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The Courage to pick up a pen, THE SEOUL LETTER SHOP (Harper Perennial) by Baek Seungyeon, is the story of hand-written letters and a young woman's renewal

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  "On its front, inside a white oval with rounded edges like a pebble's was written 'Geulwoll'. Hyoyoung plucked out her air pods  and opened the door, A whole world awaited her.  Hyoyoung spent a moment enjoying the silence before her gaze to the lefthand window. Sky clear bright. The hills and mountains traced a line through the middle of the glass pane, beneath which lay a cluster of mismatched houses. Gray-orange-and crimson tiled roofs all overlapped. The scene would almost look like an oil painting." "Something else about Geulwolf had made as much an impression on her as the view: its interior walls were painted the shade of ripe apricots. the pale orange coating the knobby cement walls made her feel as though she was inside the little cardboard box in which she kept her toys, rings, hairbands as a child. Being here she felt a comfort and ease, much like she did when gazing upon the precious items all gathered together in one container, and she felt a r...
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Poets' FLIPBOOK--2 books in one! (Tete-Beche) Head to back perception, divinity, sensations, brevity in Larry Beckett's MADRIGALS, and Marc Zegan's THE BOOK OF IMMACULATE PERCEPTION

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                                                  P erception, divinity, sensations brevity!        Bamboo Dart Press has reinvented the flip book (a Tete-Beche) two books in one. Beckett's MADRIGALS as cover, gives you Zegans' THE BOOK OF IMMACULATE PERCEPTION or reverse.             Innovation fits the speculative subject--the cognizance of life before language. Wondrous and inarticulate, what might that entry to the world feel like? It's a transcendental question (from where to where? How might first consciousness feel?) Parents staring at cribs, may wonder what, if anything, is perceived and felt by their inarticulate infant?  Poets can speculate, find a narrative of consciousness. Imagine the dawn. What might the evolving consciousness perceive?         In these evocative books, ...
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I'M SO SORRY YOU FEEL THAT WAY by Rebecca Wait (Harper Perennial, September 1, 2026), a mystery of one family's eccentric unhappiness

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"All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." Tolstoy's Anna Karenina   may be set in Russia in the 19th century novel, but it's certainly echoed in the eccentric unhappiness of Rebecca Waiit's modern British family in I'M SO SORRY YOU FEEL THAT WAY (Harper Perennial). The three adult children; Alice, Hanna, Michael, and their mum, Celia, have insights into each other's predictable, self-defeating crazy behavior. They roll eyes, wring hands,and hope others will get wise to how they are making themselves miserable. Self-knowledge is often submerged in a self-deprecating humor, that they will somehow "muddle through." "Family is worth it, it's all you may have?" is the mantra of Alice, the "good daughter," who ruefully accepts the "lack of progress" in her life.  As  I'M SO SORRY YOU FEEL THAT WAY opens,   Alice, in her self-assigned role of family "greeter," at the f...
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THE BOX by Patrick Hamilton at Theater for the New City. THE TEMPTATION OF CONTAINMENT?

 THE BOX BY PATRICK HAMILTON. TOP HONORS--BEST PLAY, BEST DIRECTOR AT NEW YORK CITY THEATER FESTIVAL-  THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY'S DREAM UP FESTIVAL PRODUCTION - Produced by Terry Nguyn and Patrick Hamilton, Executive Produced by Chelsea J. Smith and Darrell Shipley What is gripping about this play? There's the fast direct open-ended plot with unexpected turns in the story. There's dynamic, yet subtle well-nuanced performances. The minimal set has maximum impact. Each piece's purpose is highlighted by the lighting and acting. I also like the TNC relaxed, funky atmosphere. This place has a heritage of putting on plays that matter.  The subject of this play could not be timelier. In the production at TNC, I saw how the history and mindsets of these characters seem to mirror the bitter divisions in the U.S., where opposing visions are  vying for power.  It also amplifies the emotional gulf between men and women, trying to make their own more perfect unions. ...
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THE VEILED PROPHET: Secret Societies, White Supremacy, and the Struggles for St.Louis by Devin Thomas O'Shea, Haymarket Books 6/26

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 THE VEILED PROPHET:    Secret Societies, White Supremacy, and the Struggles for St. Louis by DEVIN THOMAS O'SHEA. ( Haymarket Books, 6/26)                                              What was the Veiled Prophet Society? And why might we care about a secret society (now defunct) founded a century and a half ago in St. Louis? Devin Thomas O'Shea's excellent and little-known history, THE VEILED PROPHET : Secret Societies, white supremacy, and the struggle for St. Louis  clarifies how this "prestige brokerage" strongly affected U.S. History and modern political structures.  In 1865, at the end of the Civil War, when Gen Lee surrendered at Appomattox, disillusioned Confederate soldiers, including future Veiled Profit founder, Alonzo Slayback, went looting in Mexico. Their loss of the Southern way of life included property both human...
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SOMETIME THIS CENTURY by Samantha Silva, a Regency romantic comedy, poses a uniquely postmodern dilemma

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                                                                         SOMETIME THIS CENTURY (Harper Collins 6/9) by Samantha Silva is a delightful Regency comedy, as well as a modern puzzle. I may not be a typical reader of the Regency genre, having stumbled upon Bridgerton on Netflix and then read all volumes of Julia Quint's witty original. With a 21st century eye, I fixed on the very circumscribed lives of women, privileged or not, when the only acceptable career was "marrying well." Even being a novelist (Austen was known, if not as famous in her lifetime) was a family secret. Silva's novel has a lot of fun with Regency style, tradition and moneyed romance. There's also a sly comparison with our modern social behavior,...
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THE HONESTY CRISIS: Preserving Our Most Treasured Virtue in an Increasingly Dishonest World by Christian B. Miller

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Is honesty still a Virtue in 2026? Well yes, though it's under siege, writes Christian B. Miller in THE HONESTY CRISIS : Preserving our most treasured virtue in an increasingly dishonest worl d  (Oxford University Press. This book is a rare investigation of a value essential for humanity, despite our runaway "for profit everything" culture. Miller's position about honesty is also rare.  Though a Professor of Philosophy at Wake Forest, who previously published Moral Psychology (2021, Oxford), his literary voice reminded me of Emerson's in  Nature and  Self Reliance.  Investigating what exists in human character and our world, Miller is no smug academic championing obsolete values. Honesty is still the virtue people most value in public and private character. The human spirit suffers from casually accepted deceit. Students' growing inability to resist having AI write their papers is a serious concern to Miller. What's the harm in using such "tools?...
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