Laura Miller Book Recommendations & Book Mentions

Laura Miller

Just got done revising the intro I wrote for the Penguin Classics edition of The Haunting of Hill House because when I first wrote it in 2006, Shirley Jackson wasn't much read beyond this novel & The Lottery. That has changed a LOT

Laura Miller

Alam’s observation of the attitudes and trappings of contemporary upper-middle-class American life has a delicious precision.

Laura Miller

[A] ferocious crime novel... Full of booby traps, but the metaphorical kind that blow up futures instead of limbs... [As] in the best mysteries, the detective herself is cracked open and remade.

Laura Miller

@literaryeric You’d probably like Neal Stephenson’d REAMDE, which is more of techno thriller

Laura Miller

Just got done revising the intro I wrote for the Penguin Classics edition of The Haunting of Hill House because when I first wrote it in 2006, Shirley Jackson wasn't much read beyond this novel & The Lottery. That has changed a LOT

Laura Miller

A wondrously intricate piece of narrative clockwork ... The Jazz Age London of Shrines of Gaiety is nearly as merciless as Dickens' Victorian metropolis and even more rife with crime and intrigue.

Laura Miller

Where Rundell differs is that she doesn’t seem to find the real world lacking in wonders or marvels or challenges to whet the desire of her valiant child heroes. Her stories are most fun when you can believe they might really happen, that we don’t need to seek elsewhere for meaning or adventure.

Laura Miller

https://bit.ly/3d1VSu1, which lets you buy audiobooks via your local bookstore (instead of Amazon) has an amazing sale for Indie Bookstore Day. I esp recommend The Diviners by @libbabray, narrated by the incredible @justjanuary

Laura Miller

McBride... would never advance any of his books as candidates for the Great American Novel... I'd like to make a case, though, for Deacon King Kong and, now, The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store as better contenders for the 21st-century GAN than many other, more vaunted specimens...

Laura Miller

The readers who flocked to A Little Life may not love the author’s new book. https://slate.com/culture/2022/01/paradise-hanya-yanagihara-book-review-little-life.html?utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=traffic&utm_source=article&utm_content=twitter_share via @slate