Heller McAlpin is a New York-based critic who reviews books regularly for NPR.org, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, The Christian Science Monitor, The San Francisco Chronicle and other publications.
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In Jem Calder's debut novel, the characters have boarded a plane, baggage first -- with no idea where it will... -
In 'My Year in Paris with Gertrude Stein,' the narrator, a writer, actually spends one month trying to understand Stein's... -
The author restores balance in the homophones with her latest novel; both stories are thought-provoking, although somewhat less beguiling than... -
In Five Weeks in the Country, author Francine Prose imagines a distressing, ill-timed visit to Charles Dickens' home in 1857... -
Departure(s) explores several of Barnes' lifelong obsessions — mortality, memory, and time. It's slim but weighty, digressive yet incisive. Barnes,... -
America's literary highways may be plenty crowded with middle-aged runaways fleeing lives that increasingly feel like a bad fit. But... -
The punk rock star has produced several books that braid thoughts on her newest endeavors with memories and photographs of... -
In this follow-up to her hit novel, Catherine Newman reprises her beloved Rocky, a sharp-witted, neurotically doting mother. -
This novel stands apart from other tales of mothers stretched too thin. Jessica Stanley weaves family frustrations with British politics... -
The Secret Life of a Cemetery is a paean to the renowned Parisian cemetery, Père Lachaise. There, 10,000 visitors a... -
Didion's book is an intimate chronicle of the author's struggle to help her daughter, even if it meant digging into... -
Rooney's fourth novel is a story about learning to accept loss. And though it has its share of grief and...