Episode 38: Anna V. Q. Ross (Of Self-Portraits, Foxes, and Leaving For Good)
Date: January 2, 2024
Listen: On Apple, Spotify, Google and elsewhere Click here to listen.
News & Reviews
News:
Best New Poetry Books
Date: January 2, 2024
Handpicked by our expert librarians and staff, the poetry books in this list, all published in 2022, include debut collections and new classics from established poets. Click here to read […]
‘Secret Harvests’ probes an unspeakable Japanese American family history
Date: January 2, 2024
David “Mas” Matsumoto, author of Epitaph for a Peach, Harvest Son, Changing Season, has yet another true story to share, this time a family secret so unspeakable that it remained buried for over […]
Valley author shares family secret in book about internment impact
Date: January 2, 2024
A farmer and author in the small Fresno County community of Del Rey is sharing a personal story with a universal message. Mas Masumoto published a book in the spring […]
Friday 5 at 5
Date: January 2, 2024
Join a Denver Public Library reader’s advisor extraordinaire for a flash book buzz featuring hot new and forthcoming titles that you just have to know about! Give us 15 minutes, […]
Local author sharing family history through poetry
Date: January 2, 2024
A local author and Creative Writing professor at Fresno State is sharing her family history through poetry and written word. Click here to read more.
The 37 Best Books About Los Angeles Culture (and Beyond) Published In 2023
Date: January 2, 2024
Books change lives when they are read wholeheartedly and must be shared. This collection covers everything from L.A. noir to sci-fi to identity and poetry. Read, gift, and get inspired. […]
2023 Small Press Gift Guide
Date: December 12, 2023
BOMB looks back at the books from small and independent presses we featured in 2023 and helps you pair them with the idiosyncratic readers in your life. We’re grateful to […]
Francesca Bell Fearlessly Tackles the Unsettling in “What Small Sound” [INTERVIEW]
Date: December 12, 2023
Francesca Bell was raised in Washington and Idaho and settled as an adult in California. She did not complete middle school, high school, or college and holds no degrees. She […]
The Best Books We Read in 2023
Date: December 12, 2023
My picks are different than yours. Different than Jaylynn’s, than Tucker’s, than Joelene’s, than Andrea’s, than the New York Times. I love that about books. We couldn’t possibly read them all, […]
Reviews:
Andrew Lam’s STORIES FROM THE EDGE OF THE SEA reviewed in The Common
Date: December 17, 2025
…In his latest collection Stories from the Edge of the Sea, Andrew Lam delivers work far beyond that narrow definition of the form. The settings are complex. Even a five-page […]
Adela Najarro’s VARIATIONS IN BLUE reviewed in Escape Into Life
Date: December 17, 2025
…Dr. Adela Najarro’s fifth book of poetry, Variations in Blue, is bright blue, black and blue, with dark reaching light. This bicultural-bilingual author “stands on the edge of volcanoes” to […]
Louise Wannier’s TREE SPIRITS AROUND THE WORLD reviewed in She Scribes
Date: November 4, 2025
This book encourages children to use their imagination. Throughout the book there are photos that encourage readers to really examine and appreciate. Just like cloud watching, you’ll eventually see something […]
TREE SPIRITS AROUND THE WORLD by Louise Wannier reviewed in Crafty Moms Share
Date: October 14, 2025
This book is so interesting. After meeting Tilly, Tilly travels around the world and shares trees from around the world. With each tree there is Tilly in a boat with […]
Booklist reviews TIMBER & LUA by Vi Khi Nào and Lily Hoàng
Date: October 8, 2025
Award-winning interdisciplinary writers Hoàng and Nào provocatively interrogate language,comprehension, and communication in a global world. Their collaborative result is a polyglotshowcase that combines English, Vietnamese, and a hybrid Vietlish to […]
BIND ME TIGHTER STILL by Lara Ehrlich reviewed in PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Date: October 7, 2025
With nods to “The Little Mermaid,” Ehrlich’s lovely sophomore outing (after Animal Wife) again probes themes of womanhood and monstrosity. Ceto, a siren and hunter of men, yearns to break the […]
Midwest Book Review places Jade Shyback’s AQUEOUS on their September 2025 Bookshelf
Date: September 30, 2025
This is the debut novel written by author Jade Shyback. I believe this is the first book in the new young adult series. While the focus may be young adult, […]
A Review of Alison Hawthorne Deming: To Make the Broken Whole
Date: September 18, 2025
I finished Alison Hawthorne Deming’s latest poetry collection, Blue Flax and Yellow Mustard Flower, and sat quietly absorbing it, stunned by its power. Deming is a writer whose work in […]
TIMBER & LUA by Vi Khi Nào and Lily Hoàng reviewed in Publishers Weekly
Date: September 16, 2025
Nào (The Six Tons of Water) and Hoàng (Underneath) join forces for a lyrical bilingual story collection. Each tale is presented three times, first in a combination of English and […]
“Nimbly probes the corporeal, familial, and flighted,” West Trade Review on M. Soledad Caballero’s FLIGHT PLAN
Date: September 9, 2025
M. Soledad Caballero’s Flight Plan spans geographies both physical and psychological—from cells to continents, from quotidian to unusual, from grounded to soaring. Intertwining seemingly dissimilar topical threads that include cancer, a […]