Category Archives: Uncategorized

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”

I’ve been hearing friends praise Fosse for awhile, so when he won the Nobel I was like OK FINE, I’LL READ HIM. I wasn’t quite willing to tackle Septology, but discovered this 45-page option and thought, well, I can devote a morning to this. Joke’s on me, it took me a month to read. There’sContinueContinue reading “Aliss at the Fire, Jon Fosse, tr. Damion Searls”

I don’t actually know Lydia Kiesling personally (I follow her on twitter), but I sort of feel like I do. I’m a little creeped out sometimes by the resemblances between us. When her first book, Golden State, came out, several people recommended it to me, saying that it almost sounded like I had written it.ContinueContinue reading “Mobility, Lydia Kiesling”