winners are: Fiction: The Thousand Crimes of Ming Tsu by Tom Lin (Little, Brown) and Nonfiction: A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance by Hanif Abdurraqib (Random House).
Sally J. Morgan won the £10,000 (about $13,680) Portico Prize for Literature, which celebrates “outstanding writing that best evokes the spirit of the north of England,” for her debut novel Toto Among the Murderers, the Bookseller reported.
PEN America has announced the finalists for the 2022 PEN America Literary Awards. The list comprises 54 authors and 11 translators recognized for works of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, biography, essay, science writing, translation, and more published in 2021. It’s a big list! To check it out visit: https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/awards-and-prizes/article/88384-pen-america-announces-finalists-for-2022-literary-awards.html
In its second year, the Gotham Book Prize, which honours books that either are about New York City or set in New York City, has announced finalists for the 2022 prize, which carries an award of $50,000. The winners included New York, New York: Four Decades of Success, Excess & Transformation by Tom Dyja, The Other Black Girl by Zakiya Dalila Harris, Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead, Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival & Hope in an American City by Andrea Elliott, Let the Record Show: A Political History of ACT UP New York, 1987-1993 by Sarah Schulman, Astrid Sees All by Natalie Standiford, Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters, When We Make It by Elizabeth Velasquez, Ghosts of New York by Jim Lewis, and Libertie by Kaitlyn Greenidge.
Have a great month!
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COMPETITION NEWS
Congratulations to Michael Carter who won a copy of Florence Adler Swims Forever by Rachel Beanland.
Congratulations to Jean Patton who won a copy of The American Dream of Braven Young by Brooke Raybould.
Our new site giveaway is for a copy of Dead Wind by Tessa Wegert to give away. To win send me an email at maggieball@compulsivereader.com with the subject line: “Dead Wind” and your postal address in the body of the email.
Good luck, everyone!
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COMING SOON
We will shortly be featuring an interview with Dead Wind’s Tessa Wegert, A Critical Inquiry: Text, Context and Perspectives by Sutanuka Ghosh Roy, Shaky Town by Lou Mathews, Letters from the Periphery by Alex Skovron and lots more reviews and interviews.
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Drop by The Compulsive Reader talks (see the widget on right-hand side of the site) to listen to our latest episode which features my interview with Charles Freyberg reading from and talking about his poetry book The Crumbling Mansion. Or drop by to listen directly here:https://anchor.fm/compulsivereader/episodes/Charles-Freyberg-on-The-Crumbling-Mansion-e1bnsog You can also subscribe to the show via iTunes and get updates automatically, straight to your favourite listening device. Find us under podcasts by searching for Compulsive Reader Talks. Then just click subscribe.
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(c) 2022 Magdalena Ball. Nothing in this newsletter may be reproduced without the written consent of the publisher, however, reprint rights are readily available. Please feel free to forward this newsletter in its entirety.
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