Rachel Rueckert is an award-winning writer, editor, and teacher. She holds an MFA in nonfiction from Columbia University as well as an M.Ed from Boston University. As a seventh-generation Utahn, her favorite subjects include place, family, mental health, unconventional spirituality, and climate change. In this in-depth interview, Rachel speaks about her new memoir East Winds.
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A review of A Dangerous Daughter by Dina Davis
Ivy’s recovery only begins when the blame, punishment and shaming stops, thanks to an empathetic Freudian psychoanalyst who helps Ivy understand the nature of her illness. Davis’ writing is subtle and powerful throughout the book, focusing on Ivy’s growing sense of self and a slow, nonlinear healing process that rings true.
New giveaway!
We have a copy of Toward the Corner of Mercy and Peace by Tracey Buchanan to give away!
To win, sign up for our Free Newsletter on the right-hand side of the site and enter via the newsletter. Winner will be chosen by the end of June from subscribers who enter via the newsletter. Good luck!
Amid the Glitz and Glam of Hollywood, City of Angles Just Can’t Find Its Light
We open on Vincenza Morgan, an aspiring young actress, who just so happens to have a corpse in her trunk. It’s a classic noir trope and rightfully so – the tension is immediate. As we untangle the strings that connect Vincenza to the man dead in her car – her lover, and one of the biggest stars of the screen – we explore Los Angeles and the entertainment industry.
A review of A Social, Economic and Cultural History of Bingo (1906-2005) by Caroline Downs
Carolyn Downs’ book is a must-read for anyone who’s ever dabbed a bingo card, called out a winning line, or simply wondered about the enduring appeal of this timeless game. It’s an affectionate, comprehensive and fascinating journey through the history of bingo, and a testament to its cultural, social and economic influence.
A review of The Plotinus by Rikki Ducornet
In effortlessly elegant and comic prose, The Plotinus probes the impulses and desires that bring joy to human life while, at the same time, upending literary conventions that contemporary readers may take as immutable truths. As though she were playing with us from the title, she signals an exploration of The Plot In Us.
A review of Today in the Taxi by Sean Singer
Today in the Taxi is deceptively plain, its language is conversational and the voice used to describe its absurd situations is unembellished, often just describing things for what they are with concrete imagery. But underneath the unconcerned, detachedness of the narrator’s descriptions are deep ruminations on one’s own life, city, the lives of others, and how it all blends together.
A review of The Struggle for a Decent Politics by Michael Walzer
Liberalism may well be a sentiment, for Jews and everyone else, as Walzer argues. But it is far more than that, and we forget its political content at our peril. Liberalism forces hard political and economic choices and forecloses some options. Sentiment and moral stance, necessary though they may be, is not enough, and never has been.
Great new giveaway!
We have a copy of The Fruit You’ll Never See: A memoir about overcoming shame by Gail Brenner Nastasia to give away!
To win, sign up for our Free Newsletter on the right-hand side of the site and enter via the newsletter. Winner will be chosen by the end of May from subscribers who enter via the newsletter. Good luck!
A review of The Book of Falling by David McCooey
There is no question that McCooey is a creative and sophisticated poet. In this collection he turns questions and lists into poems. He also has included various narrations and short poems which are precise and concise with manicured lines. One of the poems, “Your Life as a Movie”, cleverly shows the many ways we find meaning in life against its illogicality and incongruity.