@eleanorjbader1.bsky.social reviews Gabriel San Román's DAYS OF DISSENT (@pmpress.bsky.social), praising it as "a kaleidoscopic introduction to the ups-and-down endemic to movements for social change": turnedpagereview.substack.com/p/review-of-...

Review of Days of Dissent by Gabriel San Roman

review by Eleanor J. Bader

turnedpagereview.substack.com

Keshava Guha's THE TIGER'S SHARE (@hachetteuk.bsky.social) follows two women negotiating the patriarchal culture of India, while one of their fathers decides what to do to draw attention to the climate crisis): turnedpagereview.substack.com/p/review-of-...

Review of The Tiger’s Share by Keshava Guha

John Murray, 2025

turnedpagereview.substack.com

Dave Eggers' new novel CONTRAPPOSTO (@aaknopf.bsky.social) explores why we create art (rather timely, I would say) through the choices the two main characters make: turnedpagereview.substack.com/p/review-of-...

Review of Contrapposto by Dave Eggers

Alfred A. Knopf, 2026

turnedpagereview.substack.com

@benpassmore.bsky.social's Eisner-award-winning BLACK ARMS TO HOLD YOU UP (@pantheonbooks.bsky.social) goes beyond celebrating those who used non-violence to reform systems, as he wants to lift up those who sought liberation & did whatever they felt they needed to in order to achieve that liberation

Review of Black Arms to Hold You Up by Ben Passmore

Pantheon Books, 2025

turnedpagereview.substack.com

Alexander Starritt's DRAYTON AND MACKENZIE (@groveatlantic.bsky.social) follows two friends (but it's complicated) through the financial tumult of the twenty-first century: turnedpagereview.substack.com/p/review-of-...

Review of Drayton and Mackenzie by Alexander Starritt

Atlantic Monthly Press, 2025

turnedpagereview.substack.com

I'm looking to speak to people with a disability who receive SNAP benefits. I want to talk about the new work rules. Anonymity can be assured. It's for The Progressive Magazine website. Thanks. Email eleanorbader@gmail.com to schedule a time to talk.

Maggie O'Farrell's LAND (@aaknopf.bsky.social) explores how we make meaning in our lives and the importance land/place plays in that exploration: turnedpagereview.substack.com/p/review-of-...

Review of Land by Maggie O’Farrell

Alfred A. Knopf, 2026

turnedpagereview.substack.com

My latest, posted @ Ms. Magazine. msmagazine.com/2026/07/26/p...

The Myth of the 'Perfect Birth': What America Gets Wrong About Pregnancy, Birth and Maternal Care

The Perfect Birth: Pushing Back Against a Broken Industry, by Avital Norman Nathman, with Deborah Wage, vigorously challenges the Heritage assessment and zeroes in on maternity care voids (sometimes c...

msmagazine.com

This week on the running blog, I explore a bit of a disconnect between workouts and races, as well as a new challenge with blood sugar: mytypeofrunning.substack.com/p/the-strugg...

The Struggle is Real

two continual challenges

mytypeofrunning.substack.com

For our recent trip to Alaska, I read six different books to help me understand where we were going; here's a long(ish) review that talks about those books and the connection to what we actually saw: turnedpagereview.substack.com/p/the-last-f...

The Last Frontier

Review of Books About Alaska

turnedpagereview.substack.com

Simon Paré-Poupart's TRASH! (@melvillehouse.bsky.social) helps readers see a wider, richer, more complex world, one they often willfully ignore, the mark of all good literature: turnedpagereview.substack.com/p/review-of-...

Review of Trash! A Garbageman’s Story by Simon Paré-Poupart

Melville House, 2026

turnedpagereview.substack.com

@edgeofsports.bsky.social has written a biography of Howard Zinn that @eleanorjbader1.bsky.social describes as "a wonderful evocation of a man worthy of emulation": turnedpagereview.substack.com/p/review-of-...

@eleanorjbader1.bsky.social reviews RESONANCE, in which a 21-year-old Sophie discovers diaries by Anna Grinberg, a largely-unknown, young, Polish-Jewish sculptor who moved to Paris in 1922; as Bader writes, "the result is a beautiful, heart-felt book about people whose survival you will root for"

Review of Resonance by Michael S. Tobin and Daniel S. Chertoff

review by Eleanor J. Bader

turnedpagereview.substack.com

I did my civic duty today. I also signed a petition for more affordable housing on the way out. Let's try to move the needle however we can.

Courtney and I are back from a two-week vacation (I'm sure you missed the posts about running); here are my thoughts on running in two states, two countries, and on the high seas: mytypeofrunning.substack.com/p/running-on...

