Books

A review of Barbara Kingsolver's Demon Copperhead, a modern reimagining of David Copperfield set in rural Appalachia.

Reading Mike Duncan's history of the late Roman Republic and jotting down the parallels, missteps, and cautionary tales.

The story behind The Day Life Breaks, an unfinished editing project with an interesting crowdsourcing experiment and mysterious correlation.

Transforming a wobbly oak table into shelves, tinkering with wooden rings, and embracing imperfect experiments.

Books told in the second person are rare. A review of Jay McInerney's Bright Lights, Big City and the power of second person narrative.

Lasting books, a comparison of the Gutenberg Library to the NY Times Best Seller List.

Five mystery novels whose finales truly surprise, plus a nod to the hard-working authors behind them.

Why writing a novel is far harder than it looks, and why it’s worth finishing anyway.

Taking stock of Justin Cronin's The Twelve—its grim turns, tangled structure, and how it measures up to The Passage.