One thing every lonely kid has is some imaginary escape to another, more magical, usually safer world. (Maybe not-lonely kids have this, too, but I can’t speak to that.) Mine was a copse of trees choking the side of a road far away enough from anyone who cared that they were allowed to grow thickContinue reading “Let ‘Riverland’ Take You Away”
Author Archives: Elisabeth Ring
‘The Golden Age’ Glitters
I have waxed long about my pure and ardent love of graphic novels, about the interplay between picture and words creates a new depth to storytelling and how seeing multiple interpretations of the narrative on the page prompts me to be more engaged in my own reading of it. I make no apologies for suchContinue reading “‘The Golden Age’ Glitters”
‘Halfway’ Hits Home with Prison Discourse
Crime and poverty are so frequently lumped together, as are race and crime, making a sort of trifecta of bad circumstances that can really hold a person back—or worse, as we’ve seen with so many cases of police violence. But it’s worse than that, argues Reuben Jonathan Miller in his new book Halfway Home: notContinue reading “‘Halfway’ Hits Home with Prison Discourse”
Get ‘Lost’ in These Four Cities
According to the U.S. Census, over 80% of the country’s population lives in urban areas—and it’s even higher for Puerto Rico and other territories, where urban living is well over 90%. It didn’t always used to be this way, but the world is marching toward a far more urban future than our ancestors could haveContinue reading “Get ‘Lost’ in These Four Cities”
‘Klara’ Shines like the Sun
There are many things Kazuo Ishiguro does brilliantly, but one he does perhaps most uniquely—especially as we move past the glut of thrillers using Gone Girl and/or The Woman On The Train as a comp title—is create a thoroughly unreliable narrator. Unlike the tipsy or mentally ill women who have largely come to define theContinue reading “‘Klara’ Shines like the Sun”
‘Paradise’ has 2/3 of a Great Book
CW: Suicide, Incest, Sexual Abuse There’s this seafood restaurant downtown that is pretty pricy, but once my husband and I were given a gift card for it. The first two courses were incredible—fresh, flavorful, succulent. The third was bizarre and borderline inedible, though we may have just thought it was so gross because we’re unculturedContinue reading “‘Paradise’ has 2/3 of a Great Book”
‘Iraq + 100’ Gives Unique View of Future
For longer than I’ve been alive, Iraq has been either at or adjacent to war. In fact, writes editor Hassan Blasim in the introduction to Iraq + 100, “Iraq has not tasted peace, freedom, or stability since the first British invasion of the country in 1914.” A century of war makes it hard to imagineContinue reading “‘Iraq + 100’ Gives Unique View of Future”
‘Felon’ Doesn’t Disappoint
If there’s one thing this pandemic has given me (besides diminished social skills and a lot of loaves of failed sourdough), it’s an increased appreciation and appetite for poetry. Just before everything shut down, I picked up Joyce Sutphen’s Carrying Water to the Field and was enchanted; that enchantment has led me to discover Tracy K.Continue reading “‘Felon’ Doesn’t Disappoint”
‘Two Truths’ Questions Fact and Fiction
I take in a lot of crime-related media. Hours of podcasts, stacks of true-crime novels, loads of documentaries, and although maturity and a growing awareness of current events has curbed my appetite for police procedurals, I still watch a lot of crime TV. All of which is to say I feel that I’m somewhat ofContinue reading “‘Two Truths’ Questions Fact and Fiction”
Hockey and Pies Make for a Delicious ‘Check’
Apparently I missed out on Check, Please when it was being released as a webcomic, which is actually slightly surprising because I feel like I spend a lot of time reading webcomics and talking about webcomics, but I’d never heard of this before a glowing review of the volume 1 book release put it onContinue reading “Hockey and Pies Make for a Delicious ‘Check’”
Ring Reads 