Essays & Anthologies Book Reviews

HIGH NOTES by Gay Talese
ESSAYS & ANTHOLOGIES
Released: Jan. 17, 2017

"A worthy collection that would have benefitted from further effort from the book's editor and publisher."
A short anthology of features from acclaimed newspaperman and magazine writer Talese (The Voyeur's Motel, 2016, etc.). Read full book review >
IMPRISONED by Arturo Benvenuti
ESSAYS & ANTHOLOGIES
Released: Jan. 17, 2017

"Stark renderings that go beyond simple aesthetic judgment produced by some of the artists who perished in concentration camps."
A visual testament to the horrors of Nazi cruelty is revived a generation after it first appeared. Read full book review >

INSANE CLOWN PRESIDENT by Matt Taibbi
CURRENT AFFAIRS
Released: Jan. 16, 2017

"A lively set of dispatches that shows how even the harshest skeptic in the pundit class can be blindsided."
Looking back in bemusement and (eventually) anger at the 2016 presidential campaign with Rolling Stone's pugnacious political correspondent. Read full book review >
HOME AND AWAY by Karl Ove Knausgaard
ENTERTAINMENT & SPORTS
Released: Jan. 10, 2017

"Though the correspondence is mostly about soccer, it is also about so much more."
An epistolary exploration of soccer and life. Read full book review >
MYTHOMANIA by Peter Conrad
ENTERTAINMENT & SPORTS
Released: Jan. 10, 2017

"If you're a fan of Barthes and of the Umberto Eco of How to Travel with a Salmon, you'll likely enjoy this modest, minor, but entertaining rejoinder."
A deft updating of Parisian semiotics and midcentury cultural criticism for our own time. Read full book review >

THE CRUNK FEMINIST COLLECTION by Brittney C. Cooper
ENTERTAINMENT & SPORTS
Released: Jan. 10, 2017

"A valuable record of the collective's contributions to a growing cultural awareness of feminist issues and criticism, particularly for women of color."
A collection of feminist essays on sex, gender, pop culture, politics, and friendship. Read full book review >
SCRATCH by Manjula Martin
ESSAYS & ANTHOLOGIES
Released: Jan. 3, 2017

"Highly recommended for both experienced and aspiring authors and for avid readers who want to learn the back stories of the contributors."
The founder of the online journal Scratch, loaded with information about how authors labor to earn a livelihood, collects essays and interviews that appeared online and supplements those with original offerings. Read full book review >
THE CORRESPONDENCE by J.D. Daniels
ESSAYS & ANTHOLOGIES
Released: Jan. 3, 2017

"An uncommonly auspicious debut."
The debut collection by an essayist who writes like a rattlesnake, his sentences coiled yet always ready to strike with venomous impact. Read full book review >
THE ADVENTURES OF FORM AND CONTENT by Albert Goldbarth
ESSAYS & ANTHOLOGIES
Released: Jan. 3, 2017

"A nostalgic, rueful, and sometimes sweetly funny collection."
Digressive, impressionistic musings on love, loss, and "the multiselves we all carry inside." Read full book review >
FREDERICK DOUGLASS IN BROOKLYN by Frederick Douglass
BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR
Released: Jan. 3, 2017

"Proof that Douglass' speeches, responding to the historical exigencies of his time, amply bear rereading today."
A collection of rousing 19th-century speeches on freedom and humanity. Read full book review >
THE LOST JOURNALISM OF RING LARDNER by Ring Lardner
ESSAYS & ANTHOLOGIES
Released: Jan. 1, 2017

"A commemoration of a writer who wryly observed his generation."
Newspaper pieces from the most famous journalist of the 1920s. Read full book review >
DISORDERLY FAMILIES by Arlette Farge
ESSAYS & ANTHOLOGIES
Released: Jan. 1, 2017

"An enlightening compilation that will leave historically inclined readers wanting to dig a little further into the archives."
The first English translation of letters from the Bastille archives reveals a compelling array of domestic difficulties in French families across the board. Read full book review >
Kirkus Interview
Clinton Kelly
January 9, 2017

Bestselling author and television host Clinton Kelly’s memoir I Hate Everyone Except You is a candid, deliciously snarky collection of essays about his journey from awkward kid to slightly-less-awkward adult. Clinton Kelly is probably best known for teaching women how to make their butts look smaller. But in I Hate Everyone, Except You, he reveals some heretofore-unknown secrets about himself, like that he’s a finicky connoisseur of 1980s pornography, a disillusioned critic of New Jersey’s premier water parks, and perhaps the world’s least enthused high-school commencement speaker. Whether he’s throwing his baby sister in the air to jumpstart her cheerleading career or heroically rescuing his best friend from death by mud bath, Clinton leaps life’s social hurdles with aplomb. With his signature wit, he shares his unique ability to navigate the stickiest of situations, like deciding whether it’s acceptable to eat chicken wings with a fork on live television (spoiler: it’s not). “A thoroughly light and entertaining memoir,” our critic writes. View video >