"Despite its tragic subject — grief over a teenage sibling's death — it's somehow very funny in between wrenching passages. I've reread the profound and moving final page several times the last few months."
"I reread "The Talented Mr. Ripley" for a reminder of how Patricia Highsmith uses third-person point of view and describes a very specific emotion I'm aiming for in the ending."
"Yascha Mounk's "The People vs. Democracy: Why Our Freedom Is in Danger and How to Save It" is a good primer on the issue that should be dominating every day's headlines."
"Conner Habib's "Hawk Mountain," about a man's re-encountering his high school bully, is a tightening-vise story concerning the repercussions of repression."
"In Ashley Hutson's "One's Company," a woman wins the lottery and recreates the microcosm of the TV show "Three's Company." The premise recalls Tom McCarthy's "Remainder," but it's an original, evocative and superbly written metaphor for artistic loneliness."
