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One of the things that continues to draw me to literary fiction is when an author can draw me into an unfamiliar setting and elicit empathy; I feel this is one of the ways we can best grow and understand those around us, and become fuller people in service of the world. In Shuggie and Agnes Bain, Douglas Stuart has dazzlingly accomplished this. This is such an up-close and personal, and most importantly, honest look at how love can hurt us, our hearts reaching out with everything they have to help those dear to us, sometimes coming up short despite our best efforts. The way he writes about addiction in this community is so honest and vivid that I can almost feel the frigid Glasgow wind beating against my pea coat, walking alongside Shuggie and Leek in the abandoned colliery or seeing the city lights reflected in Agnes' wet eyes. A truly stunning novel that I will never forget.

Reviewed on Sunday, January 21st, 2024, 5:21pm.

This story is, of course, terrifying, heartbreaking, and incensing, but the thing that Kate Moore accomplishes the best by the end of it is drawing out how inspiring these ladies were. I cannot imagine going through what they did, let alone going through it with faith intact, regularly finding things to relish in a life that, from such a young age, brought them such unspeakable, unfair, hardships. Moore writes these women with such care, highlighting the things they find bright in their dark lives, that it wasn't even so much the horrific descriptions of their physical traumas that most got to me (though those were tough to read, over and over and over), but it was the descriptions of the way their emotional heartbreaks were rendered in some of the hardest moments -- thoughts of not seeing their children run through the house playing anymore bringing them to heaving sobs in a courtroom, having to express fears their husbands would leave them due to their death sentences -- that most humanized their stories.

Reviewed on Friday, January 19th, 2024, 8:26am.

I saw R. F. Kuang quoted she wanted Yellowface to feel like an anxiety attack, and I can't think of a book better accomplishing its author's goals than this one, in that case. From the very beginning of the novel, you're cringing your way through it, and the quick pace of it only ratchets up the anxiety throughout. It brings to mind a lot of really interesting questions to think about when it comes to authorship and who is allowed to tell what stories, and, for me, was one of the more scathing satires on the publishing industry I've read. It really brings a sense of doom to the concept of being a public figure in any realm, but the publishing-specific stuff is particularly nightmarish.

Reviewed on Monday, January 15th, 2024, 8:29am.

Nathan Hill writes about love and parenthood, and more importantly trying to navigate those topics in awful modernity, with so much compassion and humor. As a father of a boy about to be two years old, the sequence in which Elizabeth is struggling to get her two year old son to eat, following her to the grocery store for her "unraveling," evoked an internal horror the likes at which Stephen King would blush. The nonlinear approach pays off very well by the end, as well, giving you glimpses into Jack and Elizabeth's lives at different points and from different perspectives makes the conclusion satisfying and meaningful.

Reviewed on Monday, January 15th, 2024, 8:29am.

This book was not what I was expecting, reading more like a novel than a historical document, which made it quite easy to get through, like a breeze through the Spanish moss. It was a nice touch by Berendt to tell the story of Jim Williams' murder of Danny Hansford through the lens of all the characters he came across during his time in Savannah, painting a fuller picture of the social and political climate (which are, unsurprisingly, inextricably linked) rather than simply telling a true crime murder story. This, for me, made it more of an entertaining read rather than an informative one.

Reviewed on Monday, January 8th, 2024, 2:12pm.

I found this to be quite the marvel. There is so much care and attention to every word, and it was really inspiring to me to read this simply for the craft behind it. I think the book reflects what the narrator has to say about the titular painting, "It’s there in the light-rinsed atmosphere, the brush strokes he permits us to see, up close, for exactly what they are—hand worked flashes of pigment, the very passage of the bristles visible—and then, at a distance, the miracle, or the joke," the seeming pains taken with every word, like a visible bristle of Fabritius' brush, all to serve, in her case, a sprawling coming-of-age story with a bit of crime to color the character-driven narrative. I was certainly hooked by the plot throughout, but ultimately, it was those brushstrokes, her choice of words, and careful construction of prose that I will take with me.

