RaveHamilton Review of BooksHer debut essay collection navigates the deeply personal and that which all settlers in Canada and the U.S. should already know—their implication with racism—with depth, wit and never-ending heart. This is not an easy collection to read ... Yet, Elliott’s first collection also—as most inspections of the very painful do—brims with sharp humour and a love that radiates off the page ... [in] the last essay...the reader cannot distance themselves from direct address. Here, Elliott asks us to review the previous essays, to fully implicate ourselves in this narrative of colonial Canada, colonial America, and the colonized mind. In a word, that feat is, exceptional. How we readers react in our own minds and our active lives dictates our engagement in the process that is decolonial love and antiracism; Alicia Elliott has shown us her mind and life and process in stark, beautiful detail.
Elaine Pagels
PositiveWashington Independent Review of Books\"Why Religion? invites readers into a house of questioning, offers stories of Pagels’ understanding of grief and death — of a childhood friend, of her only child, and, a year later, of her husband — combined with her deep-seated grasp of the study of religion and human culture. Those well-versed in their own spiritual traditions will likely learn something new here, and those who tend to stay away from religious organizations will appreciate getting the perspective of an academic, a wife, and a mother who uses a balanced tone to dig into questions worth asking.\
Lars Petter Sveen, Trans. Guy Puzey
PositiveWashington Independent Review of Books\"[The book opens with] prose that is taut and crisp yet ancient — and paradoxically, utterly contemporary ... At its core, this novel is about good and evil, that theme humanity cannot stop exploring. That’s not to say Children of God is recycling tropes, but the novel does feel familiar — partly because these Christian narratives are pervasive across the world ... Readers who approach Children of God from a purely religious standpoint might struggle, but those — from any or no spiritual background — eager to be challenged will find a wonderful story waiting for them in this book.\
Ijeoma Oluo
RaveThe Washington Independent Review of BooksWhile white readers are going to gain insight on hard-to-understand-unless-you’ve-lived-it topics in So You Want to Talk About Race, readers of color generally will find camaraderie and a resource in Ijeoma Oluo’s conversational approach to race, racism, and racial violence in America ...the author also turns her eye toward much more complex issues like intersectionality, the school-to-prison pipeline, and cultural appropriation with wit and heart ... Oluo is intellectually sharp and even funny, and this is one of the strengths of her book ... Readers may find the direct address — the \'you\' she points at frequently — uncomfortable, but it’s appropriate. Combined with the book’s overall tone, it offers an intimate experience where readers can process situations before they enter into their own conversations about race ...a fairly nuanced understand of race relations and of the traumas enacted, in particular, on black bodies through the systematic inequalities present in American society.
Fiona Mozley
MixedThe Washington Independent Review of BooksElmet is slow and languorous, a novel almost lacking in plot until a third of the way through when it’s revealed that Daniel’s father does not own the land he has cleared in order to build his family’s house … While Mozley’s prose is rich in details, bringing the Yorkshire setting vividly to life, the novel’s loose plot and tendency to repeat narrative beats will tax some readers’ patience. Elmet is a novel to read for the pleasure of sharp details and of painting a complete picture of an uncommon life.
