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Conversation with Dani Shapiro
By Alexandra Bradford
At the age of 54 writer Dani Shapiro made a startling discovery--her late and much-adored father was not her biological parent. In Inheritance: A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity, and Love, Shapiro’s tenth book and fifth memoir, Shapiro unspools the truth of her paternity while discovering the impact of family secrets.
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The Divine Feminine
By Roxanne Fequiere
“Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee.” Long before I was tasked with reciting bits of Shakespeare or reluctantly performing scansion on some departed poet’s work, I was immersed in Scripture.
Late, But Right on Time
By Roxanne Fequiere
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry is one of those titles that felt ubiquitous growing up in the ’90s, along with titles like The Giver, Where the Red Fern Grows, and Bridge to Terabithia—titles that you knew were important, either because of that gold foil Newbery Medal stamped on the cover or because there were several copies of it on the local library shelf.
I Feel The Earth Move
By Roxanne Fequiere
If you’ve spent a decent amount of time on Twitter—and if you haven’t, I suggest you keep it that way—you’ve probably seen some pithy variation on the notion that being “a fan of true crime” doesn’t count as a personality trait.
The Secret of the Attic
By Roxanne Fequiere
Published in 1995, The Secret of the Attic reads like a self-conscious mashup of The Baby-Sitters Club and the American Girl books.
Go, Suzuki, Go
By Roxanne Fequiere
Every now and then—by which I mean: quite often, actually—I am overcome with the urge to grab my copy of Harriet the Spy off my shelf and read it for the umpteenth time.
With Kid Gloves
By Roxanne Fequiere
A funny thing happened over the summer. While I was writing about books written in or set in the 1980s, I discovered that Roald Dahl’s Matilda was released in 1988.
Fear of All of the Above
By Roxanne Fequiere
When my coworker lent me her copy of Lisa Gardner’s Find Her, she said something to the effect of: “I’ll never read this again, but it’s very good.”
Fear of Motherhood
By Roxanne Fequiere
Like several million others over the holiday break, I turned to Netflix during a bit of downtime and took two hours to watch Bird Box.
Fear of Male Entitlement
By Roxanne Fequiere
Once, my mother and I traveled down to Florida to sit with a sick relative. I was twelve years old then; I remember distinctly because it was the first time I’d ever been on a plane.
Fear of Modernity
By Roxanne Fequiere
“Oh, no,” I thought to myself as I settled into the first chapter of Caroline Kepnes’ You. “I hate this.”
On Post-Grad Girl Gangs
By Roxanne Fequiere
“Based on the novel by Mary McCarthy, The Group was one of the slickest and most highly publicized cinematic soap operas of the 1960s.
Scare Stories
by Roxanne Fequiere
The very first thing that I can recall fearing—viscerally, with all the requisite stomach drops and involuntary cringing included—is the possibility of a violent home invasion.
The Whole Hog
by Roxanne Fequiere
Roald Dahl paperbacks were one of my childhood cornerstones, along with Barbie dolls, stirrup leggings, and ABC’s TGIF lineup.
Life Lessons
by Roxanne Fequiere
My book club selects each month’s title via online survey, so it’s pure coincidence that we ended up reading another school-focused narrative—in this case, Tara Westover’s Educated.
You Will Not Own a Porsche One Day
by Nicole Skibola
In the garage of my childhood home is a large blown-up magazine story from Porsche Excellence Magazine mounted on a laminated plaque profiling the black Porsche …
Coursework
by Roxanne Fequiere
In addition to reading one book a week this year, I’ve been reading two additional titles each month in my capacity as a member of two book clubs. Ideally, one or both …
Early Reading Redux: Nancy Drew Mystery Stories
By Olivia Aylmer
Is it any wonder that a voraciously curious, whip-smart young woman in search of answers—no matter the dark paths they lead her down—feels like the heroine …
Like Clockwork
by Roxanne Fequiere
Yanking the smooth black laces taut on each foot, I stood up, wiggled my toes, and shifted my weight. Glancing around the store, I spied a full-length mirror across the room …
A Regrettable Read
by Roxanne Fequiere
Have you ever looked back on a specific moment in your personal history, and realized, with frightening clarity, exactly how naive you were? ...
Recipe for Romance
by Roxanne Fequiere
“The sweetest woman in the world can be the meanest woman in the world,” goes the 1971 song “Thin Line Between Love and Hate.” Presumably, this goes for men, too, ...
On Crushes and Conversation
by Roxanne Fequiere
Alexa and Drew, the two main characters of Jasmine Guillory’s The Wedding Date meet less than a page into the book’s first chapter. Alexa, excited to see her sister, steps into a hotel elevator ...
Sex Ed, By The Book
by Roxanne Fequiere
It was bound to happen. Little bookish me, growing up in a house with several bookshelves twice my size, each one of them overflowing with decades worth of my parents’ books. ...
In Defense of Froth
by Roxanne Fequiere
I wandered out of my room after powering through the second half of Valley of The Dolls, mildly dazed. It was my own fault, really—466 pages in two days—but my reaction was less related to the sheer volume ...
Punching Down
by Roxanne Fequiere
You know those books—maybe they’re classics, maybe they’re new but very popular—that Everyone-But-You seems to have read? I imagine we all have a few. ...
Thoughts on An American Psycho
by Roxanne Fequiere
As much as I love to read, I tend to turn to film when I want to feel my emotions externalized: an extended ugly cry courtesy of Won’t You Be My Neighbor? for instance, or the quickened heartbeat ...
On the Edge of My Seat
by Roxanne Fequiere
The plans had been set for weeks. Thursday night, Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Hardly a superfan myself, I’d agreed to attend mostly on account of Oscar Isaac’s presence in the movie.