Reviewed on Saturday, January 6th, 2024, 6:14am.

This was an interesting work that blends the worlds of fact and fiction pretty masterfully; the layers of the story stack atop one another and reach an almost frenzied climax, where I, and I think the narrator, cannot distinguish between those worlds. I found it very thought-provoking in that sense. Keeping with the frequent theme of an action ceasing to exist when its intent turns out to be misguided - the example that comes to mind is the author brushing Alex's hair back and giving their night together huge amounts of meaning due to an impending superstorm, yet when the storm falls flat, that night together might well have never happened for its lack of guiding tension - the Author's intent seemingly changes throughout, leaving the reader to wonder if what they are reading is the novel they had thought it to be. It's also very funny, and the neurosis of the narrator being portrayed in such humorous ways really helps when some of the more obtuse material springs forth.

Reviewed on Tuesday, January 2nd, 2024, 2:54pm.

Lots of "don't meet your heroes" material here, but many of the cast of characters are very humanized through this account. It's commendable that McNeil and McCain were able to weave a somewhat coherent narrative out of all of these disparate interviews, though there were naturally a few moments throughout that had jolting changes of subject. Considering the subject matter, that's okay. The interviews piece together a history of early punk in America, really told more from the lens of building the scene and culture, the people in the orbit, rather than the music itself. I think this is effective in that the listening is done as you go and after the fact, and now having many human moments to tie the music to can make these figures more sympathetic. Johnny Thunders and Jerry Nolan, in particular, come off as very tragic figures. It's often shocking, often funny, probably most often sad. I thought the funniest parts were the blatant contradictions from one interview to the next, like even with the titular t-shirt Richard Hell made with "please kill me" written on it. Multiple people attributing him to wearing it, even coloring their perceptions of his look and personality on that fact, and in the next paragraph, he's just like, "Oh yeah I never wore that are you insane? Someone might have killed me!"

Reviewed on Thursday, December 28th, 2023, 5:39am.

It is certainly a testament to Jane Austen's bitingly funny writing style that a book, if you boiled it down to simply plot, would not likely capture my attentions like Pride and Prejudice has. Instead, my inner monologue is yelling at Elizabeth to simply sit closer to Mr. Darcy, speak true her heart, with the same force which it might yell at a horror movie final girl for going up the stairs while the killer chases her. There is so much tension in these pages, so much humor and entertainment, that I was caught completely off-guard, despite her works obviously being canonized as classics. To see it firsthand was a real treat.

Reviewed on Tuesday, December 26th, 2023, 11:38am.

I was a little bit worried that things had gotten just a tad bit too...expansive...to wrap up tidily enough to feel satisfied, but I really enjoyed how things culminated here and the overarching threats of the series finally presented themselves. For a series about limitless space and connection between humanity across that space, turning that connection into something sinister was a great touch, I felt. I was also surprised that by the end of a nine-book series across galaxies, I was both extremely satisfied and eager for more. Again, the natural manifestations of human connection shone brightest here, and saying goodbye to these characters hurt. A real achievement in this genre, and I'm excited to see what the authors try next as Corey.

Reviewed on Monday, December 18th, 2023, 11:09am.

As the series marches into its climax, I am struck most by how, for a story as vast and epic as The Expanse has become, its greatest accomplishment continues to be the development of its characters. There were moments here where I couldn't help but pump my fist as I read a long-known and -loved character showing their culmination of strength and courage. We are essentially in Star Wars levels of scale at this point, which feels so far from where it started, but by tying the reader to the characters and having them grow so much, it almost feels natural. I am very excited to see how the authors end this thing. I have a feeling we're about to get real weird.

Reviewed on Wednesday, December 6th, 2023, 10:20am.

David Grann accomplishes no small feat here in bringing history to life in a way that it unfolds like a fictional mystery. I appreciated his storytelling abilities here which both paid tremendous respect to a disturbing bit of American history and kept me enthralled to see how things would unfold. I certainly had never heard anything about this story, these people, and their hardships, which is ultimately the whole point: the country had created such a culture that they could be put through immense tragedies so easily and unencumbered -- often facilitated. I appreciate Grann shining a light on their stories.

