Small press focus: Akashic Books Akashic Books is this edgy press that you may or may not have heard of. Akashic published one of my favorite books of all time, “Ruins,” by Achy Obejas. Their noir series is sure to please fans of noir, and I recommend picking up one of the many titles, perhaps beginning with “Boston Noir 2: The Classics” or delving even deeper into the drug noir series, perhaps with “The Heroin Chronicles.” You might be asking just how good these books are. Well, with contributors like David Foster Wallace, Joyce Carol Oates and Andre Dubus, how can you go wrong with “Boston Noir 2: The Classics?” This collection is divided into three sections: Broken Families where you’

Welcome to the premiere of "Book Talk," a column where you will find reviews of books written by local poets and authors, books published by local presses, and books of particular interest to this area. This week we feature local writers, Cynthia Linville and Jen Palmares Meadows, as well as Megan Miranda and Alice Notley.   “The Lost Thing” by Cynthia Linville Cold River Press ISBN 978-0-9846403-3-1 2012, 97 pp., $12.95 Poetry – local author / local press Cynthia Linville’s collection of poems, “The Lost Thing,” travels through time and geography in search of love. Beginning with “Wandering Sunday, lost,” where the speaker asks, “What is there to fear,” Linville guides the reader thro