The Driftless Area Review

A blog about book reviews and cultural musings.

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The Lab Assistant by Natalia Loya is a riveting page-turner.

Espresso Shots: The Laboratory Assistant, by Natalia Loya

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"It burned a hatred and fear of thinking machines so deeply into the human psyche that one wonders if that would has yet completely healed."

Commonplace Book: Dune’s Warning About Thinking Machines

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"Unstuck" can help if you’re stuck or you choke staring at the blank screen.

Espresso Shots: Unstuck: A Writer’s Guide, by Ramona Ausubel

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Blue Opening is a brilliant collection of poems, a brief, jagged ray of light illuminating an otherwise dark world

Wednesday Poetry Corner: Blue Opening, by Chet’la Sebree

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Spanning decades and crossing the continent, Clutch, by Emily Nemens is a sprawling group portrait of five professional women and their everyday challenges and triumphs.

Espresso Shots: Clutch: a novel, by Emily Nemens

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A primer on the horrors of first-time home ownership.

Espresso Shots: The Valley of Vengeful Ghosts, by Kim Fu

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Espresso Shots: Archipelago by Natalie Bakopoulos

Via Small-sized reviews, raves, and recommendations. Mistaken identity, a translation residency, and an impulsive road trip. These conceptual fragments make up Archipelago, by Natalie Bakopoulos. In the novel, the unnamed narrator attends a translation residency on the Dalmation Coast. She reunites with her old friend Luka and they begin a romantic relationship. Amid the passionate feelings,…

Espresso Shots: Archipelago by Natalie Bakopoulos

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On this cold, windy, and otherwise miserable day, it’s time for a blog update.

Blog Update January 2026

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The March on Washington, by William P. Jones @ NYRB

At the end of the 2013 Supreme Court session, the United States reacted to the decisions involving the issues of gay marriage and affirmative action. In United States v. Windsor, the Supreme Court struck down the Defense of Marriage Act and signaled a growing mainstream acceptance of gay marriage. This was one more step in the long battle for gay rights and for gay Americans to be treated as full…

The March on Washington, by William P. Jones @ NYRB

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Gold Rush in the Jungle by Dan Drollette, Jr. @ NYJB

Deep within the jungles of the former North Vietnam there is a deer that barks, a half-goat/half-ox, and a striped rabbit. Dan Drollette, Jr. is a prolific science writer who traveled from Vietnam to Sweden and beyond to bring the story of the Vietnam’s biodiversity hot spots. Gold Rush in the Jungle: The Race to Discover and Defend the Rarest Animals in Vietnam’s “Lost World” tells the dual…

Gold Rush in the Jungle by Dan Drollette, Jr. @ NYJB

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Nothing Serious, by Daniel Klein @ NYJB

Digby Maxwell is a washed-up magazine writer from New York. With an astute sense of discovering the next big thing in pop culture, he was the go-to writer at New York Magazine for all things hip. Adultery and ego got in the way and he found himself without a job, until Felicia Hastings brought him in to helm Cogito, the philosophy magazine of a small liberal arts college in Louden, Vermont. What…

Nothing Serious, by Daniel Klein @ NYJB

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End of the Good Life, by Riva Froymovich @ NYJB

The United States loves its mythology. One of those great myths is the American Dream. What makes the American Dream a myth? Myths, traditions, and customs rely on this very simple premise: if one does something for long enough, therefor it is correct. The Millennial have inherited these traditions from their Boomer and Greatest Generation descendants. The American Dream is a post-World War Two…

End of the Good Life, by Riva Froymovich @ NYJB

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Act of Congress, by Robert G. Kaiser @ NYJB

  “Mos Eisley Spaceport. You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. We must be cautious.” Switch out the Congress for Mos Eisley and Obi-Wan Kenobi’s quote still holds true. Robert G. Kaiser, the veteran reporter for the Washington Post since 1963, has written Act of Congress: How America’s Essential Institution Works, and How It Doesn’t, an account of Congress’s attempt to…

Act of Congress, by Robert G. Kaiser @ NYJB

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Debtors' Prison, by Robert Kuttner @ NYJB

Austerity does not work. That is the simple premise of Robert Kuttner’s engaging new book, Debtors’ Prison: the politics of austerity versus possibility. Mr. Kuttner, a liberal economist and co-founder of The American Prospect magazine, takes this simple premise and expands it further. He goes on to explain the double standard between indebted individuals and duplicitous creditors. Profligate…

Debtors' Prison, by Robert Kuttner @ NYJB

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Man from Mars by Fred Nadis @ NYJB & The After-Life Story of Pork Knuckles Malone by MP Johnson @ CCLaP

A nice double-header today.  Enjoy your mid-week with a review of Man from Mars, a biography of eccentric Wisconsin publisher Raymond A. Palmer … The Man from Mars: Ray Palmer’s Amazing Pulp Journey, by Fred Nadis Wisconsin can boast many cultural icons and famous personalities, everything from Harley Davidson, Miller Brewing, the Packers, cheese, and political firebrands like Robert LaFollette…

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Capital, by John Lanchester @ NYJB

The short prologue begins by setting the scene on Pepys Road, South London, United Kingdom. During first light, a hoodie-wearing figure takes pictures of the mansions. Why is he taking pictures? What is his agenda? John Lanchester, the author of Capital, a novel, then spins a swift whirlwind surrounding the history of Pepys Road. The architecture style and the occupants, its rather staid…

Capital, by John Lanchester @ NYJB

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On the Noodle Road, by Jen Lin-Liu @ NYJB

Jen Lin-Liu has operated the Black Sesame Kitchen, a Beijing cooking school, for more than a decade. Only recently in her culinary experience did she stop to think about the origin of the noodle. The end result on that investigation is On the Noodle Road: from Beijing to Rome, with love and pasta, a book that is part travelogue, culinary history, and personal memoir. Prior to marriage, Ms.…

On the Noodle Road, by Jen Lin-Liu @ NYJB