Reviewed on Saturday, December 2nd, 2023, 1:14pm.

Reading this, I found myself quite aware of how out-of-practice I am when it comes to quality reading and comprehending. Banville often left me in his dust with the need to backtrack and make sense of what he was saying, and it made me wish I had put this off a little bit as I steadily exercise the ol' brain back up to game shape. My reading has slowed down over the years, especially from the years of reading for study, and I felt kind of exposed here. Having said that, the book is wonderfully written, constantly poetic, frequently funny, even more frequently sad, and most of all impressive in capturing the way our memories bounce from topic to topic, how things can solidify in our memories, how "Memory dislikes motion, preferring to hold things still" like a preserved "tableau". Those well-articulated descriptions of the narrator's memory resonated with me.

Reviewed on Thursday, November 30th, 2023, 9:50am.

What a wonderful representation of the complexities of love and friendship. This book really caught me off guard in that regard; I was pretty hooked from the beginning due to the readability of it and my own interest in the creative process of video games (I especially enjoyed the many references), but the aspects of human connection are what will stick with me. Not only does Zevin do a great job of showing the ways our childhoods influence our lives (through both trauma and our escapes from those traumas), but the novel is stunning in using its own influences in the gaming world to shape its form in places. I found the 'Pioneers' section, in particular, to be very special and a beautiful culmination of bringing content and form together. I was left misty-eyed by the end of it.

Reviewed on Sunday, November 26th, 2023, 12:15pm.

Can't think of a more aptly-named book! I'm not sure if this was a stylistic choice, but the way that the middle bulk of the book, once the Dust Bowl starts, continues to batter you with despair and just the worst things you could possibly imagine, begin to kind of mirror what these people were going through. Egan is as unrelenting in telling this story as the dust was itself. I definitely learned a lot, and it was a really interesting read to see how everything came to be. Rather than finding much human triumph in this story, it really just paints a picture of people reaping what they sow, and some managing to either hold on long enough to stay there and not really see things improved markedly, or get outta dodge, often into a situation you could only call better because there were no literal tons of dirt pouring through their walls.

Reviewed on Sunday, November 26th, 2023, 12:14pm.

As part of the ongoing project of bringing into focus the fuzzy recollections of classic books, I, at best, Cliff's Notes'd, at worst, completely ignored, that were studied in school, this one was particularly rewarding. You obviously have a general idea of what Fahrenheit 451 is about, and the eerie similarities to today's technology dependence and media consumption methods are definitely eye-popping, but what I found most interesting was how succinctly Bradbury tells us where we are going (or in our modern-day readings, where we already are). It's a high concept written by an entertainer himself, which makes the whole thing very exciting and fast-paced. Each major plot hinge comes quickly, one after the other. I really enjoyed it, and in keeping with the spirit of the book, I only mindlessly picked up my phone ten or fifteen times throughout.

Reviewed on Monday, November 20th, 2023, 7:35am.

This book had an uphill climb to winning my affection by using the phrase "big lol" within the first ten pages, and the multiple well-placed Frank Ocean references sent it tumbling back down at intervals, but it's hard to begrudge a book that you can breeze through in a weekend too much. The concept is cool, and the execution is concise, if predictable, and of course, it has a nice message. I guess I ultimately found it to be kind of merely scratching the surface of the concept, but nothing about it is what I'd call bad.

Reviewed on Sunday, November 19th, 2023, 6:32am.

This would probably not normally be my thing, but the prose and dialog are so rich and alive that I have probably never felt more transported to the setting of a piece of historical fiction. I'm not the biggest history buff, so I think being kind of a blank slate on most of these people and circumstances helped matters, but you can tell it's so well-researched and planned that it could be all true, down to every royal word behind closed doors. The writing is dense and challenging, so ultimately very rewarding of the attention required to keep up with the mind of Cromwell, where each paragraph comes at you, almost like a riddle to be solved.

Reviewed on Sunday, November 19th, 2023, 6:30am.

