Maureen Corrigan appears in the following:
Luis Alberto Urrea pays tribute to WWII's forgotten volunteers — including his mother
Monday, May 22, 2023
The author's mother was a Red Cross volunteer assigned to Patton's 3rd Army — she was with the troops who helped liberate Buchenwald. Urrea's new woman-centered wartime novel is Good Night, Irene.
When art you love was made by 'Monsters': A critic lays out the 'Fan's Dilemma'
Wednesday, May 10, 2023
Do geniuses get a "hall pass" for their behavior? Or, do we "cancel" the art of artists who've done "monstrous" things? That's the question Claire Dederer tackles in her new book.
In 1984, Margaret Thatcher was nearly assassinated — a new book asks, what if?
Monday, April 17, 2023
The IRA planted the bomb at the Grand Hotel, in the seaside resort of Brighton, targeting the British prime minister. There Will Be Fire, by journalist Rory Carroll, reads like a political thriller.
A daughter confronts the failures of our health care system in 'A Living Remedy'
Monday, April 10, 2023
Nicole Chung reflects on the deaths of her parents in a powerful new memoir, and how that loss was complicated by class, geographical distance and the pandemic.
Everything she knew about her wife was false — a faux biography finds the 'truth'
Tuesday, March 28, 2023
In Catherine Lacey's new genre-bending novel, Biography of X, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist realizes her spouse — a fierce and narcissistic artist — was not who she believed.
2 novels to cure your winter blahs: Ephron's 'Heartburn' and 'Pineapple Street'
Thursday, March 16, 2023
When it came out in 1983, Nora Ephron's comic novel became an instant bestseller. Now newly released, Heartburn pairs well with Jenny Jackson's smart comedy of manners, Pineapple Street.
Rebecca Makkai's smart, prep school murder novel is self-aware about the 'ick' factor
Wednesday, March 01, 2023
The thickly-plotted mystery, I Have Some Questions for You, is the latest from the author of The Great Believers. It has been compared to Donna Tartt's 1992 blockbuster, The Secret History.
Want to be a writer? This bleak but buoyant guide says to get used to rejection
Tuesday, February 14, 2023
On Writing and Failure isn't your standard meditation on the art and nobility of writing as a profession; instead, author Stephen Marche argues writers should be prepared to fail — again and again.
A showbiz striver gets one more moment in the spotlight in 'Up With the Sun'
Tuesday, February 07, 2023
Author Thomas Mallon's sweeping new historical novel captures a slice of gay life in mid-to-late 20th century America as it reimagines the life — and violent death — of B-list actor Dick Kallman.
Classic LA noir meets the #MeToo era in the suspense novel 'Everybody Knows'
Thursday, January 26, 2023
Jordan Harper's hardboiled plot centers on a "black-bag publicist" who works for a prestige crisis management firm, putting out fires and quieting scandals for Hollywood's elite.
Racism tears a Maine fishing community apart in 'This Other Eden'
Friday, January 20, 2023
In 1912, the 47 residents of Malaga Island were forcibly removed from their small, interracial community. Pulitzer Prize winner Paul Harding fictionalizes the story in a stunning new historical novel.
'Sam,' the latest novel from Allegra Goodman, is small, but not simple
Friday, January 13, 2023
The novel follows a white working-class girl from age 7 through her late teens, navigating a world tightly circumscribed by class and culture.
Looking for a twist on the whodunit? Two mysteries veer into uncharted territory
Monday, December 12, 2022
A Dangerous Business, by Jane Smiley, is mash-up of a Western, a serial killer mystery and a feminist erotic romp. Remarkably Bright Creatures, by Shelby Van Pelt, is a noir story about an octopus.
Maureen Corrigan's favorite books of the year: 10 disparate reads for a hectic 2022
Wednesday, November 30, 2022
Some years, this annual book list falls into a pattern: like stand-out memoirs or dystopian fiction. But 2022 could not be contained, and these titles sprawl all over the place in subject and form.
Small in scope, Claire Keegan's 'Foster' packs an emotional wallop
Tuesday, November 22, 2022
Keegan is a writer who revels in the suspense of the unspoken, the held breath. Her new novella centers on a nameless young girl whose parents leave her in the care of relatives for the summer.
Author reminds Americans that Samuel Adams was a revolutionary before he was a beer
Tuesday, November 01, 2022
Adams' historical importance is often overlooked because he didn't keep copies of his own letters. Stacy Schiff's superb new biography explores his crucial role in inciting the American Revolution.
A canine psychologist with a new puppy explores 'how dogs become themselves'
Monday, October 24, 2022
Alexandra Horowitz is an authority on how dogs perceive the world, but her new book is not a training manual. In The Year of the Puppy, she says there's plenty she doesn't know about canine cognition.
Celeste Ng's powerful new dystopian novel reflects our headlines back to us
Tuesday, October 04, 2022
Our Missing Hearts imagines a world of governmental cruelty — and the armies of citizens who both facilitate and resist. It's a masterful work that epitomizes the possibilities of storytelling.
'Less' offers more in Andrew Sean Greer's follow-up to his Pulitzer-winning novel
Monday, September 26, 2022
Greer's new comic novel, Less is Lost, is as funny and poignant as its predecessor. But comedy also arises out of pain and Greer smoothly transitions into the profound.
Ling Ma's stories start out familiar but get very, very weird
Wednesday, September 14, 2022
Nothing is just one thing in Bliss Montage: Satire swirls into savagery; a gimmicky premise into poignancy. Ma writes with such authority that readers are simply swept along.