Celebrate Mother’s Day with Ross Gay. Celebrate Mother’s Day by giving Ross’ The Book of Delights to the mothers in your life. In this excerpt below, Ross shares a story about his own mother, along with two other essays from this collection. Written daily over one tumultuous year, these essays cover everything from taking aContinue reading

Louis Bayard is not the first to write about Abraham Lincoln, but Courting Mr. Lincoln is nowhere near old-hat. Read his essay explaining the gap in Lincoln literature his new novel aims to fill. • • • According to the Library of Congress catalog, 9,100 books have been published on the subject of Abraham Lincoln.Continue reading

A May Indie Next Pick An Apple Books Best of the Month for April An Amazon Best Book of the Month for April “A miracle; an exquisite story exquisitely told. If you love Jane Austen, or Hamilton, or fiction—of any era—that transports and transforms in equal measure, look no further. Courting Mr. Lincoln is asContinue reading

In In the Time of the Butterflies, Julia Alvarez deals not only with the lives and deaths of four sisters, but the political oppression that surrounds them in the Dominican Republic. In this note, Alvarez describes the role of politics in writing and that of storytelling in the world as we know it. • •Continue reading

Whether you’re returning to old favorites or reading them for the first time, get these new paperback releases of three Julia Alvarez classics, as we celebrate the 25th anniversary of her seminal novel, In the Time of the Butterflies. Winner of the 2013 National Medal of Arts, Julia is well-known for her extraordinary storytelling, andContinue reading

Mathangi Subramanian, the author of  A People’s History of Heaven, shares this essay about the women she met while working in a Bangalore slum — the women who inspired her new novel. • • • IN THE SPRING OF 2013, I found myself in the middle of a bustling Bangalore slum, trying to get myContinue reading