Category Archives: Uncategorized

I guess it was almost two months ago now that we did this absolutely wonderful Zoom bookclub with some IC alumni, reading Sense and Sensibility together. For me it was an especially fantastic experience, because I was leading it with my dear colleague Hugh Egan, and we would meet up beforehand to have our ownContinueContinue reading “Sense and Sensibility, Jane Austen and Emma Thompson”

My friend Deidre recommended this to me, and it really is extraordinary. Chanel Miller writes so beautifully, and weaves a narrative so skillfully, it’s truly a marvel. She tells the story of her experiences as a defendant in a sexual assault trial — a process that spanned over a year, two if you count theContinueContinue reading “Know My Name, Chanel Miller”

This isn’t a book or movie review, but I just wrote it out as a facebook post and felt like I dunno, I needed to put it somewhere else too. I happened to be looking at the Reed magazine online and found, to my utter dismay, an obituary for one of my favorite professors. IContinueContinue reading “In memoriam, Roger Porter”

I read this on the train yesterday with great pleasure. An understated story about a 75 year old Nigerian woman, a retired English professor, living in the Bay Area and confronting the encroaching limits of her independence. It’s unexpectedly panoramic, weaving in brief asides from neighbors, friends, passersby that give you glimpses of their variousContinueContinue reading “Like a Mule Bringing Ice Cream to the Sun, Sarah Ladipo Manyika”

I’m weirdly obsessed with Sheila Heti, because I think she does some really unique and fascinating things with voice. I can’t even really assess if I like her books (I think I mostly don’t?) because I’m just so mesmerized by the total strangeness of them — how it’s impossible to tell who is speaking, andContinueContinue reading “Pure Colour, Sheila Heti”

I finished this over a month ago but we didn’t have our book club discussion about it until this week, and I was a little distressed by how much of the book I’d forgotten — one person in book club said that part of what the book does for him is that it arms himContinueContinue reading “Human Nature: 9 Ways to Feel About Our Changing Planet, Kate Marvel”

A fun version of the unlikable male complaint novel — here bifurcated into twin monologues, the frustrations of a middle-aged, disgraced politician and his annoyed farmer father. Absorbing and amusing, and the two voices are wonderfully distinct (credit to Michael Hoffman, who is a terrific translator) and contrast in interesting ways. The ending disappointed meContinueContinue reading “The Frog in the Throat, Markus Werner, tr. Michael Hoffman”

This is a wary, almost tense story of a middle-aged woman named Karin who leads a fairly solitary life — works at a jewelry store by day, spends the occasional evening out with a man she meets on a dating app. It picks up at a moment when her grown-up daughter Helene, who has justContinueContinue reading “Near Distance, Hanna Stoltenberg”

Read this cover to cover on a flight with great pleasure. Like his other novels, it’s a tender, gentle story of people nursing various harms and finding ways to come together. What I always find so moving in Washington’s work is how beautifully it portrays love, not as an exclusive claim or demand, but asContinueContinue reading “Palaver, Bryan Washington”

I don’t know why I read so many graphic novel biographies, because I’m not generally that fond of them, but I guess it’s that I always feel like my knowledge of history is sorely lacking, and I’d way rather read something with cool art than a regular biography? And I’m teaching my Jane Austen andContinueContinue reading “Patchwork, Kate Evans”