Author Archives: Kasia Bartoszynska

I have a strange relationship to Han Kang’s writing. I read The Vegetarian because so many people said it was amazing, and I really didn’t like it very much at all. Then, thinking it might be worth giving her another try, I listened to an audiobook of Human Acts, and thought it was really excellent.ContinueContinue reading “Greek Lessons, Han Kang, tr. Deborah Smith and Emily Yae Won”

I often do a Favorite Things I Read list and Best of Books Published This Year list, but this year it ended up making more sense to do just combine the two, because there was so much overlap. I was going to up it to a Top 12, but it turns out that PicStitch onlyContinueContinue reading “My Year of Reading, 2023”

I was expecting to be drawn in by the central plot premise of this novel — a young woman is the secret daughter of a prominent politician who has a quiet life with her mother on the side, and on the eve of her high school graduation, decides that she wants to reveal the truth.ContinueContinue reading “The Margot Affair, Sanaë Lemoine”

Another post I’ve been waiting to have the time for — I wanted to write about this alongside Terrace Story, and to consider their take on what we might call “literary science fiction” — but time marches on, so just very quickly: I wanted to like The Employees more. I did enjoy it, and theContinueContinue reading “The Employees, Olga Ravn”

I love the Storybooks series from New Directions. The idea of a short book for adults with a beautiful, large, easy-to-read font, and a gorgeous, shiny cover, is absolute genius. The collection is also perfectly curated — all the coolest authors; deliciously absorbing stories. I want them all. So it was a perfect Christmas treatContinueContinue reading “In the Act, Rachel Ingalls”

Every year, Top 10 lists start coming out in early December and I feel a. indignant that there’s still a whole month of the year left, how can these declarations be made now?!* and b. resigned to the fact that I actually don’t have the time right now to read all of the things IContinueContinue reading “Top 10 Books of 2023 that I Haven’t Read Yet”

I actually read this almost two months ago, and was so impressed with it that I wanted to take the time to write a more thoughtful and extensive post about it — and look where that got me. Back to the ol’ slap-dash it is! Just kidding. Sort of. I felt a renewed sense ofContinueContinue reading “Terrace Story, Hilary Leichter”

I was pleasantly surprised to see this on the NYTimes Best Books of the Year (it’s not often that indie presses get that kind of attention), and since I had a copy already, I thought, why not? And it was indeed a very enjoyable read; somehow both light and tautly, deliciously suspenseful. It’s set onContinueContinue reading “Eastbound, Maylis de Kerangal, tr. Jessica Moore”

When I first put this on my graphic novels syllabus in 2017, it was because I was interested in testing the limits of the form — is this really a graphic novel, or is it an illustrated book? Also, what kind of book is it? The sheer weirdness of it makes it fun to assign,ContinueContinue reading “Thunder & Lightning, Lauren Redniss”

I was so happy to have the opportunity to re-read this, and to read it much more carefully and thoughtfully than I did the first time. The first time I read it, I think I thought it was sort of cool and weird, but I also didn’t really get it. Like, it was clearly aboutContinueContinue reading “BTTM FDRS, Ezra Claytan Daniels & Ben Passmore”