Standalone book review sections are contracting expanding: Crain’s Chicago Business reports that the Chicago Tribune is looking into launching a premium literary review section.
Michael O’Donnell reviews Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens’ memoir, Five Chiefs, for the Washington Monthly.
Carmela Ciuraru reviews Denise Gigante’s biography The Keats Brothers for the Barnes & Noble Review.
Matthew Jakubowski reviews Gerald Murnane’s novel Barley Patch for the National.
Steve Weinberg reviews Percival Everett’s novel Assumption for the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.
Gina Webb reviews Tom Piazza’s collection of music journalism, Devil Sent the Rain, for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Rayyan Al-Shawaf reviews Nicholas Blanford’s Warriors of God: Inside Hezbollah’s Thirty-Year Struggle Against Israel for the Boston Globe.
Scott McLemee reviews Aloys Winterling’s Caligula: A Biography for Inside Higher Ed.
Carolyn Kellogg reviews Dagoberto Gilb’s new story collection, Before the End, After the Beginning, for the Los Angeles Times.
Lev Grossman reviews John Jeremiah Sullivan’s collection of reportage and essays, Pulphead, for Time.
Adam Kirsch discusses how Elie Wiesel and Jerzy Kosinski used children’s perspectives to write about the Holocaust in Tablet. (And Jacques Barzun reviews Kirsch’s new book, Why Trilling Matters, for the Wall Street Journal.)
Steven G. Kellman reviews Ha Jin’s novel Nanjing Requiem for the Dallas Morning News.
Eric Banks reviews two books on the relationship between Gertrude Stein and Bernard Faÿ for the Chronicle of Higher Education.
Your reviews and recommendations help seed these roundups: If you’re an NBCC member with a review you’d like considered for inclusion, please email nbcccritics@gmail.com. You can also get our attention by using the Twitter hashtag #nbcc, posting on the wall of our Facebook page, or joining our members-only LinkedIn group.