Emily Choate | writer

Because I’m not a poet, and instead a besotted reader of poetry, I especially love to review poetry collections. That fact makes the chance to write about the new collaborative collection from Jesse Graves and William Wright, Specter Mountain, a special thrill. I dearly hope this collection finds its readers and its place in Appalachian literature. My review’s up today at Chapter 16; read it here.

I’m excited to share my review for Meg Wolitzer’s newest novel, The Female Persuasion. I think wide varieties of readers will love this book, and/or be challenged by it. The wide press it received in the run-up to its publication week was well-founded. I could not put this book down, and I loved the challenge of writing about it, too. My review’s up today over at the marvelous Chapter 16, and you can read it here.

I’m pleased to share my latest review for Chapter 16, this time covering Michael Farris Smith’s third novel, The Fighter. Smith is a great talent who writes in the Mississippi Delta, Grit Lit vein. This book has a unique protagonist, and it was lots of fun to write about, too. My review’s up today, and you can read it here, at Chapter 16.

I get to review lots of great stuff for Chapter 16, but Radley Balko and Tucker Carrington’s powerful The Cadaver King and The Country Dentist is one I’m especially grateful to know. This true story involves the corrupt history of the Mississippi death investigations system and the consequences of allowing lax standards for expert testimony into our courtrooms. I’d recommend this book to anyone who wants to know more about how corrupt systems operate and how poisoned legacies don’t just evaporate but instead keep wreaking havoc until we have the courage to go on digging until we hit the true sources of the trouble. My review’s up today; you can read it here at Chapter 16.

I’m really pleased to share my latest review for Chapter 16, Hermione Hoby’s debut novel Neon in Daylight. This book is a fascinating one to think and write about, and it has turned out to be my favorite NYC-set novel I’ve read in a good while. You can read my review here at the always wonderful Chapter 16.

Recently, I had the chance to review Chloe Benjamin’s super-buzzy sophomore novel, The Immortalists. This was a fun one to dive into, and a surprisingly moving character study for a release with such a catchy idea-driven hook: what any of us might do, how we might live, if we were told the date we were scheduled to die. You can read my review over at the beloved Chapter 16.

I’m so pleased to share this review I wrote about Bryn Chancellor’s debut novel, Sycamore. This book was published back in the summer, and if you missed it, go take a look now. I found it to be equally satisfying in the realms of character and plot–no mean feat. My review’s up today over at Chapter 16.