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We can’t mythologize pregnancy apart from embodied experience. (Image courtesy of Bold Type Books.)

‘Belabored’ by Lyz Lenz

An experience of pregnancy

Lyz Lenz’s ‘Belabored’ offers no solutions to the rampant anxieties of the present, but its bold centering of the realities of pregnancy offers something we may need even more. T.S. Mendola reviews.

T.S. Mendola

Aug 24, 2020 Articles 3 minute read

A book for all people who use their voice. (Image courtesy of Barcelona Publishing.)

‘The Use of Voice in Music Therapy’ by Kelly Meashey

Long live every voice

‘The Use of Voice in Music Therapy,’ the first book from Philadelphia jazz singer Kelly Meashey, teaches singers and clinicians alike how to connect with an audience. Suzanne Cloud reviews.

Suzanne Cloud

Aug 18, 2020 Articles 4 minute read

A love letter to Philly in 1985? (Image via allauthor.com.)

‘PUNKS’ by Richard Cucarese

Missing Philly’s punk ethos

‘PUNKS,’ the debut novel by Richard Cucarese, visits 1980s Philadelphia without sampling the social context that would’ve been so relevant today. Michelle Nugent reviews.

Michelle Nugent

Aug 17, 2020 Articles 3 minute read

What makes a perfect wife? Maybe the standard recipe hasn’t changed as much as we think. (Image courtesy of Dutton.)

‘Recipe for a Perfect Wife’ by Karma Brown

Karma Brown’s ‘Recipe for a Perfect Wife’ follows a woman who finds a cookbook in her new home that connects her to the life of a previous resident, a seemingly perfect housewife from another era. But dark secrets resonate in both women’s lives. Elisa Shoenberger reviews.

Elisa Shoenberger

Aug 17, 2020 Articles 3 minute read

Xandria Phillips’s debut collection won the Lambda Literary Award for Trans Poetry. (Image courtesy of Nightboat books.)

‘Hull’ by Xandria Phillips

The American version of me

Xandria Phillips’s debut poetry collection, ‘Hull,’ explores longing, history, emancipation and resistance, and the stakes of precarious living. Matthew John Phillips reviews.

Matthew John Phillips

Jul 14, 2020 Articles 5 minute read

Robin Wasserman's new Philadelphia-set novel traverses the slippery territory of memory and female identity. (Image courtesy of Scribner.)

‘Mother Daughter Widow Wife’ by Robin Wasserman

The mysteries inside

In Robin Wasserman’s new novel, a woman arrives in Philadelphia with no memory. Years later, her daughter sets out to find out what happened to her there, and why she has left again. Kirsten Bowen reviews.

Kirsten Bowen

Jul 06, 2020 Articles 3 minute read

Sowing the air with notes of gold: an oriole, a bird immortalized in Gene Stratton-Porter’s writing. (Photo by mdf, via Wikimedia Commons.)

‘A Girl of the Limberlost’ by Gene Stratton-Porter

Revealing nature, redefining women

City dwellers and suburbanites tired of staying home should try ‘A Girl of the Limberlost,’ an early 20th-century treasure ripe for rediscovery by pandemic-weary readers. Pamela Forsythe reviews.

Pamela J. Forsythe

Jul 05, 2020 Articles 5 minute read

What's your score? (Image courtesy of Grand Central Publishing.)

‘QualityLand’ by Marc-Uwe Kling, translated by Jamie Lee Searle

A customized world—for whom?

What if a nationwide rating system governed our lives? Marc-Uwe Kling’s dystopian 'QualityLand' imagines a world that might be right around the corner. Elisa Shoenberger reviews

Elisa Shoenberger

Jun 23, 2020 Articles 3 minute read

James McAdams's debut collection of short stories features people struggling with addiction, loss, and connection. (Image courtesy of Frayed Edge Press.)

‘Ambushing the Void’ by James McAdams

Salvation in others?

The inhabitants of ‘Ambushing the Void,’ the debut collection by Philly native James McAdams, search for connection and meaning wherever they can find it, but the tables are always turning. Kirsten Bowen reviews.