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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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January 23, 2024

Beautyland by Marie-Helene Bertino

January 23, 2024/ Steve Donoghue
Beautyland by Marie-Helene Bertino

A novel in which a woman is woefully certain she’s an extraterrestrial emissary

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January 23, 2024/ Steve Donoghue/
Beautyland, Marie-Helene Bertino, fiction, contemporary fiction
January 21, 2024

The Tusks of Extinction by Ray Nayler

January 21, 2024/ Steve Donoghue
The Tusks of Extinction by Ray Nayler

In this skimpy little science fiction story, scientists send an unlikely bit of help to the world’s only revived mammoth herd.

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January 21, 2024/ Steve Donoghue/
The Tusks of Extinction, Ray Nayler, fiction, science fiction, mammoths
January 20, 2024

The Writer as Illusionist by William Maxwell

January 20, 2024/ Steve Donoghue
The Writer as Illusionist by William Maxwell

A wonderful new collection of the writings of New Yorker legend William Maxwell

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January 20, 2024/ Steve Donoghue/
William Maxwell, The Writer as Illusionist, Alec Wilkinson, the New Yorker, New Yorker
January 19, 2024

Who Owns This Sentence? by David Bellows & Alexandre Montague

January 19, 2024/ Steve Donoghue
Who Owns This Sentence? by David Bellows & Alexandre Montague

A new book on the intriguing ins and outs of copyright

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January 19, 2024/ Steve Donoghue/
Who Owns This Sentence, David Bellows, Alexandre Dumas, copyright, history
January 19, 2024

Maude Horton's Glorious Revenge by Lizzie Pook

January 19, 2024/ Amberlee Venters
Maude Horton's Glorious Revenge by Lizzie Pook

A historical novel in which a woman searches for her missing sister

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January 19, 2024/ Amberlee Venters/
Maude Horton's Glorious Revenge, Lizzie Pook, fiction, historical fiction
January 18, 2024

The Wharton Plot by Mariah Fredericks

January 18, 2024/ Steve Donoghue
The Wharton Plot by Mariah Fredericks

The famous novelist Edith Wharton tries to solve a murder

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January 18, 2024/ Steve Donoghue/
The Wharton Plot, Mariah Fredericks, fictoin, fiction, historical fiction, Edith Wharton, murdery mystery, murder mystery, mystery fiction
January 17, 2024

The Waters by Bonnie Jo Campbell

January 17, 2024/ Steve Donoghue
The Waters by Bonnie Jo Campbell

In Bonnie Jo Campbell’s sumptuous new novel, the fates of a strange family of women and a small town intertwine

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January 17, 2024/ Steve Donoghue/
The Waters, Bonnie Jo Campbell, fiction, contemporary fiction
January 16, 2024

Slow Down by Kohei Saito

January 16, 2024/ Steve Donoghue
Slow Down by Kohei Saito

A soft-spoken call for communism to save the world

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January 16, 2024/ Steve Donoghue/
Slow Down, Kohei Saito, Brian Bergstrom, degrowth communism, social science, climate crisis
January 14, 2024

Death Under a Little Sky by Stig Abell

January 14, 2024/ Steve Donoghue
Death Under a Little Sky by Stig Abell

A former hotshot detective manages to find crime in a quaint little village

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January 14, 2024/ Steve Donoghue/
Death Under a Little Sky, Stig Abell, murder mystery, mystery
January 14, 2024

Chasing Bright Medusas by Benjamin Taylor

January 14, 2024/ Hannah Joyner
Chasing Bright Medusas by Benjamin Taylor

A slim new biography of American novelist Willa Cather, just in time for her 150th birthday.

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January 14, 2024/ Hannah Joyner/
Chasing Bright Medusas, Willa Cather, biography, author biography, Benjamin Taylor, Hannah Joyner
January 14, 2024

Red Memory by Tania Branigan

January 14, 2024/ Mark Jacobs
Red Memory by Tania Branigan

A new book about the outcomes of the Cultural Revolution

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January 14, 2024/ Mark Jacobs/
Red Memory, Tania Branigan, China, Chinese history, history, Cultural Revolution
January 13, 2024

Pure Wit by Francesca Peacock

January 13, 2024/ Steve Donoghue
Pure Wit by Francesca Peacock

A new biography of the boisterous Margaret Cavendish

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January 13, 2024/ Steve Donoghue/
Francesca Peacock, Pure Wit, Margaret Cavendish, biography, Restoration, literary biography
January 12, 2024

