LitStack Recs: Stoner & Speak Easy
Stoner, by John Williams John Williams’ 1965 novel went out of print after selling only 2,000 copies, but since its...
Lauren Alwan
Lauren Alwan’s fiction has appeared in the O. Henry Prize Stories, the Southern Review, the Alaska Quarterly Review, StoryQuarterly, in the Bellevue Literary Review. She is the recipient of a First Pages Prize, the Goldenberg Prize for Fiction, and.a citation of Notable in Best American Essays. Her essays have appeared in ZYZZYVA, Catapult, World Literature Today, The Rumpus, The Millions, Writer's Digest, and others. She is a prose editor at the museum of americana, an online literary review. Follow her on Twitter at @lauren_alwan and learn more at www.laurenalwan.com
LitStack Rec: Examinations of Hitchock & Fangirl
A Definitive study of Alfred Hitchcock, by Francois Truffaut, trans. by Helen Scott (1966) & Hitchcock/Truffaut, a documentary film by...
2016 Pushcart Prize XL: Best of the Small Presses & John Saturnall’s Feast
2016 Pushcart Prize XL: Best of the Small Presses, edited by Bill Henderson with Pushcart Prize editors There are best-of...
LitStack Rec: Bird Cloud: A Memoir of Place & Moon Girl
Bird Cloud: A Memoir of Place, by Annie Proulx The memoir by this award-winning novelist (The Shipping News) and story writer...
LitStack Rec: Havanas in Camelot & A Crayon’s Story
Havanas in Camelot: Personal Essays, by William Styron Though William Styron is best know for his novels (The Confessions of...
LitStack Recs: Patrimony – A True Story and Cloud Atlas
Patrimony: A True Story, by Philip Roth Roth's 1991 memoir charts the illness and death of his father, Herman Roth,...
LitStack Recs: A Time of Gifts: On Foot to Constantinople & Wayward Saints
A Time of Gifts: On Foot to Constantinople, by Patrick Leigh Fermor A classic of the travel memoir genre, A...
LitStack Recs: Cutting Teeth & Back Roads and Frontal Lobes
Cutting Teeth, by Julia Fierro When October comes, I'm always caught off guard by how quickly summer has gone. Afternoons...
LitStack Recs: A Writer’s Notebook & The Glamourist Histories
A Writer’s Notebook by Somerset Maugham Somerset Maugham's A Writer’s Notebook was first published in 1949, and though his work...
Litstack Recs: The Places In-Between & The Silmarillion
The Places In-Between, Rory Stewart In 2002, Rory Stewart made a walk across Afghanistan from Herat to Kabul. A scholar...
LitStack Recs: Blue Nights & Beautiful Ruins
Blue Nights, by Joan Didion Joan Didion is an author I've long revered, whose books have had a titanic effect...
LitStack Recs: Vanity Fair & The Cage
Vanity Fair William Makepeace Thackeray The mid-nineteenth century didn’t have reality television, but it did have William Makepeace Thackeray’s Vanity...
LitStack Recs: Presidential Summer Reading List & Take Away the A
The Presidential Summer Reading List As The Hill reported last week, President Barack Obama chose six books to read during...
LitStack Recs: A Brief Look at Father Memoirs & Blueberry Girl
A Brief Look at Father Memoirs Stories that center on fathers have a distinct place in the memoir genre. For...
LitStack Rec: The Empty Family & Baseball’s Great Experiment
The Empty Family, by Colm Tóibín The Empty Family, Colm Tóibín's most recent collection of stories (released in 2011), is...
LitStack Recs: The Sheltering Sky & On the Day You Were Born
The Sheltering Sky Paul Bowles Bowles is one of my favorite writers, stark yet rich; prose with a darkness so...
LitstackRecs: The Best American Essays & World’s Collider
The Best American Essays, 2013, edited by Cheryl Strayed The Best American series, which in 2014 featured editions of short...
LitStack Recs: my name on his tongue & Never Let Me Go
my name on his tongue, by Laila Halaby In her first book of poetry, published in 2012, Halaby mines issues...
Traveling Light: Unpacking a Story
So there I am, in a small hotel between the Costa Brava and Sitges, once again unpacking the bag I’ve...
LitStack Recs: The Drifters & The Book of Strange New Things
The Drifters, by James Michener I was curious about Michener's 1971 bestseller, but "Not a book for kids,” was I think...
LitStack Recs: Without & Three Parts Dead
Without Donald Hall This book is the one of the few that, when I pick it up, I read from...
