For Neeram Pularumbol (As the Dawn Breaks), my follow-up record to the 2021 release on OnTheCorner Records (When the Waters Refused Our History), I wanted to do a deep dive into Indian percussion instruments that have strong links to communal rituals that are played in various sized drum-ensembles.
I’ve been reading Scott McClanahan’s work for a long time — long enough to know that Fights!, his new novel, is not his first book with an exclamation mark in the title. (That would be Stories V!.) But there’s also something about Fights! that made reading it substantially different from the experience of reading McClanahan’s other work. And maybe that’s why I’m writing this, which is less of a review and more a case of me figuring things out using […]
You may know Jaime Parker Stickle from her coverage of crime from both the fictional and nonfictional sides of things. She’s the author of two novels, including 2025’s Vicious Cycle, about a onetime journalist conducting her own investigation into an unsettling crime, and the podcaster behind the series The Girl With the Same Name. This month brings with it the release of Take Hart, a follow-up to her previous book following protagonist Corey Tracey-Lieberman as she investigates a disappearance. We’re pleased to present an excerpt from Take Hart.
From reading the first fifty or so pages, a reader might be left with two key impressions of Paul Tremblay’s novel Dead But Dreaming of Electric Sheep. The first is that it represents something of a return to Tremblay’s crime-fiction roots, albeit with a science fiction twist; the second is that, as the title suggests, it’s an homage to Philip K. Dick. Both are true, up to a point, but this book also represents something of a genre-straddling sleight of hand.
There are infinite ways for our heroes to disappoint us. In Julie Buntin’s latest novel Famous Men, she explores an issue that too many women face: What happens when the men they look up to take advantage of their admiration?
The novel follows the life of Wilhelmina (Will) Miles, a girl who grows up in the same small Michigan town as celebrity writer Nathaniel Fellow. His many books are the star of her mother’s bookshelf, one of which is signed with a sentimental note that makes Will wonder if he is actually the father she grew up without. So, when she finally moves away from home, she seeks him out in New York City. He promptly hires her as an assistant, seemingly as a favor, and makes an exception to let her audit his MFA classes. It doesn’t take long for his mentorship to morph into a secret relationship that shapes Will’s whole life and career as a writer.
What does your July reading look like? If you’re in need of recommendations, we have a couple to share with you, encompassing writers from all over the world and books in a wide variety of styles and genres. Whether you’re looking for deconstructions of certain worldviews or fascinating trips into history, we have you covered; here are 10 books that might pique your interest this month.
It’s hard to keep up with new books. Two months ago I read Arcade, Drew Nellins Smith’s first novel. It’s a hard-to-pin-down book about cruising and coming out in Texas, centered around a seedy “adult store.” The book is bold, direct, often uncomfortable, often hilarious. It was published a decade ago. The day I finished reading it I learned Smith’s second novel was coming out soon.
Cultural historians cite Lamont Johnson’s 1972 drama, That Certain Summer, as television’s first foray into gay-themed storytelling. With its high-caliber cast—Hal Holbrook, Martin Sheen, Hope Lange, and young Scott Jacoby—it certainly carried the weight of a landmark moment. And while it does hold the distinction of being the first American production to tackle the subject with such gravity, it was not, in fact, the first time the lens had turned toward such themes. Years before in 1959, Britain’s ITV—as part of its Play-of-the-Week series—presented a television adaptation of Julien Green’s play, Sud (or South, as it came to be known). In the timeline of television history, this is the true pioneer; it was the first drama to quietly, daringly unveil gay-related motifs to a home audience. I stumbled upon a grainy clip of it on YouTube recently, and found myself instantly captured, wanting to know more. Like so many live broadcasts that, in those years, ran once then vanished into the ether, South was considered lost for years. In a wonderful bit of providence, the British Film Institute unearthed and restored it in 2013. Now, it waits available to watch on many media platforms.