From Tori
In Katie Farris's hybrid micro-fiction, Boysgirls takes you into a fantastical world through her lyrical language and interconnected tales. The mastery of her micro fiction is in a class of itself, teaching the reader about themselves as well as the genre of micro fiction.
From Jill
Over the winter break, I reread Mary Oliver's selected essays, Upstream. The thing that I love most about Mary Oliver's work generally is her attention to the "minute particulars." For example, in "Sister Turtle," we find one turtle who "travels in a coast of class and dust." So many really beautiful details to linger over here. The other aspect of this collection that totally engages me is coming to know Mary Oliver as a reader: Shelley, Emerson, Whitman, Wordsworth--and so many others who stir her thinking.
From Saifey
For Christmas, I received a biography of Alexander the Great by Phillip Freeman. It begins with an acknowledgement that there’s not much one can say about Alexander that hasn’t already been said, but even so, well-renounced stories are interesting—pretend you’ve never heard of the Gordian knot before, and it’s the funniest thing in the world—and the new stuff is even better. Freeman extrapolates details, and the scenes he paints feel convincing. For example, he writes the inner dialogue in a particular character's head, or elaborates on a fight that may have seemed too small to officially document. I think this blending of fact and fiction is only appropriate for a figure as mythic as Alexander.
One of our favorite independent bookstore in Wilmington, NC is Pomegranate Books. Follow them on Facebook.