Book Reviews This Week!
Reviews of books by Carolyn Clark, Allison Blevins, Jennifer Case, Jen Karetnick, Nicole Callihan, Laura Chow Reeve, and Pepper Stetler.
The books reviewed this week will make great gifts for literate friends. . . or to give yourself. Enjoy!
A Measure of Intelligence: One Mother’s Reckoning with the IQ Test by Pepper Stetler
Review by Melanie McGehee
In A Measure of Intelligence, Pepper Stetler journeys through history to discover how and why society has come to define and measure intelligence as we do. She purposes to challenge our thinking, ultimately hoping for…
A Small Apocalypse by Laura Chow Reeve
Review by Emily Webber
Laura Chow Reeve’s debut story collection, A Small Apocalypse, takes place in the wildness of Florida, following a group of queer friends in mostly interlinked stories as they form bonds with each other, defy expectations.…
chigger ridge by Nicole Callihan
Review by Carol Dorf Â
chigger ridge, the winner of The Word Works: Tenth Gate Prize, chosen by Sandra Lim, is Nicole Callihan’s third full-length poetry collection. Callihan has also published three poetry chapbooks and a novella. This coming of…
Inheritance With A High Error Rate by Jen Karetnick
Review by Jiwon Choi
Jen Karetnick’s new poetry collection offers up layers of understanding and wisdom on how to live in our wild and crazy times. The poems that make up Inheritance with a High Error Rate operate…
We Are Animals: On the Nature and Politics of Motherhood by Jennifer Case
Review by DeMisty D. Bellinger
Jennifer Case’s second essay collection, We Are Animals: On the Nature and Politics of Motherhood (Trinity University Press, 2024), offers a raw and tender look at birth and motherhood in present-day America. Case exposes…
Where Will We Live if The House Burns Down? by Allison Blevins
Review by Jill Koren
Winner of the 2023 Lexi Rudnitsky Editor’s Choice Award, Allison Blevins’s fifth full-length book, Where Will We Live if The House Burns Down? (Persea Books, 2024) certainly does its work in honoring the “playful love…
Review by Barbara Ellen Sorensen
Beyond a simple piece of land separating waters, there is an expanse of field that we all must traverse. This unknown territory encompasses aging and death. Yet we shouldn’t let our demise be at…