Lit Archives - Cambridge | Somerville Independent

Reviewed: ‘Enough About Angels’ is a fast introduction to a Nobel winner you may decide to keep ignoring

by Josh Cook November 10, 2026

The Nobel lecture is a chance for the winner to introduce themselves and their work to a new audience. With Krasznahorkai, it takes just a few pages.

CULTURE

Take a daytrip with whales, no harpoon required

by Michael Gutierrez November 7, 2026

500 pages into "Moby-Dick," our writer boards a harbor cruise to try, and fail, to get on Captain Ahab's level.

LIT

Reviewed: ‘The Reverse Centaur’s Guide to Life After AI’ is lucid and impassioned

by Dora Woodruff November 3, 2026

Doctorow is a genius at breaking down the seemingly complex, deliberately murky dynamics of the AI sector, but doesn't offer much guidance for its readers.

LIT

Reviewed: ‘Wickhills’ is a fantasy spy thriller that loves its setting – and by the end you will too

by Josh Cook October 27, 2026

A thrilling race for the truth that has all the twists, double-crosses, contests of wits, clever gadgets, shady associates and daring escapes of the best spy thrillers.

LIT

Reviewed: ‘I Told You So’ is a victory march for science with ridicule, exile and prison along the way

by Gwen Ruta October 20, 2026

We may mistreat, berate, demote, starve of resources and nearly deport our scientists. One who suffered all these things later won the Nobel Prize.

LIT

Reviewed: In ‘Diavola,’ the family from hell gets haunted

by Katherine Nazzaro October 13, 2026

Captivating? Sure. Terrifying? Absolutely. A great horror novel; worth the read. And more than two years later, I’m still turning it over and over in my head.

LIT

Reviewed: ‘Ancient Algorithms’ is experimental and lots of fun, but complicates by adding AI to the canon

by Josh Cook October 6, 2026

Playful, and goofy, here a handful of poems are translate, mistranslated, subjected to complicated rewriting policies and run through technologies to create new works.

LIT

Reviewed: ‘The Sexuality of Care’ talks about a world without hospitals through a tangle of angles

by Josh Cook September 29, 2026

Readers might bristle at the thought but recognize the power of the vision in essays recalling time as a critical care nurse, healing from trauma, and the structures of kink.

LIT

Book excerpt: Sam Baltrusis investigates if his own family is cursed in a bloodline linked to Lizzie Borden

by Marc Levy September 22, 2026

If there’s anyone to debunk a lame Netflix series about Lizzie Borden, it's Sam Baltrusis, a Somerville author, explorer of the paranormal and distant relative to Borden.

LIT

Reviewed: ‘I See You’ve Called in Dead,’ the wry resurrection of an obit writer who’s over it

by Gwen Ruta September 22, 2026

His friends are mostly glad to find out he’s not dead, but his boss has mixed feelings. “Called in Dead” treats the subject of death with respect.