“It felt like a time apt for apocalyptic writing,” says Bishop in his note at the end of The Digital Self (Lulu 2023). “Yet,” he says, “we continued to create countless traces of ourselves with each day spent in the digital sphere. The things we liked, or shared, or rage posted about, or emailed, or […]
“These Particular Women” by Kat Meads
April 11, 2023 by Leave a Comment
Reviewed by Edwina Pendarvis These Particular Women (Sagging Meniscus 2023) offers a composite of particulars about eleven women who earned celebrity, large or small, in the 20th century, either through their own accomplishments—in one case a murder—or as wife or mother of a notably accomplished someone. Most of the women will be familiar and […]
“Another World: Ballet Lessons from Appalachia” by Edwina Pendarvis
December 6, 2022 by 1 Comment
Ballet is probably not the first kind of dancing people associate with Appalachia, Edwina Pendarvis acknowledges in the introduction to Another World: Ballet Lessons from Appalachia. Yet for the twenty-four women Pendarvis interviews for this engaging book, ballet assumed considerable importance in their lives. The fond memories and photographs of ballet lessons gathered for this […]
Oedipus, Jemima Puddle-Duck, and “Astonishing Primitives”
October 19, 2022 by Leave a Comment
“How to Read a Novel” by Caroline Gordon Cluny Media Edition, 2019; Originally published, 1953 “The Malefactors” by Caroline Gordon Cluny Media Edition, 2019; Originally published, 1956 Review Essay by Edwina Pendarvis Caroline Gordon’s How to Read a Novel is a little outdated, but still intriguing in its observations on the novel. Because her […]
“Our Love Affair With Murder”: Donna Meredith Reviews Five Mysteries
December 26, 2017 by 2 Comments
Reviews by Donna Meredith Sex sells, but crime pays too—at least for writers. Mystery and crime stories earn upwards of $730 million a year in book sales. That’s a lot of love for dead bodies, sales figures topped only slightly by the live bodies found in the romance genre. From the earliest mysteries penned by […]