I found this to be one of the more remarkable examples of building characters, describing their interior lives, and letting the reader live alongside them and their decisions, all in incredibly realistic and moving ways. Your heart breaks for (some of) these Mulvaneys, and those vivid renderings of their thoughts, as these events unfold, elicit even deeper empathy throughout. It's one of those works where, though I cannot personally imagine making some of the choices this family does, being guided through the story on their thoughts and subtle actions makes them seem all but destined to happen. "It's the way families are, sometimes. A thing goes wrong and no one knows how to fix it and years pass and--no one knows how to fix it."

Reviewed on Saturday, November 4th, 2023, 6:08am.

Woof. Really tough, but rewarding, to read this. Ultimately I am very glad to have done it, as it paints a much fuller picture than, I guess what you could call the caricaturization of the Donner Party, where you can really see the humanity, heroism, and toughness of those involved. The book itself is engrossing and well-written, doing a great job of delicately walking the reader through the events in the Sierra Nevada, but also the chapters leading up to the party being snowbound paint a detailed picture of generally how brutal life on the frontier was, and how closely we modern Americans should be holding our loved ones, automobiles, and wireless routers.

Reviewed on Sunday, October 29th, 2023, 9:00am.

As memorable and entertaining of a reading experience as I've had in years. Shocking, funny, absurd, but also very thoughtful and hard-hitting as satire. I think it's a rare turn to be able to not completely lose the message inside such an outlandish scenario, but the novel is very focused despite being seemingly all over the place. The Sellout brings up questions of ownership, not only of property but also of culture and lifestyle in a "post-racist" America that offered a new perspective to me personally by bringing into focus the fact that no longer talking about something doesn't make it no longer exist, and in fact, can tend to make it even worse.

Reviewed on Wednesday, October 25th, 2023, 7:40am.

Even if you remove the historical context of this novel, the fact that Némirovsky wrote this from exile, as the war was happening, and is still such a pragmatic and human view of the events, it's a remarkable accomplishment. I think it's important if only to understand that everyone has their own point of view, and in the case of war, are driven often by not even their own points of view but those of the ruling class from within the borders that they happened to be born, so to see some of the humanity taking place was very powerful. I really liked the first half, though I do wish we had slightly more characters of the Michaud variety, the working class, "regular" people versus the upper class, but the second half is quite masterful. So much complexity and tenderness covering a really tough subject.

Reviewed on Monday, October 23rd, 2023, 10:55am.

About halfway through this, I was convinced that Franzen had once again hit me with a perfect 10 of a book, but for some reason, the characters took a turn for me where I could no longer relate to their experiences in any way. I think the first section, where you're reading Patty's "memoir," is super effective because you can truly get a sense of her interior life and those around her, from her perspective, in a very real way. She and those around her are relatable because of their flaws and how you can see her grapple with them, but once we go to a higher perspective of Walter, Joey, and Richard, you're kind of just watching these very flawed people make their terrible decisions without much regard for self-reflection on them. It's still fantastic, and his style and humor propel the novel as blistering paces.

Reviewed on Monday, October 23rd, 2023, 10:52am.

What a trip. Proulx displays such a profound mastery of place here, and I'm not sure this was her intention, that the descriptions of Newfoundland are so vivid and realized that I cannot imagine a place I would rather be any less than there. The cast of characters are rich with personality and the setting is so heavy that it pervades every inch of the novel once Quoyle gets there. I'm not sure if this is typically her writing style, as this is my first time reading her work, but her style itself was very unique as well, with the bursts of descriptive clauses to paint her pictures.

Reviewed on Monday, October 23rd, 2023, 10:48am.

This was definitely a breeze of a novel. I enjoyed the concept of a kind of classic literary concept of a grand house being central to the story, while being somewhat modern. It was cool to see the brother and sister grow through time but everything being tied to their past, and seeing how they grow out of it and move on (or don't). I really grew to love the characters, and Patchett's style is very nice to read. A lot of subtle humor.

Reviewed on Monday, October 23rd, 2023, 10:46am.