In Review: The Week of February 25th

On the Blog

~ We tell you why Lauren B. Davis’ The Grimoire of Kensington Market (Wolsak and Wynn) is a fantastic follow-up to Katherine Arden’s The Bear and The Nightingale in this Read This, Then That: Fairytale Edition. ~ Some of the contributors from Body & Soul: Stories for Seekers and Skeptics (Caitlin Press) talk about what surprised them when writing about spirituality, the risks they took going public with their stories, and much more: “Are notions of spirituality too thin, too conventional? That is changing, thanks to Indigenous writing about land, spirit, ceremony, and tradition, and yet the whole topic of faith, religion, spiritual practices—pick your word—still comes with a lot of baggage, including mistrust and the fear of exclusion.”~ We capped off #BlackHistoryMonth with a rad reading list of Black-authored books coming out this year from Black Writers Matter essayist Scott Fraser.~ Kai Cheng Thom shares her thoughts on the literary practice of sensitivity reading: “Most important to me in my work as a sensitivity reader is that the process not become prescriptive or reactive, a quick fix to moral panic that tells the author what they can or cannot do in the name of political correctness.”

Around the Web

~ Secondhand books come with added surprises like notes, a traffic ticket for jaywalking, and curious to-do lists.~ In the wonderful world of the internet exists this website which will generate a strange short story based on a phone number.~ Netflix bravely plans to release a Baby-Sitter’s Club. (Cue the nostalgia.) 

via GIPHY

What Else We’re Reading

Larry Mathews’s An Exile’s Perfect Letter (Breakwater Books) is the kind of satirical, wryly observant novel of aging, friendship, and what-does-it-all-mean? that tickled our funny bones.