Alexis Pauline Gumbs describes herself as a “queer Black feminist love evangelist and marine mammal apprentice” in Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons From Marine Mammals, published this past November. The description […]
Books & Poetry
BOOK REVIEW
How to Hold Animals Is a Book to Curl Up With
It offers tips for handling furry, slimy, and scaly creatures
The cover of Toshimitsu Matsuhashi’s How to Hold Animals features an adorable sugar glider, a bug-eyed mouse-like creature, gently cupped between two human hands. Readers might therefore expect the book […]
BOOK REVIEW
The Many Faces of Adrienne Rich
Hilary Holladay’s portrait of a complicated artist
Hilary Holladay’s The Power of Adrienne Rich is an accessible biography of the celebrated American poet. Published last month, it is the first comprehensive exploration of both the person and […]
WHOSE LIFE IS IT, ANYWAY?
This Is Not an Interview With André Gregory
In This Is Not My Memoir, a provocateur looks back with wit
Preparing for my phone call with actor, playwright, and director André Gregory, I felt a bit like the socially anxious Wallace Shawn at the beginning of My Dinner With André. […]
BOOK REVIEW
Bach to the Drawing Board
In The Way of Bach, Dan Moller makes the missteps of an academic amateur
The concept behind Dan Moller’s recently published The Way of Bach: Three Years With the Man, the Music, and the Piano, is a good one. It tells of the author’s […]
BOOK REVIEW
In the Ravages of Ebola, Paul Farmer Finds Pandemic Roots
A tireless doctor gives infectious disease a global perspective
Dr. Paul Farmer and three friends toured an Ebola treatment unit (E.T.U.) in Monrovia, Liberia, in October 2014. They watched as two brothers vomited and soiled themselves with diarrhea as […]
BOOKSTORES
A Provincetown Rarity up Your Alley
Tim’s Used Books rides out the pandemic
At 242 Commercial St. in Provincetown, hidden at the end of a long alley that runs between a furniture store and a psychic’s office, there is a kind of enchanted […]
BOOK REVIEW
Dolly Parton as a Natural Woman
Sarah Smarsh empowers the country legend’s impoverished roots
Dolly Parton, 74, has been singing and performing as a self-described “backwoods Barbie” for over half a century. With chart-topping hits such as “Jolene,” “I Will Always Love You,” “Here […]
AUTHORS
The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Writer
Sarah Anne Johnson's love of Cape Cod inspires a historical tale of loss
Sarah Anne Johnson’s new novel, The Last Sailor, explores the profoundly personal ways we deal with — or avoid — mourning, and the struggles we go through as we piece […]
NEIGHBORS
Grace Freundlich Is Healing in Truro
Her memoir, Enough of All That, turns a troubled past into art
Grace Freundlich is a survivor in our midst. Retired and now 80, she lives in Truro year-round and counts it as a blessing. She has written a memoir of her […]
GRAPHIC NOVELS
Journeys of Self-Acceptance, in Words and Pictures
Eleanor Crewes and Allie Brosh render their lives with insight
“We believe we make our choices, but no — they make us,” writes the late Daniel Menaker in his poem, “Last Will and Testament.” Though our choices add up to […]
POETRY REVIEW
Marge Piercy Keeps the Light On
A new collection of poems looks back and beyond
Marge Piercy’s latest poetry collection, On the Way Out, Turn Off the Light, is an ode to a life lived big and full. In these direct, earthy poems, Piercy reflects […]
BOOKS
Jane Fleishman’s Stonewall Generation Gives Voice to LGBTQ Elders
A look at everything from a legacy of activism to sexual intimacy
“I have been an activist and organizer from my teenage years onwards,” says Jane Fleishman, author of The Stonewall Generation: LGBTQ Elders on Sex, Activism, and Aging. “As Mandy Carter, […]
BOOK REVIEW
Marilynne Robinson’s Prodigal Son Returns
Her latest novel, Jack, explores race, grace, and literature
Jack Boughton, the protagonist of Marilynne Robinson’s much-anticipated novel, Jack, is a thief, a liar, and an alcoholic. He is also exquisitely sensitive, self-deprecatingly funny, and finely attuned to the […]
BOOKS
A Personal Assistant’s Postcard From the Edge
Byron Lane’s roman à clef, 'A Star Is Bored,' is a humorous, touching romp
“Do a lot of people call you Cockring?” So begins the relationship between Charlie Besson and movie star Kathi Kannon in Byron Lane’s hilarious debut novel, A Star Is Bored. […]
