Arts
The Arts
Julia Alvarez: Literature Tells Us ‘We Can Make It Through’
Julia Alvarez returns to adult fiction with Afterlife, which she calls her first novel as an “elder.” It’s about a newly retired woman whose comfortable life is upended when her husband dies.
A Broadway Star And #SunshineSongs Bring Canceled High School Musical Theater To Small Screens
High school musicals are canceled around the country over coronavirus concerns. Broadway star Laura Benanti asked disappointed high school singers for the next best thing: performance videos.
Feisty. Ambitious. Lucky. Female Writers On The Words That Undermine Women
Pretty Bitches, a new essay collection edited by Lizzie Skurnick, explores how words that sound complimentary can actually be loaded with sexism. “These words are code,” Skurnick says.
Staying Inside A Lot? Some Food Thoughts
If you’re hunkered down, doing your part to flatten the curve…maybe food is on your mind. You may be feeding your family – or cooking to deal with cabin fever. Here are some suggestions from NWPB staff.
‘Ordinary People’ Books Can Help In This Extraordinary Time
Our kids’ books columnist Juanita Giles reports that, stuck at home with her family, she’s turned to a series by Brad Meltzer and Christopher Eliopoulos, for stories about relatable heroes.
Dolly Parton Will Read Bedtime Stories To Kids Online Every Week
“Dolly hopes this series of stories will provide comfort and reassurance to coping kids and families during the shelter-in-place mandates,” the Imagination Library said.
In ‘Unorthodox’ On Netflix, A Religious Woman Leaves Her Marriage And Her Past Behind
The new Netflix series was inspired by Deborah Feldman’s best-selling memoir about ending her arranged marriage. In the TV adaptation, the young woman leaves her home in Brooklyn and moves to Berlin.
BOOK REVIEW: ‘Tigers, Not Daughters’ Is Haunting — With Or Without A Ghost
In Samantha Mabry’s new novel, three prickly sisters are haunted, maybe literally, by their fourth, who’s died in an accident. She has a message for them, but they may be too sunk in grief to hear it.
Need Some Fresh Ideas? Family-Friendly Ways To Spend Your Days Inside
Parents have been circulating ideas for how to keep kids happy — or at least occupied — during this time of social isolation due to COVID-19. Our Arts Desk has some heart-felt suggestions to offer.
What Is Fact Hygiene And Why You Should Listen To Max Brooks
Max Brooks wrote the zombie apocalyptic horror novel World War Z, and is a lecturer at West Point’s Modern War Institute. He offers insight into pandemics and advice on what is fact hygiene.
In ‘Wine Girl,’ Taking On The Old Boys Of The Wine World
Victoria James loves wine; she became a sommelier at 21 — but she discovered that the world of wine was an old boys’ club that didn’t welcome women. Her new memoir chronicles her fight to fit in.
In ‘The Glass Hotel,’ Emily St. John Mandel Asks: How Many Chances Do We Get?
In her first novel since the hit pandemic tale Station Eleven, Mandel introduces a troubled brother and sister who get involved with a crooked hotel magnate, changing their lives in unexpected ways.
