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Open Letters Review

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Open Letters Review

Open Letters Review

An Arts & Literature Review

Open Letters Review

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December 13, 2018

The Best Books of 2018: Fiction!

December 13, 2018/ Steve Donoghue
The Best Books of 2018: Fiction!

These authors concentrate on the things that novels should concentrate on: showing readers new worlds and introducing them to new monsters.

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December 13, 2018/ Steve Donoghue/
Stevereads
Best of 2018, Stevereads, fiction, Best of Lists, Steve Donoghue
December 12, 2018

The Worst Books of 2018: Nonfiction!

December 12, 2018/ Steve Donoghue
The Worst Books of 2018: Nonfiction!

2018 a particularly demoralizing year for nonfiction, and here are the worst offenders.

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December 12, 2018/ Steve Donoghue/
Stevereads
Worst of 2018, Stevereads, nonfiction, Worst of Lists, Steve Donoghue
December 11, 2018

The Worst Books of 2018: Fiction!

December 11, 2018/ Steve Donoghue
The Worst Books of 2018: Fiction!

A combination of laziness and cynicism is the most prominent trend in this year's bad fiction.

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December 11, 2018/ Steve Donoghue/
Worst of 2018, fiction, Stevereads, Worst of Lists, Steve Donoghue
December 11, 2018

Best Books of 2018: History!

December 11, 2018/ Steve Donoghue
Best Books of 2018: History!

Winnowing down the candidates in this category was more difficult than almost any other year in the last decade.

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December 11, 2018/ Steve Donoghue/
Stevereads
Best of 2018, Stevereads, Best of Lists, Steve Donoghue, History
December 10, 2018

The Best Books of 2018: Biography!

December 10, 2018/ Steve Donoghue
The Best Books of 2018: Biography!

The bulk of the year was an unplanned and unexpected celebration of the plasticity of the genre.

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December 10, 2018/ Steve Donoghue/
Stevereads
Best of 2018, Stevereads, biography, Best of Lists, Steve Donoghue
December 09, 2018

Best Books of 2018: Science and Nature!

December 09, 2018/ Steve Donoghue
Best Books of 2018: Science and Nature!

These books about the natural world serve up a sense of wonder.

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December 09, 2018/ Steve Donoghue/
December 08, 2018

The Best Books of 2018: Romance!

December 08, 2018/ Steve Donoghue
The Best Books of 2018: Romance!

The best of a genre stacked with devilish dukes, concupiscent cowboys, ingenious ingenues, and naughty nannies.

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December 08, 2018/ Steve Donoghue/
Stevereads
Best of 2018, Regency Romance, Stevereads, writers, Best of Lists, Steve Donoghue
December 07, 2018

The Best Books of 2018: Mystery!

December 07, 2018/ Steve Donoghue
The Best Books of 2018: Mystery!

Virtually every entry is the latest book in an ongoing series.

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December 07, 2018/ Steve Donoghue/
Stevereads
Best of 2018, Stevereads, Best of Lists, mystery fiction, Steve Donoghue
December 06, 2018

The Best Books of 2018: Science Fiction & Fantasy!

December 06, 2018/ Steve Donoghue
The Best Books of 2018: Science Fiction & Fantasy!

The best science fiction and fantasy in a year filled with sequels, prequels, and books-in-series.

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December 06, 2018/ Steve Donoghue/
Stevereads
Best of 2018, Stevereads, science fiction, fantasy, Best of Lists, Steve Donoghue
December 05, 2018

The Best Books of 2018: Historical Fiction!

December 05, 2018/ Steve Donoghue
The Best Books of 2018: Historical Fiction!

A year's worth of historical fiction steeped in relevance.

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December 05, 2018/ Steve Donoghue/
Stevereads
Best of 2018, Stevereads, historical fiction, Best of Lists, Steve Donoghue
December 04, 2018

The Best Books of 2018: Debut Fiction!

December 04, 2018/ Steve Donoghue
The Best Books of 2018: Debut Fiction!

Debut fiction is a strong indicator of the general health of a literary year.

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December 04, 2018/ Steve Donoghue/
Stevereads
Best of 2018, debut novels, Stevereads, Best of Lists, Steve Donoghue
December 03, 2018

The Best Books of 2018: Works in Translation!

