We depend on translators to bring us the world's literature. We also depend on them to make the right decisions on how to bring a novel to life, wrestling with fidelity to the original versus comprehension for the reader. This book is not only a list, but a guide to those who do this marvelous work.
Category: Memoir
The value of private letters
The new Melissa McCarthy movie about Lee Israel's crime of literary forgery hit too close to home. Here's why.
A book that left its mark
Brian Evenson’s Bookmarked personal narrative is about Raymond Carver’s short stories. I couldn’t put it down. If you love books about writers, or love to write and edit, you’ll love this, too.
The lost art of authors’ photos
Oh for authors' photos that used to be on the backs of books. They were so styled and intriguing, compelling us to wonder about the person who created the book. Here are some great ones.
Living the Russian language
Laura Esther Wolfson's collected essays tell the story of her life as a translator and interpreter. They are as creative and memorable as the book's title, "For Single Mothers Working as Train Conductors."
21 good books for the summer
On the advent of the longest day of the year and the true beginning of summer, here's a list of books to cherry pick for your summer reading. They are riveting, involving, devastating or simply delightfully satisfying. But if you're looking for new releases, they're not here.
Why “Black Boy” still matters
Published in 1945, Richard Wright's classic childhood autobiography vividly reveals what it was like growing up black and poor in the Jim Crow South long before the Civil Rights Movement. It’s an unsentimental but moving and distressing travel back in time that should not be missed.
The power of books and giving one’s time
The beauty of this memoir lies in large part with Kuo's soul-searching about the Mississippi Delta region.
My most given books
A comment during an interview with author Mark Helprin turned my thinking to the books I’ve given most as gifts. Here they are.
My two favorite memoirs this year
Benjamin Taylor and Joyce Johnson lived dramatically different young lives, but their stories similarly and movingly capture two iconic times in history: the Beat Movement and November 22, 1963.
What we see — and don’t see
Mary Gaitskill's new essay collection "Somebody With a Little Hammer" peels down to that core of truth we tend to overlook.
All the world’s abandoned places
"Imagine Wanting Only This" by Kristen Radtke is a graphic memoir new this month.
The books I gave this holiday season
Here are six books I selected and wrapped with a bow to surprise and delight my friends.
When I talk to you
Marceline Loridan-Ivens' memoir "But You Did Not Come Back" is an intimate letter to her father, who died in Auschwitz. It's brief -- only 100 pages -- and deeply moving.
French lessons with extraterrestrials
I've always wanted to be fluent in French, so when Lauren Collins released her memoir about marrying a Frenchman and learning his native language, I jumped in to read it. Here are some thoughts about Collins' "When in French: Love in a Second Language" and my ongoing struggle with French lessons.
