I Will Find You

One of my favorite classics is Alexandre Dumas’s The Count of Monte Cristo. Why? Because it’s about a protagonist who has been wronged and years later, takes revenge on those who hurt him. Part of… Continue reading →

A Map of Home

I heard Randa Jarrar speak at AWP. After that talk, I went to find her work. The novel A Map of Home by Randa Jarrar is a coming of age story of a young… Continue reading →

Queen of the Night

I was 29 when I went to my first opera, Tosca. Before the performance, I researched the opera. I thought I needed to know the story or I would go and be completely lost. I… Continue reading →

Island of a Thousand Mirrors

How much do you know about Sri Lanka? If you’re like me, you might admit you know little to nothing about the small island south of India. The phrase “Tamil Tigers” comes up… Continue reading →

The Other Side

One of my writing workshops had an excerpt of this memoir as part of our required reading. It was so good that I had to write down a reminder to read it. Lacy… Continue reading →

Excavation

There are times where I feel I can connect to the narrator in a memoir more than I can with the majority of human beings. It’s in these moments when someone becomes incredibly open… Continue reading →

The Small Backs of Children

Yes, another novel by Lidia Yuknavitch. It’s like I have a reading crush or something. In this novel The Small Backs of Children by Lidia Yuknavitch, a woman writer has fallen into a serious depression… Continue reading →

Luckiest Girl Alive

In Jessica Knoll’s novel Luckiest Girl Alive, high school didn’t treat TifAni FaNelli well. Fortunately for this protagonist, she becomes an editor at a high-ranking magazine, engaged to a handsome Wall Street broker and… Continue reading →

The Harem Midwife

The Harem Midwife by Roberta Rich is a novel about a Venetian Jew named Hannah, who moves to Constantinople with her husband in order to work was a midwife. Her tools have allowed her… Continue reading →

Dora: A Headcase

The magic word here is “Yuknavitch.” If you hand me toilet paper with scribbles and you say that she wrote it, I’ll stop everything I’m doing and read it. She’s that freakin’ good.… Continue reading →