Orenstein faces her project with a little good-natured self-deprecation. That attitude helps make each step, and misstep, feel more like a fascinating conversation than a staid travelogue or sermon.
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‘Thornhedge’ Twists Fairy Tale Cozily
At just 128 pages long, Thornhedge is a sweet little fairy-tale snack with some substance to boot.
‘Promises’ a Truly Golden Collection
Whether or not I was Olivarez’s target audience, I found myself profoundly moved by many poems in this collection.
‘Extinction’ a Multi-Layer Puzzle
The Extinction of Irena Rey is a layer cake of fascinating and thought-provoking elements, all of them strong enough to hold a story on their own but working together deliciously.
A Dizzy Summer Recounted in a New Light in ‘Tom Lake’
Pachett draws out Lara’s pivotal summer in a haze of stretched-out days that really do feel like the kind of summer that lasts far longer than the calendar suggests.
Friendship at Heart of ‘Tree. Table. Book.’
The moment of the younger Sophie’s realization is a hard one, and the elder Sophie has her own hard moments at present, and in the near future. Yet what does remain simple is the beauty of their unconventional friendship, and how common ground can erase years and miles and practically an entire life between them.
‘Lone Women’ a Parable of Secrets and Prejudice in the Wild West
Although the town at the heart of Lone Women is made up of misfits, it quickly becomes clear that some fit in better than others. Secrets don’t stay secret forever, even if they’re locked up tight. The literal escape of Adelaide’s secret exacerbates tensions that were already fraying beneath the surface.
‘Milk and Honey’ a Chilling, and Luscious, View of the Near Future
While there is a clear moral to the story in the book’s final chapter, Zhang writes deftly to keep any of her characters from being clear cut. The messiness in turn reveals truth: that when the chips are down, human instinct and that of crabs in a bucket are largely the same.
‘What the Dead Know’ a Pensive Look Back at Life and Death
What the Dead Know is about a lot of difficult stuff, and Butcher doesn’t shield us from the gore. But she does wisely keep it tastefully select in its details, delivering realness without exploitation.
Wishes get Colonized and Corporatized in Shubeik Lubeik
The repercussions from wishes are negligible for the haves and devastating for the have-nots. Following the rules is detrimental for some, and far outside the sphere of concern for others. As with many things designed to “make life better”—technology, say, or medicine—the artificial scaffolding around wishes exacerbate, rather than reduce, inequality in the society they occupy.
Ring Reads 