Fiction & Literature Book Reviews

Nostalgia is a killer: It can lull us off guard, lead us into the dangers that come when, deep in age, we romanticize things like a ropeless climb or a seatbeltless swerve around a mountain road and decide to try the foolhardiness of bygone days again. read more

We all know the refrain, “Money can’t buy everything.” No, but it certainly is nice to have it on hand, just in case. read more

Indie publishing has seen a lot of press recently. There was E.L. James’Fifty Shades of Grey, (which caused some confusion for teen novelBetween Shades of Grayby Ruta Sepetys, a mix-up that has sitcom-subplot potential); the recentNew York Times article about kids self-publishing; and in the endless news stream about how the publishing industry is undergoing various sea changes, indie publishing usually gets a nod if not the lead. read more

Carlos Fuentes, the novelist and essayist, died Tuesday at the age of 83 in Mexico City. He foresaw ending his days there, much as the Peruvian poet César Vallejo prophesied that he would die in Paris, but we must imagine that Fuentes might have preferred to leave this plane in Providence or London or, yes, Paris, all places in which he had lived over the course of a long life. For, though proudly and definitively Mexican, Carlos Fuentes was always a bit of an outsider in his homeland. read more