Author of The School of Beauty and Charm and Polite Society, recipient of a Whiting award in fiction in 1995, and creative writing professor at Kennesaw State University, Melanie Sumner is out with her newest novel, The Ghost of Milagro Creek. This coming-of-age tale, set in New Mexico, is generating some serious buzz. Critics areContinue reading

Lucky you, today we have the first chapter of Mei-Ling Hopgood‘s memoir Lucky Girl. Adopted when she was a baby, Mei-Ling Hopgood grew up in the Midwest and was never really curious about her Asian roots. Then one day, when she was in her twenties, her birth family finally came calling–on the phone, on theContinue reading

Today we have an excerpt form Robert Olmstead‘s Far Bright Star. This novel, which came out last year and is new in paperback, has gleaned some high praise and won the Western Writers of America Spur Award. The Minneapolis Star Tribune called it “A masterpiece.” The Cleveland Plain Dealer called it “Gleaming, spellbinding fiction .Continue reading

A little about Joshua Braff‘s new book, Peep Show: David Arbus will be graduating from high school in the spring of 1975. His divorced parents offer two options: embrace his mother’s Hasidic sect or go into his father’s line of work, running a porn theater in the heart of New York’s Times Square. He joinsContinue reading

In anticipation of today’s excerpt from Steve Stern‘s The Frozen Rabbi, I sat down with a copy of the book last night, intending to maybe read the first chapter, feel out Stern’s prose, and fall asleep when I got bored. I am very sleep-deprived this morning. It may actually be against the laws of scienceContinue reading

Today we have the first chapter of Maria Finn‘s new memoir, Hold Me Tight and Tango Me Home. This selection is about Finn’s first tango lesson after her split from her cheating husband. She’s learning how to step and maintain her frame, but she’s also learning to be touched–not in a romantic way, but justContinue reading