Good Boy
by Charles Holdefer
I don’t always listen to my dog because he can be a whiner but last night we were talking about the possibilities of afterlife and accounts of near-death experiences where someone travels down a tunnel toward a bright light which opens onto joy and sometimes a reunification with lost loved ones.
In our weekend reading: revisiting the prose of Muriel Rukeyser, poetry by Chloe N. Clark, and more.
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 […]
In our morning reading: an interview with Naomi Falk, thoughts on books by Polly Barton and Morris Collins, and more.
In our afternoon reading: an interview with Julie Buntin, thoughts on the new Mountain Goats album, and more.
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.
In our morning reading: notes on Hob Broun’s fiction, James Ellroy’s film recommendations, and more.
We Ate Standing Up
by Angela Edward
I landed at JFK at night, around 10:30 p.m., already unsure. Baggage claim moved slowly. I stood watching the carousel loop again and again, the same suitcases circling back like a bad joke. When mine finally came, I lifted it off the belt and felt how heavy it was. We did not talk much. I could feel him watching me, waiting for something I could not name.