This week, we review several outstanding memoirs: Seán Hewitt's All Down Darkness Wide, "as lyrically written as any book of poetry," and novelist CJ Hauser's "perceptive and witty" first work of nonfiction, The Crane Wife--as well as Chester Keene Cracks the Code, four-time Coretta Scott King Honor author Kekla Magoon's "heartfelt novel featuring two preteens trying to solve a mystery"; plus many more.
Erika L. Sánchez in The Writer's Life discusses her memoir, Crying in the Bathroom, and why it's "suffused with deeply felt gratitude, even when discuss[ing] devastating periods" in her life, as well as the importance of travel and hospitality.
--Jennifer M. Brown, senior editor, Shelf Awareness