LitStack Rec: Wolf Hall & In Ashes Lie
Wolf Hall Hilary Mantel Mantel's novel, which appeared in 2012 and has gone on to be a global best seller,...
LitStack Recs: Home Comforts & Ms. Marvel
Home Comforts: The Art & Science of Keeping House, by Cheryl Mendelson Spring means spring cleaning—in theory. Though I think...
LitStack Recs: Bartleby, The Scrivener & The Emperor’s Blades
Bartleby, the Scrivener, by Herman Melville Overworked employees, endless legal documents to be copied, the futility of dead letters—it’s no...
A Brief Look at the British Travel Memoir
Three authors linked by the British tradition of going by foot and writing about it. A Time of Gifts: On...
LitStack Rec: These Charming People & Broken Monsters
These Charming People, stories by Michael Arlen In the period just after World War One, there were British writers who...
LitStack Recs: The Custom of the Country & The Quick
The Custom of the Country, by Edith Wharton I knew from the start that things would go badly for Ralph...
LitStack Rec: 2015 TBR List & ‘Gorgeous’
Books on my 2015 TBR List The new year has arrived. So has a new reading list. Here’s some of...
LitStack Recs: Favorite Reads of 2014 & Wolf in White Van
My Favorite Reads of 2014 So many great books this year makes a tiered list impossible to compile, but I...
LitStack Recs: The Empathy Exams & The Private Diary of Mr. Darcy
The Empathy Exams: Essays, by Leslie Jamison 2014 is being called the year of the essay, due to the extraordinary...
LitStack Rec: Havanas in Camelot & Wayward Saints
Havanas in Camelot: Personal Essays, by William Styron Though William Styron is best know for his novels (The Confessions of...
LitStack Recs: Little Failure: A Memoir & The Company
Little Failure: A Memoir, by Gary Shteyngart "In order for me to be born," Gary Shteyngart says early on in...
LitStack Recs: Desperate Characters & The Master Butcher’s Singing Club
Desperate Characters, ca. 1970 Desperate Characters, by Paula Fox. This classic of literary fiction, written in 1970, is also a...
Litstack Rec: My Misspent Youth & Down to the Last Pitch
My Misspent Youth, essays by Meghan Daum My introduction to Daum and her essays was Life Would Be Perfect If...
LitStack Rec: Dept. of Speculation and To Rise Again at a Decent Hour
Dept. of Speculation, by Jenny Offill With the release of Jenny Offill’s acclaimed second novel, there have been comparisons to...
LitStack Recs: A Definitive study of Alfred Hitchcock and The Devil’s Snake Curve
A Definitive study of Alfred Hitchcock, by Francois Truffaut (trans. by Helen Scott). Before he began directing, Francois Truffaut was...
LitStack Recs: The Firefox Book & Three Parts Dead
The Firefox Book, by Elliot Wigginton (editor) Perfect for #throwbackthursday, this compendium of customs and rural living practices was published...
LitStack Recs: Queen Sugar & Life Would be Perfect if I Lived in That House
Life Would be Perfect if I Lived in That House, by Meghan Daum The moral of this story might run...
LitStack Rec: ‘Fruits & Vegetables’ and ‘Renascence and Other Poems’
Fruits & Vegetables Erica Jong Long before Fear of Flying, before Erica Jong's now-classic novel described an era with its...
LitStack Rec: ‘Chicago’ and ‘To This Day’
One of the best definitions of magical realism I’ve read comes from Debra Spark. In her essay, “Curious Attractions: Magical...
LitStack Recs: Memoirs of Place and The Dinosaur Heresies
On Memoirs of Place: A Quick List I always appreciate a good memoir that centers on place. And luckily, there...
LitStack Rec: ‘Spring and All’ and ‘Honest Dogs’
Spring and All, 1923 ed. Spring and All, William Carlos Willams In a frenzy that could have only taken...
LitStack Recs: ‘Paris Stories’ and ‘The Book of Killowen’
Paris Stories Mavis Gallant When the news came Tuesday that the great story writer Mavis Gallant had died, I thought...
LitStack Recs: ‘I Hate to Leave This Beautiful Place’ and ‘Born to Pull’
I Hate to Leave This Beautiful Place Howard Norman In the essay-as-memoir, the writer can do a lot of things....
LitStack Rec: A Distant Mirror: the Calamitous 14th Century and The Boys of My Youth
The Boys of My Youth, by Jo Ann Beard When it was released in 1998, I somehow missed Jo Ann...
LitStack Rec: The Goldfinch and Exposure
The Goldfinch, Donna Tartt The reception Donna Tartt has garnered for her third novel, her first in twelve years, might...
