Book of the Week: Interior Chinatown
Interior Chinatown By Charles Yu (270, fiction, 2020) This was the 2020 National Book Award winner for fiction, and with good reason. I’ll preface this review by saying that I think this book is brilliant –but that it’s also extremely stylized and may not be for everyone. Interior Chinatown is a work of metafiction, meaning that it is structured self-consciously, in a way that calls attention to its constructed-ness. In other words,...
Book of the Week: Focus on happiness
The Self-Care Solution: A Year of Becoming Happier, Healthier, and Fitter: One Month at a Time By Jennifer Ashton (275 pages, nonfiction, 2019) Are you happy? Want to get your life together? This quick read will get you started. Self-care tends to take a backseat these days. We just don’t have time for it. We’ll do it tomorrow. This book will help you kick your excuses to the curb. It details Ashton’s year of self-care...
Book of the Week: Expert guide on crafting a tale
On Writing and Worldbuilding By Timothy Hickson (233 pages, nonfiction, 2019) If you’re looking to up your writing game, this book is great for learning more advanced techniques. You may know how to craft character and plot already, but find out how your characters affect plot and vice versa. Learn how to use exposition in a way that will make your writing look like the pros. Explore the link between your characters and...
Book of the week: Haddix has new story
The Strangers By Margaret Peterson Haddix (405 pages, youth sci-fi, 2019) Margaret Peterson Haddix always tells an exciting tale. Her latest series, Greystone Secrets, is no exception. Chess, Emma and Finn Greystone live a happy and ordinary life with their devoted mother. Everything changes when three kids with the Greystone’s exact names, ages and birthdays are kidnapped all the way across the country. Suddenly their mother...
Book of the week: How to podcast
So You Want to Start a Podcast: Finding Your Voice, Telling your Story, and Building a Community That Will Listen By Kristen Meinzer (216 pages, nonfiction, 2019) We’ve all heard that podcasts are the new thing to do. From marketing to storytelling, lots of people are using them to build an audience and make their voice heard. But how do you start a podcast? Kristen Meinzer has hosted and produced numerous podcasts with great...
