Harvey Freedenberg

Review: Small Town Girls: A Writer's Memoir Though the Pulitzer Prize she received for her 2023 novel, The Night Watch, was well deserved, it didn't take that honor to confirm Jayne Anne

From @shelf-awareness.com my review of Jayne Anne Phillips’s SMALL TOWN GIRLS: A Writer’s Memoir: www.shelf-awareness.com/theshelf/202...

If football coaches called press conferences after the first quarter to explain the brilliant strategy they employed to get a 7-0 lead, that would be Pete Hegseth and Dan Caine.

Starred Review: Screen People: How We Entertained Ourselves into a State of Emergency Anyone who has felt a twinge of regret when their smartphone reminds them how much time they've spent looking at a screen the previous week

From @shelf-awareness.com my starred review of @theatlantic.com reporter Megan Garber’s SCREEN PEOPLE: How We Entertained Ourselves Into a State of Emergency:

www.shelf-awareness.com/theshelf/202...

“She simply needed a way to end her hair and start her face.” Douglas Stuart, JOHN OF JOHN #sundaysentence

Leaving Home: A Memoir in Full Colour | Bookreporter.com LEAVING HOME is a portrait of the artist both as a child and as an adult. His parents were not really cut out for the job of having children. They were cut out, respectively, for the jobs of designing...

From @bookreporter.bsky.social my review of Mark Haddon’s LEAVING HOME: A Memoir in Full Colour:

www.bookreporter.com/reviews/leav...

The novel is loaded with sentences that good. I'll bet I marked at least 15.

Douglas Stuart’s upcoming novel JOHN OF JOHN could provided a #sundaysentence for many weeks. Here’s one:

“The colour presented as a hollowness, as though the left side of his face was made of ice too thin to walk on.”

Thanks, Matt!

Eradication: A Fable | Bookreporter.com Reeling from tragedy, a former jazz musician turned schoolteacher named Adi answers a job listing advertising a chance to save the world. The assignment: to spend five weeks alone on the tiny, isolate...

From @bookreporter.bsky.social my review of Jonathan Miles's novel, ERADICATION: A Fable: www.bookreporter.com/reviews/erad.... Like @mdbell79.bsky.social, who reviewed it for @nytimes.com, I thought it was an excellent novel.

I had to wait to read @mdbell79.bsky.social's excellent review of Jonathan Miles's latest novel, ERADICATION: A Fable until I filed mine. Now that I have, I'm happy to see we agree in our assessment. Look for my review for @bookreporter.bsky.social here later this week.

“The sea was so calm as to suggest it’d decided to sleep in, its waves brushing up like the untroubled breaths of a slumbering giant.” Jonathan MIles, ERADICATION: A Fable #sundaysentence

“Before I end my letter, I pray Heaven to bestow the best of
Blessings on this House and all that shall hereafter inhabit it. May none but honest and wise Men ever rule under this roof.”

John Adams to Abigail, on his second night in the White House, 11/2/1800

😢

Scandal added bubbles to the champagne, sweetness to the puddings.” Francine Prose, FIVE WEEKS IN THE COUNTRY. #sundaysentence

From @bookreporter.bsky.social here’s my review of George Saunders’s novel VIGIL:

www.bookreporter.com/reviews/vigil

Shelf Awareness for Monday, January 26, 2026 Welcome to the Web site for Shelf Awareness: Daily Enlightenment for the Book Trade, the free e-mail newsletter dedicated to helping the people in stores, ...

From @shelf-awareness.com, here's my review of Adam Phillips's THE LIFE YOU WANT: www.shelf-awareness.com/issue.html?i...

“Americans don’t do politics—they do tribalism. Jayne Anne Phillips, SMALL TOWN GIRLS: A Writer’s Memoir #sundaysentence

Harvey, a Maker of A.I. Legal Software, Raises New Funds

I could claim this AI legal software was named after me in honor of my 41-year career in the law, but if you were a fan of the TV show “Suits,” you’ll know the truth:

www.nytimes.com/2025/12/04/b...

Crux | Bookreporter.com Dan and Tamma are two teenagers in their last year of high school in the southern Mojave Desert. One is a gifted golden child, the other a mouthy burnout. Climbing boulders in trash-strewn parking lot...

From @bookreporter.bsky.social my review of Gabriel Tallent’s second novel, CRUX:

www.bookreporter.com/reviews/crux

That’s one of the downsides of prepublication reviews. I’m about to post another review of a book that just came out this week, so I hope that makes up for it.

Review: The Adjunct In the acknowledgments for her novel The Adjunct, Maria Adelmann cites a 2022 report noting that adjunct and contingent faculty now make up

From @shelf-awareness.com here’s my review of Maria Adelmann’s novel THE ADJUNCT: www.shelf-awareness.com/theshelf/202...

I was honored to participate in this MLK Day community program hosted by my synagogue and to read this sentence from Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech.

Happy place. A joy to be reading here this afternoon.

“We’re seeing—and creating—a condition in which facts seem ever more fungible, in which history that doesn’t fit neatly into the form of a movie seems less true than the history that does.” Megan Garber, SCREEN PEOPLE #sundaysentence

@meganewrites.bsky.social Thanks for the follow, Megan. Let me know if you’ve found any more of our fellow @bookreporter.bsky.social reviewers here.

Looking forward to this one. Read his recent interview in the New York Times if you haven’t already done so.

Review: Evensong Stewart O'Nan's body of work is noteworthy for its diversity across 18 works of fiction, with settings that include post-Civil War Wisconsin

I quoted that same sentence in my review. 😀 www.shelf-awareness.com/theshelf/202...

Review: Fonseca In 1980, noted British writer Penelope Fitzgerald wrote an essay entitled "Following the Plot," alluding to a trip she and her five

I reviewed it here in June: www.shelf-awareness.com/theshelf/202...

The Rest of Our Lives | Bookreporter.com When Tom Layward’s wife had an affair 12 years ago, he resolved to leave her as soon as his youngest child left the nest. Now, while driving his college-bound daughter to Pittsburgh, he remembers his ...

Try this: www.bookreporter.com/reviews/the-...

The Rest of Our Lives | Bookreporter.com When Tom Layward’s wife had an affair 12 years ago, he resolved to leave her as soon as his youngest child left the nest. Now, while driving his college-bound daughter to Pittsburgh, he remembers his ...

“Getting out of a hospital is like escaping a casino, they don’t make it easy for you.” Ben Markovits, THE REST OF OUR LIVES. #sundaysentence

And as a bonus, here’s my review of the novel for @bookreporter.bsky.social:

www.bookreporter.com/reviews/the-...

The Rest of Our Lives | Bookreporter.com When Tom Layward’s wife had an affair 12 years ago, he resolved to leave her as soon as his youngest child left the nest. Now, while driving his college-bound daughter to Pittsburgh, he remembers his ...

From @bookreporter.bsky.social my review of Ben Markovits’s novel, THE REST OF OUR LIVES: www.bookreporter.com/reviews/the-...