In Charlotte McConaghy’s lovely new novel, Wild Dark Shore, Dominic Salt and his family—eighteen-year-old Raff, seventeen-year-old Fen, and nine-year-old Orly—moved to Shearwater Island eight years earlier, when Dominic “needed a job, and I needed it to be far away.” While formerly living among researchers, the rising seas have forced the scientists to evacuate, and the …
Christina Lynch’s Pony Confidential is a light, highly readable mystery co-narrated by murder suspect Penny and her childhood pet, Pony, who comes to her rescue despite his lingering resentment that Penny sold him when he was young. When Penny is arrested and extradited for a murder she allegedly committed in New York State when she was twelve …
In Fiona Warnick’s novel The Skunks, recent college graduate Isabel moves back to her hometown to housesit, babysit, work at a yoga studio, and try to avoid thinking about boys. She knows she is a bit obsessed; as her longtime friend Ellie tells her, “I can probably name more boys you’ve liked than classes you’ve taken.” …
We published 30 book reviews this year and read many more. And out of all the books we’ve read, here are a handful of our favorites. You’ll find a mix of poetry, fiction and non-fiction. We hope you enjoy them as much as we did! Nicole Emanuel You Are Here Whether you are craving a …
More than 35,000 people from more than 100 countries visited EcoLit Books this year. And this post shows where they spent most of their time. Here are the top 25 most-visited book reviews and web pages from January until now. The first page is no surprise but the second did surprise me given that it …
Guest book review by Gene Helfman. In Arroyo Circle, JoeAnn Hart deftly weaves a tale with multiple threads. As the story develops, the different characters become incorporated into the fabric through their disparate involvement in a tragedy. But the final product is less a weaving or tapestry and more a spider’s web. The characters, and the …
As we enter fall we (in the Northern Hemisphere) can be grateful for reasons to stay inside — and read. Which leads me to this list of new(ish) and upcoming books that have passed across on desks… Playing Possum: How Animals Understand Death By Susana Monsó When the opossum feels threatened, she becomes paralyzed. Her …
What will a post-climate-disaster America look like? In Ashley Shelby’s short story collection, Honeymoons in Temporary Locations, the results range from devastating to absurd to all-too-plausible. This trifecta is what makes Shelby’s eclectic mix of stories unique in a genre that tends toward the dystopian. First up is Muri, featuring talking polar bears being relocated to the South …
From the snake tempting Adam and Eve to the sheep that saved Odysseus from the Cyclops, animals have featured prominently in literature from the very beginning of literature. Today, animals play leading roles in many bestselling novels, from the dog Almondine in The Story of Edgar Sawtelle to Marcellus, the Pacific octopus in Remarkably Bright Creatures. In a …
Love Story with Birds, by Derek Furr, is a work of literature that defies easy categorization, which is partly why I enjoyed reading it. By way of poems, essays, stories, and asides I spent a great deal of time alongside Furr, as he watched birds, endured Covid, and cared for a dying dog. Birds play …
Random House, 2023 “Shivers of lust passed through his elytra as he found her scent grow stronger,” and there we are, in the head of an Elm Bark beetle, one of many POVs in the thoroughly enchanting novel North Woods by Daniel Mason. The beetle had been deposited in this wooded piece of land in …
