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If robots take over the world someday, as some people fear, I hope they will be as nice as Klara, the narrator of Kazuo Ishiguro’s immensely appealing novel. Klara’s story begins in a retail store where she stands in a display window, waiting for someone to purchase her. Eventually she…

Jason Fitger of Payne University is a frustrated professor trying to remain afloat in a leaky academic boat: English literature. He writes mountains of recommendation letters on behalf of his students, most of whom he finds unworthy of the effort. Some are seeking job placements, others various academic opportunities. Dear…

Today I’d like to introduce K.A. Cummins and her new children’s book, Bold & Brave. This is the latest in my occasional features in which authors tell us about their books, their writing lives, and anything else they wish to share. K.A. Cummins is an award-winning author and an artist.…

American Christian Fiction Writers, an organization I recently joined, posts a monthly list of books by its members. Below is the list for September. Enjoy! Chevron Ross September 2023 New Releases More in-depth descriptions of these books can be found on the ACFW Fiction Finder website Contemporary Romance: A Louisiana…

Thirty years have passed since Red Mars was published. Considering that in 1993 the internet was in its infancy, and cell phones were nonexistent, Kim Stanley Robinson’s novel holds up well. His chronicle of the countless problems involved in colonizing a hostile planet is what makes this book compelling. Just…

Every Anne Tyler novel is like a delicious new dessert. It’s so good that I immediately want a second helping. But overindulging would spoil the pleasure. So I put the leftovers away, knowing I’ll be back before midnight to raid the fridge. Clock Dance is reminiscent of her 1995 novel Ladder…

Following the 9/11 attacks, The New York Times ran a series profiling the lives of as many victims as its reporters could identify. Thornton Wilder followed the same impulse when he wrote The Bridge of San Luis Rey in 1927. Best known for the drama Our Town, Wilder seems to…

If you haven’t read Thornton Wilder’s Our Town, or seen it performed, it would be worth your while to do so before reading Ann Patchett’s Tom Lake. The play is integral to the story and will deepen your enjoyment. Lara Kenison is recounting her brief acting career to her three…

Evelyn Waugh’s characters do not behave as we think we would in moments of crisis. His satirical brush paints them as empty shells with skewed values. That’s what makes A Handful of Dust such an astonishing and fascinating novel. Tony and Brenda Last reside in a large house at Hetton,…