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John Donne wrote that \u201cno man is an island,\u201d Sartre that \u201chell is other people\u201d\u2014two ways of describing our intrinsic entanglement with each other, us humans. Leslie Jamison\u2019s Splinters<\/em> (Little, Brown) and Sloane Crosley\u2019s Grief Is for People<\/em> (MCD\/FSG) tender another two takes. In Splinters,<\/em> Jamison braids the at times volcanic dissolution of her marriage, her overwhelming love for her infant daughter (even as she yearns to return to unfettered art making), and the memory of her parents\u2019 own split\u2014turning a keen eye on how both she and her ex-husband foundered, offering grace for each party. In the droll and poignant Grief,<\/em> Crosley (a VF<\/em> contributor) confronts two calamities that occur a month apart: A thief steals her jewelry and her closest friend dies. What might seem like a conflation of disproportionate events becomes a bridge toward closure\u2014or rather, the understanding that closure is just a story we tell ourselves. Though it\u2019s loss that these books grapple with, the pages brim with life.<\/p>\n \u2018Splinters\u2019 by Leslie Jamison<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u2018Grief Is for People\u2019 by Sloane Crosley<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n In Kiley Reid\u2019s Come and Get It<\/em> (Putnam), a professor obsesses over the class dynamics of an undergrad dorm suite and eavesdropping ensues. Here, Reid, also author of Such a Fun Age, shares her inspirations.<\/p>\nInspirations<\/h2>\n