December 03, 2018/ Steve Donoghue
The Best Books of 2018: Works in Translation!

The yardstick here is not solely accuracy of translation, but the worth of the English-language results.

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December 03, 2018/ Steve Donoghue/
Stevereads
Best of 2018, Stevereads, Best of Lists, Steve Donoghue, translations
December 02, 2018

The Best Books of 2018: Kids and Young Adult

December 02, 2018/ Steve Donoghue
The Best Books of 2018: Kids and Young Adult

The pure has been sifted from the pandering and here are the gems I found!

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December 02, 2018/ Steve Donoghue/
Stevereads
children's books, kidlit, Stevereads, Best of 2018, Best of Lists, Young Adult Fiction
December 01, 2018

Best Books of 2018: Reprints!

December 01, 2018/ Steve Donoghue
Best Books of 2018: Reprints!

2018 presented a bracing variety of enterprising reprints.

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December 01, 2018/ Steve Donoghue/
Stevereads
Best of 2018, reprints, Stevereads, e. e. cummings, One Hundred Poets One Poem Each, James Wood, Wanderer, Sterling Hayden, John Kretschmer, True Grit, Charles Portis, The Books of Earthsea, Ursula Le Guin, Silent Spring and Other Writings, Rachel Carson, Green Mansions, WH Hudson, William Bolitho, Pauli Murray, Best of Lists, Steve Donoghue
November 30, 2018

In Search of the Canary Tree by Lauren E. Oakes

November 30, 2018/ Olive Fellows
In Search of the Canary Tree by Lauren E. Oakes

Oakes takes us along as she and her team fight the damp and cold of the Alaskan wilderness to gather data.

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November 30, 2018/ Olive Fellows/
Science/Technology, Animals & Nature
Lauren E. Oakes, Basic Books, science, environmental science, environment, global warming, nature, Olive Fellows
November 29, 2018

Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi

November 29, 2018/ Eric Karl Anderson
Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi

It’s refreshing how Emezi approaches a story of fractured national and racial identity quite differently from recent books that deal with similar themes.

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November 29, 2018/ Eric Karl Anderson/
Fiction-LGBTQ, Literary Fiction
Freshwater, Akwaeke Emezi, Eric Karl Anderson, Grove Atlantic, debut novels, literary fiction, LGBTQ
November 28, 2018

In Memoriam: Stan Lee

November 28, 2018/ Steve Danziger
In Memoriam: Stan Lee

If you only know his name from The Avengers franchise, you’re missing the point entirely.

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November 28, 2018/ Steve Danziger/
Graphic Novels/Comics
Stan Lee, Marvel, The Avengers, Steve Danziger, In Memoriam, comics/comic books
November 27, 2018

The Girl in the Spider’s Web

November 27, 2018/ Alex Sorondo
The Girl in the Spider’s Web

Alvarez seems to have cracked the code for how to translate these novels to the screen.

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November 27, 2018/ Alex Sorondo/
Film & Theatre; Adaptations
David Fincher, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Julius Avery, Millennium series, Stieg Larsson, Alex Sorondo, movie review
November 26, 2018

The Calculus of Violence by Aaron Sheehan-Dean

November 26, 2018/ Kip Wedel
The Calculus of Violence by Aaron Sheehan-Dean

An examination of the agonizing debates about the meaning of a just war in the Civil War era.

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November 26, 2018/ Kip Wedel/
History
Aaron Sheehan-Dean, Civil War, American History, Kip Wedel, military history
November 23, 2018

The End of the End of the Earth: Essays by Jonathan Franzen

November 23, 2018/ Alex Sorondo
The End of the End of the Earth: Essays by Jonathan Franzen

Communicates a compelling voice from a speaker who’s well-intentioned, well-studied and considerate, but hopelessly aloof.

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November 23, 2018/ Alex Sorondo/
Essays, Animals & Nature
Jonathan Franzen, Alex Sorondo, environment, environmental movement, birds, Farrar Straus Giroux Books, MacMillan Publishers, essays
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Editors:

Steve Donoghue
Sam Sacks
Britta Böhler
____________________

Eric Karl Anderson
Olive Fellows
Jack Hanson
Jennifer Helinek
Justin Hickey
Hannah Joyner
Zach Rabiroff
Jessica Tvordi

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