The dead fuel Jesmyn Ward's novels. She feels the weight of their stories; she shoulders them, shares them. In Sing, Unburied, Sing, their chorus of voices - even in the epigraphs but also in the novel - reverberates between and beyond the covers. Ward's are heart-shattering stories. But they
Mary Mann Hamilton's Trials of the Earth: The True Story of a Pioneer Woman was originally writen in the 1930s, recounting her experiences pioneering. The chronicle begins in the 1880s in Missouri, moving into Arkansas, with her being crowded into a marriage, as a wife but not an equal. Little Brown
Because I love making reading lists almost as much as I love reading the books that I add to them, I have big plans for my MustReadEverything Reading Projects, but then there are dozens of other books that I also want to read. This year so far, I have reread seven
Sally Mann's Hold Still is a photographer's memoir; although she has kept a journal since she was a girl, her love of imagery is deeply rooted, and it's hard to imagine her memoir taking any other form. Currently represented by the Gagosian Gallery, her CV is impressive and extensive, but
Neverhome is set in the years of the American Civil War and narrated by a fledgling letter-writer. She has survived the conflict and adopted this strange chore of authoring. Little, Brown and Company, 2014 "When I’d eaten up my given share of a day I’d take up my pen