The Cult of the Authoress
by Roxanne Fequiere
Renata Adler’s two novels—Speedboat and Pitch Dark, published in 1976 and 1983—are often referenced in tandem. After falling out of print, they were simultaneously re-released in 2013.
Face Value
by Roxanne Fequiere
“Did you choose this one because of its cover?” my partner asked when he found me in bed, tearing through Eve Babitz’s Black Swans. I glared at him in a flash of indignation, then reconsidered.
Justice for Judith
by Roxanne Fequiere
As a sophomore in high school, longing for some money of my own and the sense of independence that comes with it, I accepted a job as a library page.
Sail On, Silver Girl
by Roxanne Fequiere
As has become my bad habit, I waited until the weekend to settle on what title to read, leaving myself with two days to complete
Confessions of an ‘80’s Baby
by Roxanne Fequiere
As we hurtle into summer and the second half of the year at an impossibly swift clip, the weather here in New York seems to be having an identity crisis of sorts.
Up, Up, Away, and Back Again
by Roxanne Fequiere
While pinballing from planet to planet and realm to realm this month, I’ve made a conscious effort to willingly suspend disbelief. After a lifetime of turning up my nose at fantastical plots, I wanted to at least give the genre a fair shake.
Five Books in Four Weeks
by Linlee Allen
The trip to Canada was supposed to be a relatively simple five-day getaway to have my U.S. visa renewed: an interview ...
A Wrinkle Revisted
by Roxanne Fequiere
Do you remember the collective frenzy we all worked ourselves into on account of the year 2000?
The Future is Bright—Not White
by Roxanne Fequiere
I’ve long been puzzled by the kind of speculative fiction plot that takes a well-worn but earthly concept.
On Strangers and Strange Lands
by Roxanne Fequiere
Nearly everyone who offered science fiction recommendations mentioned Ursula K. LeGuin’s The Left Hand of Darkness ...
The Time Has Come, The Wizard Said
by Roxanne Fequiere
I always felt as though Ms. Watson, a reedy woman with an ashen pixie cut and glasses that sat perpetually low on her nose...
Twyla Says
by Roxanne Fequiere
Not long after finishing dance luminary Twyla Tharp’s The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It For Life, I took to Google, ...
The Cult of the Splits
by Roxanne Fequiere
I am lying flat on my living room rug with my feet planted on the floor, a rectangular orange towel in my right hand. ...
It's On My List
by Roxanne Fequiere
You know what they say about leading horses to water. I first encountered Erin Falconer’s How to Get Sh*t Done ...
Bachelor Dandies, Drinkers of Brandies
by Roxanne Fequiere
Picture it, if you will: Staten Island, 2005. My peers and I are sixteenish, and for some reason, it seems we’ve all made it ...
How to be You and Me
by Roxanne Fequiere
Old habits die hard. It’s been just over two months since I left my corporate copywriting job, but the distinct chime of an ...
Friendship in the Rearview
by Roxanne Fequiere
As long as you don’t squint too hard, the 1950s still conjure a clean-cut, Norman Rockwell-style portrait in the mind’s eye, ...
The Other Loves of Our Lives
by Roxanne Fequiere
If you’re a woman, there’s a good chance that the first half of the title of Kayleen Schaefer’s Text Me When You Get Home: ...
Twinning at the Edge of Sanity
by Roxanne Fequiere
I wasn’t very far along into Alexandra Kleeman’s You Too Can Have a Body Like Mine—really, just a few pages in—when a certain ...
What Kind of Girl Talk Girl Are You?
by Roxanne Fequiere
The origin of our disagreement is now lost to me, but I can remember its denouement as if it were yesterday. Me, introverted and ...
What About Your Friends?
by Roxanne Fequiere
Our Valentine’s Day plans were fairly straightforward. Whoever made it home first on the evening of February 14 would order ...
Maud Martha and Me (And You, Too)
by Roxanne Fequiere
The website said that there was one copy of Maud Martha in stock, but when I arrived at McNally Jackson last Sunday, it turned ...
I Was There: Postcards from the Periphery
by Roxanne Fequiere
Growing up, I spent so much time at my friend Kim’s house that it began to feel like an extension of my own. Several times a week ...
Other Voices, Upper Room
by Roxanne Fequiere
About a month ago, my old high school announced that it would close at the end of the year. Upon receiving the news, ...
Dispatches From the Pantheon
by Roxanne Fequiere
Have you ever seen The First Monday in May? It’s a documentary chronicling the inner workings of The Metropolitan Museum ...
The Black Girl Next Door: In Search of Specificity
by Roxanne Fequiere
As a child, Wednesdays were library days. Upon arrival at the old St. George branch of the New York Public Library,
The Fresh Start Fallacy
by Roxanne Fequiere
Toward the end of Han Kang’s The Vegetarian, two sisters share a moment at a mental hospital—one, a visitor; the other, ...
She For Whom Food Is Not Enough
by Roxanne Fequiere
For as long as I can remember, my mother was a one-woman cheer squad for all the things we might now classify as black ...
A Woolf in Progressive Clothing
by Roxanne Fequiere
To grapple with the white gaze in its various forms—insidious and clunky, violent and patronizing, dismissive and invasive ...
Our Lady Helen of Perpetual Self-Help
by Roxanne Fequiere
Helen Gurley Brown was wildly, fiercely, boldly ahead of her time—until she wasn’t.
A Bookish Year: A Fresh Start
by Roxanne Fequiere
Join Roxanne on her first essay chronicling her desire to stick with a resolution this year.
In Defense of the Bodice Ripper: Confessions of a Millennial Romance Novelist
by Cara Rowe
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