Running on the Road

two states, two countries, and the high seas

mytypeofrunning.substack.com

Heat-related illnesses and injuries are on the rise thanks to climate change: progressive.org/latest/helpi...

Helping Workers Beat the Heat

Mamdani’s initiative jumpstarts an essential discussion about the need to address a potentially deadly problem.

progressive.org

After a couple of weeks' break, we're back to reviews: Yara Zgheib's NO LAND TO LIGHT ON (@atriabooks.bsky.social) portrays a couple's struggle to have a life under the travel ban during the first Trump administration: turnedpagereview.substack.com/p/review-of-...

Review of No Land to Light On by Yara Zgheib

Atria Books, 2022

turnedpagereview.substack.com

ONE NIGHT TWO SOULS WENT WALKING (@coffeehousepress.bsky.social) shows the power of human connection, as a hospital chaplain spends a night (and a life) working to help others deal with life and loss: turnedpagereview.substack.com/p/review-of-...

Review of One Night Two Souls Went Walking by Ellen Cooney

Coffee House Press, 2020

turnedpagereview.substack.com

SMALL TOWN GIRLS wasn't what I expected, but it's a great portrayal of small town life and the importance of story: turnedpagereview.substack.com/p/review-of-...

I was trying to wait for official race photos, but this one I took should tell you how the 5K went on Saturday; if you want more of the story, go to My Type of Running: mytypeofrunning.substack.com/p/back-to-th...

This anthology from the Cartoonist Collective in Tehran shows life during the 12-Day War, a stark reminder of what life in Iran is like right now, as well; they also tell their stories through an amazing variety of styles; read the review at @comicsjournal.bsky.social: www.tcj.com/reviews/i-wo...

I Won't Pretend These Missiles Are Stars: Life in Iran During the 12-Day War - The Comics Journal

I Won’t Pretend These Missiles Are Stars

tcj.com

Kevin Wilson's NOW IS NOT THE TIME explores how we interpret art and our own lives through Frankie and Zeke's childhood creation that doesn't go at all how they expect: turnedpagereview.substack.com/p/review-of-...

Review of Now is Not the Time to Panic by Kevin Wilson

Ecco, 2022

turnedpagereview.substack.com

In BEFORE WE WERE TRANS (@hachetteus.bsky.social), @krheyam.bsky.social doesn't just want to show how trans people have existed throughout time and history, they want to question the cishet assumptions of historical studies altogether: turnedpagereview.substack.com/p/review-of-...

Review of Before We Were Trans by Kit Heyam

Seal Press, 2022

turnedpagereview.substack.com

Benjamin Wood's brief novel SEASCRAPER (@scribnerbooks.bsky.social) raises questions of how we live into (or chose not to live into) our legacies to discover who we are and who we could be: turnedpagereview.substack.com/p/review-of-...

Review of Seascraper by Benjamin Wood

Scribner, 2025

turnedpagereview.substack.com

It's must be a writing day, as I also received the latest issue of PERCEPTIONS with one of my poems in it; that title, by the way, comes from @sturkle.bsky.social 's interviews with high school and college students in ALONE TOGETHER

Copies of my new books arrived yesterday! Thanks to all of you who preordered and helped make this possible. If you still want to order, go to finishinglinepress.com/product/jack.... Thanks.

Alan Sillitoe's THE LONELINESS OF THE LONG-DISTANCE RUNNER (@penguinrandomhouse.bsky.social) conveys the struggles and realities of the post-WWII British working class (and does a bang-up job of talking about running): turnedpagereview.substack.com/p/review-of-...

Review of The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner by Alan Sillitoe

Vintage International, 1959

turnedpagereview.substack.com

Katherine Dunn's posthumous novel TOAD (@fsgbooks.bsky.social) has a complex narrator who looks back at a younger part of her life and tries to make sense of herself and her friends: turnedpagereview.substack.com/p/review-of-...

Review of Toad by Katherine Dunn

Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2022

turnedpagereview.substack.com

@theguardian.com chose Middlemarch as the greatest novel published in English (according to the authors, critics, and academics they had vote); I gave it a read to see if I agreed, and I had thoughts: turnedpagereview.substack.com/p/review-of-...

Review of Middlemarch by George Eliot (published 1871-72)

is it really the greatest novel published in English?

turnedpagereview.substack.com

This week, I started with running efficiency/economy, which led to efficiency, overall, which of course led to climate change, AI, and game theory (of course it did); subscribe for free or go to mytypeofrunning.substack.com/p/not-the-mo...

Not the Most Efficient Way

friction is not the enemy

mytypeofrunning.substack.com