Kelsey moved to Portland to attend the University of Portland and stayed for the coffee (oh, and because she has a year to go until that diploma business). She talks very fast and consumes above-average amounts of chia seeds and kale.
Visit These 10 Bookstores ASAP
Instead of lamenting your loses as the chain bookstores are shutting down, divert your path to the independent bookstores across the country that are able to fill all your literary needs. These 10 bookstores have made the list by becoming an…
By Kelsey Thomas
100 Times the 'Apocalypse' With Lucy Corin
It's the end of the world as we know it... the chorus of R.E.M's jam remained firmly — and annoyingly – stuck in my head long after I finished Lucy Corin's latest short story collection, One Hundred Apocalypses and Other Apocalypses…
By Kelsey Thomas
Help! The Craft Project is Killing Books
The fate of books is in our hands. Only this time, the enemy is not Amazon... it's Pinterest. Obviously I have a great love of books in all facets of my life. Yet, save occasionally using my to-read stack as a bedside table, or employing an old…
By Kelsey Thomas
6 Novels With An Insider's Look at the Art World
The art world maintains a mysterious allure. Something about temperamental artists, expensive art trades, and the passion induced by a beautiful painting make for an intoxicating read. From a small Dutch town in the 17th century to the Manhattan…
By Kelsey Thomas
Surprises in 'It's Not Love, It's Just Paris'
It takes a particularly gifted writer to take a frequently used premise and craft something new. Picking up It's Not Love, It's Paris and glancing at the jacket, I projected clichés about a young girl going to Paris to find herself, and falling in…
By Kelsey Thomas
Najla Said On Identity in ‘Looking for Palestine'
If anyone were ever justified an identity crisis, Najla Said would be the candidate.
"I am a Palestinian-Lebanese-American Christian woman, but I grew up as a Jew in New York City," Said explains in the opening sentence of her memoir, Looking For…
By Kelsey Thomas
8 Delectible Books for Foodies
For everyone who likes to read, eat, and read about eating, here, eight books for foodies. From memoirs about pasta to novels centered on a five-course Amsterdam dinner, these books are truly ones to savor. But before you begin, you'll probably need…
By Kelsey Thomas
8 Tumblrs All Book-Lovers Should Follow
Opening up the laptop shouldn't have to mean setting aside the books. Next time you're in the market for some literary tumblr procrastination, click over to these blogs. They're must-follows:
1. Awesome People Reading : The title is pretty self…
By Kelsey Thomas
Q&A: Ursula DeYoung Talks Scandal in 'Shorecliff'
In her debut novel, Shorecliff (Little, Brown), Ursula DeYoung delves into the complicated and shifting dynamics of a New England family, the Hatfields, when they are reunited at a secluded family home for a memorable summer. Much like the decade it…
By Kelsey Thomas
What We're Reading: July 2013
"I’ve been captured by Ben Stroud’s extraordinary story collection Byzantium. It is, at times, mind-numbing what Stroud can do with the form: the power he can extract from it, the way he can transport with it, and how he can establish worlds both…
By Kelsey Thomas
Q&A: Valerie Trueblood on Short Stories As Art
I never know exactly what to expect when going into an interview (which I suppose is half the fun), but I certainly don't expect the author to thank me profusely for reading her work, seek my opinions on anything from the state of publishing to that…
By Kelsey Thomas
Q&A: Katherine Hill on 'The Violet Hour'
In The Violet Hour (Scribner), Katherine Hill spans coasts and time periods to paint a portrait of a family coming together and falling apart. Skipping the 'happily every after,' Hill begins with the uncovering of an affair, the dissolving of a…
By Kelsey Thomas
I Became a Book Abandoner and I Am Never Going Back
What is it that makes us abandon a literary world: Is it poor characterization, a slow plot, or our own sheer boredom? Recently GoodReads put together a fantastic, viral infographic on "What Makes You Put a Book Down". Until recently, my answer to…
By Kelsey Thomas
Judgy Parents in Shah's The Mouse-Proof Kitchen'
A charming old farmhouse in the French countryside with a loving musician husband, chef wife, and new daughter seems like the start of a whimsical romp, does it not? If only. Anna and her husband Tobias find everything in their life slightly off…
By Kelsey Thomas
Why Confine Books to Shelves? They're Street Art!
File under genius: Penguin recently gave ten of their modern classics to street artists for a cover makeover, (seem 'em over on Design Taxi), and the results are awesome. They chose books that, like street art, speak to the time.
This put us on the…
By Kelsey Thomas
7 Southern Reads for a Hot Summer
Although this list doesn't include all the greats (nor is it pure Faulkner, though we considered it...), we've rounded up some fantastic classic and contemporary Southern literature to help you survive this heat wave, no matter your taste. Grab…
By Kelsey Thomas
Joan Didion Among National Humanities Award Winners
The White House is about to be filled with literary and artistic masterminds, and we weren't invited. Whomp whomp. On Tuesday, President Obama will present the National Arts and Humanities Awards.
Medal recipients include the Pulitzer Prize-winning…
By Kelsey Thomas
'Fin & Lady'... and a Few Margaritas
There have been many authors with whom one would want to sit down for a drink, capital D; you know, to have the profound, brooding literature talk, the what-does-it-all-mean exchange over a glass of scotch. Cathleen Schine, author of Fin & Lady, is…
By Kelsey Thomas
A Dating Site for Readers—But You're Dating Characters
So if you've ever said to yourself I really wish I could read a novel about a heterosexual Romanian female with brown eyes between the ages of 30-35 set in 1850-1900 then you're in luck! A new site called Character's World allows readers to search…
By Kelsey Thomas
Hunter's 'Don't Kiss Me', and a Flash Fiction Love Note
When I was first exposed to “flash fiction” (read: short stories outside of the New Yorker), it was, like many, through fantastic literary sites (heads up 3:AM Magazine, Red Lightbulbs, and Necessary Fiction, among others). An entire story before I…
By Kelsey Thomas
