Book reviewing became a cornerstone of my freelance work when I began writing for BookPage in 2008. In addition to frequent review work, I also interview authors and produce feature packages about books and other aspects of storytelling.
Read more of my book reviews and author interviews here.
Rob Sheffield interview: In Taylor Swift we trust
BookPage, December 2024
When Rolling Stone music critic Rob Sheffield called me from New York City, I didn’t spend any time with softball questions or developing rapport. I jumped right in with my hardest-hitting question about his new book, Heartbreak Is the National Anthem: How Taylor Swift Reinvented Pop Music: Did he write an essay about the 1989 bonus track “New Romantics” to drive listeners to play the song—and sing-scream his book title, a “New Romantics” lyric—on repeat? …
“I think it was more that I was shouting out the title of the book while I was writing. That song is absolutely nuts, so perfect in terms of a statement of her worldview, a statement of her entire philosophy of life,” he says.
“Joy Evangelist”
Portico Mountain Brook, Winter 2019
She’s best known as Mrs. C.S. Lewis, but novelist Patti Callahan Henry says that’s the least interesting thing about Joy Davidman. Callahan introduces the world to Joy in her new novel, “Becoming Mrs. Lewis.”
Review: “All You Can Ever Know” by Nicole Chung
BookPage, October 2018
“As she wrestles with her identity as an adopted child and as the sole person of color in most of her childhood circles, Chung confronts universal questions: Who am I? How does that shape how I interact with the world? Chung’s origin story is messier than she’d hoped, but All You Can Ever Know is a tale told with empathy and grace.”
Q&A with Chung, BookPage, October 2018
BookPage, October 2018
In her memoir, All You Can Ever Know, Nicole Chung, who was adopted as a baby by a couple in Oregon, explores how the truths that were revealed upon finding her birth parents changed her life. Here Chung discusses growing up Asian-American in a white family, her writing and editing career and more.
“Reflections on ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’: The book that changed everything”
Birmingham magazine, July 2015
“It’s easy to save yourself from teasing by mocking someone lower on the totem pole. I can’t say I’m innocent in that regard. But TKAM pulls those issues into focus through the relationships of lower-class townspeople with their wealthier counterparts, the divide between black and white, and the isolation and misunderstanding of Boo Radley.”
“Is storytelling inherently Southern? Experts weigh in”
AL.com, July 5, 2015
“The mere mention of ‘the South’ often conjures images of sweet tea, front porch swings
“But is storytelling inherently Southern?”