The Ground Beneath Their Feet
Greg Waldmann on the complicated chaos of the Arab Spring
Summer Reading 2016 - Literary Journeys
We recommend books that take us through time, the world, or just out of ourselves
Twilight Cowboys
Zach Rabiroff on the disappearance of Western fiction
Fresh Fellow Travelers
Justin Hickey on coyotes in America
At Play with Clay
Steve Donoghue on a giant collection of Frankenstein lit
Summer Reading 2016 – Literary Journeys
This year in our annual Summer Reading feature, our writers recommend favorite books that take us on journeys – through time, around the world, or just out of ourselves.
Summer Reading 2016 Continues
Part II of our Summer Reading feature brings more books about exploration and travel.
Twilight Cowboys
Once upon a time, Westerns were a staple of American fiction. Now they’ve all but disappeared. Zach Rabiroff asks why cowboys rode off into the sunset.
Fresh Fellow Travelers
Coyotes have successfully infiltrated almost every niche of the American landscape and folklore. Justin Hickey tours Coyote America by Dan Flores.
At Play with Clay
Ever since Mary Shelley wrote her weird masterpiece two centuries ago, it’s been impossible to keep a good monster down. In the Shadow of Frankenstein gives readers two dozen pastiches that keep the Creature alive.
So Much Bastard Beauty
A lovely rural landscape is seen throught urban-trained eyes in Ada Limon’s poetry collection Bright Dead Things. David Nilson reviews.
The Ground Beneath Their Feet
The promise and the limits of the Arab Spring receive some well-written – and necessarily sobering – reporting in Robert Worth’s A Rage for Order. Greg Waldmann reviews.
Out of Some Bygone Era
Master stylist Donald Ray Pollock returns in a violent, beautifullly-written novel about three brothers on a murderous rampage. Aaron Botwick reviews The Heavenly Table
It’s a Mystery: “Dead is always a good alibi”
A mystery debut featuring a “human bloodhound” and a veteran author’s latest featuring a dogged Frenchman split the billing in Irma Heldman’s latest column.
From the Archives: Noble Rot
Horror fiction may not at first compare with more respectable genres, but look a bit closer. Horror is one of the oldest emotions known to man, and the artists who’ve evoked it have been some of our most brilliant and most strange …
From the Archives: Summer Reading 2012
As the haze and heat of summer kick into full swing, the folk of Open Letters break out their annual Summer Reading recommendations!
From the Archives: Summer Reading 2015 – Cool Reads
This year the staff and contributors of Open Letters Monthly recommend their summer reads with an unusual theme: the cold.
Book Review: Hitler’s Compromises
A brilliant new book explores the alternatives to brute force the Nazi regime often employed to get its way
Norman Lebrecht’s Album of the Week – Songs without Words
They may grate in other instances, but period instruments are well suited to Mendelssohn’s Songs without Words, as this new recording demonstrates.
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