Check Out Our Stars! (08/14/17)

All of the today’s featured titles have received at least 2 starred reviews!

To Die In Spring by Ralf Rothmann

3 starred reviews!

“Brilliant…Spare and elegant, the novel paints a quietly harrowing picture of the lasting effects of human violence and offers brief, poignant glimpses into the natural world (especially when members of the animal kingdom wander unknowingly into the war zone). Directly confronting issues of responsibility, accountability, and legacy, this is an undeniably powerful work.”–Publishers Weekly, starred review

“Searing, haunting, incandescent: Rothmann’s new novel is a vital addition to the trove of wartime fiction.” — Kirkus Reviews, starred review

“A quietly unsettling triumph for Rothmann.”– Booklist, starred review

Magicians Impossible by Brad Abraham

“From its action-packed opening sequence, this is a cinematic, fast-paced debut from a writer more known in comics, television, and film.”–Library Journal, starred review

“Jason fighting the forces of evil and learning about his powers is an amusing and captivating adventure.”–Booklist, starred review

A Disappearance in Damascus: Friendship and Survival in the Shadow of War by Deborah Campbell

“Campbell’s story includes not only her stark and frightening experiences in Damascus, but also her fracturing love life back home as well as background on the Iraq War and ensuing civil war and the frangible stability in Syria…. Campbell’s text races along—catching readers’ hearts as it goes…. A powerful book. In the stormwater’s swirl, Campbell has found a bright and tender leaf to follow, and the effect on readers will be transformative.”–Kirkus Reviews, starred review

“Campbell’s captivating writing allows readers to see inside the life of a foreign correspondent and the bonds forged and broken through investigative reporting.”–Booklist, starred review

Half-Light: Collected Poems 1965-2016 by Frank Bidart

“Throughout his long and celebrated career, Bidart has conducted a single-minded exploration of the sources and meanings of emotional intensity, the passions, fears, and cravings that drive people to do what we do, often against our own interests . . . Relentless and ever willing to face his demons, no matter how terrifying, in the interest of making great art, Bidart is, to my ear, one of the very few major living poets who never wavers, never repeats himself (though he has always orbited the same concerns), and extends his questing and questioning through each new work. This collected poems is an almost overwhelming bounty, a permanent book.”–Publishers Weekly, boxed, starred “signature review”

“Bidart’s poems strive, more than anything else, to present particular voices speaking . . . more than to express meaning. But meaning there is, of course, concerning love, death, conflict, ambition, and disappointment, found between lacunae and jump cuts like in a Godard movie or an Eliot poem.”–Booklist, starred review