The images pulled from the lives of Afghan girls and women in Lana Šlezić's Forsaken are immediately and powerfully affecting. House of Anansi, 2007 The cover shot alone hints at the depth of contrast and complexity that the work contains. Consider the fragility (the torn lace) and the endurance (the
Indie presses folding. Mega-presses consolidating. Indie shops closing. Mega-stores dictating terms to publishers. It sounds grim if you're a reader who loves to browse in bookshops and wants a variety of good reading. But what to do? I am a single reader. Here's what I did: I made lists. Because that's what
Friendships between schoolgirls like Jessie and MaryBeth -- for that is how their names are properly spelled, although they like to pretend to be Jesse and Meribeth -- are complicated. It's not the first time Alice Munro has grappled with the subject. The intricacies of relationships between schoolchildren also feature
Whitney Otto's How to Make an American Quilt was a story which immediately and powerfully appealed to me. As a narrative it was deliberately fragmented (like a quilt), and the idea of a mosaic of smaller pieces comprising a larger, complex whole translated brilliantly into film in the hands of
Susannah Cahalan knows how to tell a story. She started as a "copy kid" at the New York Post, sorting mail and making coffee, and when readers meet her on the page, she is a full-time writer there. Yet, the three story pitches she has just volleyed to her boss have
