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A stubborn optimist

As the country endures a record wave of infection and death in the ongoing pandemic, while the aspiring autocrat of an incumbent refuses to concede the Presidency, and with the promise of a polity further divided in anger and resentment, it seems like the perfect time to remember why we miss President Barack Obama.

A mother’s choice in Christa Parravani’s ‘Loved and Wanted’

This is a story Christa Parravani never thought she’d tell. By forty, she’d lived through her twin sister’s death, a failed marriage, and psychiatric hospitalization, all movingly detailed in her 2013 memoir, “Her.” Now that she was remarried with two small daughters and a job she loved teaching writing at West Virginia University, she hoped to find emotional and financial stability. Then she found out she was accidentally pregnant.

Fiction set in a near-waterless future in Cynan Jones’s ‘Stillicide’

Sometimes real-world problems are best explained through fiction. BBC Radio Four must have had this in mind when they gave Cynan Jones the green light to write these tense, stark, and beautifully paced connecting stories.

Reading for humor, company during insomnia

Jerald Walker spent years trying to publish his short stories, to no avail. When his wife suggested he write essays, he wrote one. Now his essay collection, “How to Make a Slave and Other Essays,” was named a finalist for this year’s National Book Award in nonfiction.

A debut novel set in Maine, an electrifying catalog of the MFA’s postponed Cy Twombly show, and a book of animal rhymes
Literary news from around the region.

Northeastern philosophy professor calls for ‘moral leadership’ on the refugee crisis
Serena Parekh filters the issue through "a broad consensus about human rights."

Latest Headlines in Books

BOOKINGS

Virtual author readings Nov. 22-28

All events take place online; visit the venue website for more information.

Local bestsellers for the week ending November 15

The New England Indie Bestseller List, as brought to you by IndieBound and NEIBA, for the week ended Sunday, Nov. 15. Based on reporting from the independent booksellers of the New England Independent Booksellers Association and IndieBound. For an independent bookstore near you, visit IndieBound.org.

BOOKS

The inequality of an epidemic in Paul Farmer’s ‘Fevers, Feuds, and Diamonds’

Farmer, of Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, is a physician, anthropologist, MacArthur Fellow, and founding director of Partners in Health

BOOKS

The art of a short story

For readers, especially in these days of frayed attention spans, a good short story beckons with the promise of immediate escape.

BOOKS

Drawn to novels that ‘interrogate womanhood’

Ghanaian-American novelist Yaa Gyasi talks about her reading habits.

BOOKS

An exploration of ‘the geography of spirit’; a Boston-based crime thriller

Literary news from around the region.

BOOKS

Claire Messud on what matters, including dogs

The author explores her interests and beliefs in “Kant’s Little Prussian Head and Other Reasons Why I Write."

BOOKS

A powerful, poetic life: The complexities of Adrienne Rich

Rich attained both popular acceptance and critical acclaim over a more than six-decade-long career.