Inverno by Cynthia Zarin

January 12, 2024/ Steve Donoghue
Inverno by Cynthia Zarin

A novella about good phone manners

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January 12, 2024/ Steve Donoghue/
Inverno, Cynthia Zarin, fiction, contemporary fiction
January 11, 2024

This Plague of Souls by Mike McCormack

January 11, 2024/ Steve Donoghue
This Plague of Souls by Mike McCormack

The new novel — or a piece of one, anyway — from the author of “Solar Bones”

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January 11, 2024/ Steve Donoghue/
This Plague of Souls, Mike McCormack, fiction, contemporary fiction
January 10, 2024

Dante's New Lives by Elisa Brilli & Giuliano Milani

January 10, 2024/ Steve Donoghue
Dante's New Lives by Elisa Brilli & Giuliano Milani

An innovative new biography of Dante

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January 10, 2024/ Steve Donoghue/
Dante's New Lives, Elisa Brilli, Giuliano Milani, Mary Maschio, Eva Plesnik, biography, Dante, Dante biography, Italian history
January 09, 2024

Venice by Dennis Romano

January 09, 2024/ Steve Donoghue
Venice by Dennis Romano

A sweepingly comprehensive new one-volume history of Venice

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January 09, 2024/ Steve Donoghue/
Venice: The Remarkable History of the Lagoon City, Dennis Romano, Venice, history, Venice history
December 16, 2023

The Best Books of 2023: Nonfiction!

December 16, 2023/ Steve Donoghue
The Best Books of 2023: Nonfiction!

The best nonfiction books of 2023!

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December 16, 2023/ Steve Donoghue/
Stevereads
The Best Books of 2023: Nonfiction, The best nonfiction 2023, Zero at the Bone, Christian Wiman, Invitation to a Banquet, Fuchisia Dunlop, Trust the Plan, Will Sommer, The Wife of Bath, Marion Turner, Losing Music, John Cotter, Writing Black Beauty, Celia Brayfield, The Apple II Age, Laine Nooneym, If I Betray These Words, Wendy Dean, Extremely Online, Taylor Lorenz, Fancy Bear Goes Fishing, Scott Shapiro, Steve Donoghue
December 15, 2023

The Worst Books of 2023: Nonfiction!

December 15, 2023/ Steve Donoghue
The Worst Books of 2023: Nonfiction!

The worst nonfiction of 2023!

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December 15, 2023/ Steve Donoghue/
Stevereads
The Worst Books of 2023: Nonfiction, worst nonfiction 2023, Spare, Prince Harry, The Peacemaker, Nixon, Ben Stein, Emotional Labor, Rose Hackman, Crime Inc, Vince Everett Ellison, Rise of the Fourth Reich, Steve Deace, Daniel Horowitz, The Courage to be Feee, The Courage to be Free, Ron DeSantis, In Defense of the Second Amendment, Larry Correia, Duck Walk, Margie Crisp, The Shotgun Conservationist, Brant MacDuff, Never Give an Inch, Mike Pompeo, The Democrat Party Hates America, Mark Levin, Steve Donoghue
December 14, 2023

The Best Books of 2023: Fiction!

December 14, 2023/ Steve Donoghue
The Best Books of 2023: Fiction!

The best novels of 2023!

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December 14, 2023/ Steve Donoghue/
Stevereads
The Best Books of 2023: Fiction, Best Fiction of 2023, fiction, contemporary fiction, The Bee Sting, Paul Murray, Small Mercies, Dennis Lehane, Mobility, Lydia Kiesling, Learned by Heart, Emma Donoghue, Western Alliances, Wilton Barnhardt, Terrace Story, Hilary Leichter, Tom Lake, Ann Patchettm, Wellness, Nathan Hill, The Vulnerabls, The Vulnerables, Sigrid Nunez, The Dissident, Paul Goldberg, Steve Donoghue
December 13, 2023

The Worst Books of 2023: Fiction!

December 13, 2023/ Steve Donoghue
The Worst Books of 2023: Fiction!

The worst fiction of 2023!

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December 13, 2023/ Steve Donoghue/
Stevereads
The Worst Books of 2023: Fiction, Worst Fiction 2023, I'm Unvaccinated and That's OK, Shannon Kroner, Chain-Gang All-Stars, Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, Let Us Descend, Jesmyn Ward, Hello Beautiful, Ann Napolitano, Nana Kwama Adjei-Brenyah, Yellowface, RF Kuang, Death Valley, Melissa Broder, Digging Stars, Novuyo Rosa Tshuma, I Hear You're Rich, Diane Williams, The Thick and the Lean, Chana Porter, I Have Some Questions for You, Rebecca Makkai, Steve Donoghue
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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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