The Book Bat’s CaveA Critique of a Generation — A Review of Lydia Millet’s A Children’s BibleA Children’s Bible reads like a modern-day Lord of the Flies. The book follows a band of teenagers who are left to their own devices as…Oct 25, 2021Oct 25, 2021
The Book Bat’s Cave“What we see changes according to what we look for” — A Review of E.J.In this moving story of a complex mother-daughter relationship and abandonment, readers find crisp, clear writing that takes four…Oct 14, 2021Oct 14, 2021
The Book Bat’s Cave“She was an ocean,” but a very small one: A Review of Giselle Beaumont’s On the Edge of DaylightIn the pantheon of seafaring literature, one maritime disaster never ceases to disinterest readers — that of the RMS Titanic. That being…Oct 9, 2021Oct 9, 2021
The Book Bat’s CaveAn Unhappy Girl in the Former Soviet Union: A Review of Katya Cengel’s From Chernobyl with LoveI have a confession: over one year ago, I began reading Katya Cengel’s From Chernobyl with Love, and I put it away two times before picking…Sep 21, 2021Sep 21, 2021
The Book Bat’s CaveWitches’ Dance: Variations on Feminism, Classical Music, and Toxic MasculinityErin Eileen Almond. Philadelphia: Lanternfish Press, 2019. 434 pages. $18 USDNov 12, 2020Nov 12, 2020
The Book Bat’s Cave“The forest sweats its leaves:” Reading Yelena Moskovich’s Virtuoso and Other Reflections about…It is a wonder that I am here, in Iceland, in this country of volcanic rock and lunar-like landscapes. How did I gain enough merit to land…Jul 21, 2020Jul 21, 2020
The Book Bat’s CaveArms Reaching to the Bare: Social Consciousness in Ariel Francisco’s All My Heroes Are BrokeNew York. Miami. Trains. Bars. James Wright. Po Chu-I. Poverty. While all of this may seem like a random list of places, objects, states…Jul 18, 2020Jul 18, 2020
The Book Bat’s CavePeaceful and Private: Notes from an Abandoned IcelandThe plane landed in Reykjavik 15 minutes ahead of schedule at 5:45 AM on Friday, 10 July 2020. The Icelandair flight attendants began…Jul 12, 2020Jul 12, 2020
The Book Bat’s CaveNirvana, Nostalgia, and Glorious Celebration of the Self: A Brief Reflection about Aimee Herman’s…Like The Perks of Being a Wallflower, the epistolary-styled Everything Grows centers on that deadly trap known as adolescence, a brief…Jul 2, 2020Jul 2, 2020
The Book Bat’s CavePandemic Reads: Books for Quarantine Season, Part 2In a bar in Morgantown, WV, I took the picture above a couple of years ago at a July WVU Writers Workshop gathering. Back then, we could…Jun 25, 2020Jun 25, 2020