“Like the mighty red, history was a flood.” “So it was, every teaspoon of sugar that was stirred into a cup or baked into a pudding was haunted by the slave trade and the slaughter of buffalo. Just as now, into every teaspoon, is mixed the pragmatic nihilism of industrial sugar farming and the deathContinue reading “THE MIGHTY RED – Louise Erdrich”
Author Archives: Tommi Powell
SYLVIA DOE AND THE 100-YEAR FLOOD – Robert Beatty
“She was thirteen now, and the one thing she knew how to do was run away.” I met Robert Beatty several years ago just after the release of Serafina and the Seven Stars. My oldest niece loved the Serafina books, and I wanted to surprise her with a personalized autographed copy of the newest release. Continue reading “SYLVIA DOE AND THE 100-YEAR FLOOD – Robert Beatty”
My 2024 Booker Prize Longlist Rankings
The 2024 Booker Prize winner will be announced Tuesday, and this is the first year I have read the entire longlist prior to the announcement. (I will not meet my Goodreads goal, so this is my reading accomplishment of the year!) If you’ve followed me, you know I had some predictions prior to the announcementContinue reading “My 2024 Booker Prize Longlist Rankings”
PLAYGROUND – Richard Powers
“You know me now. You know him as well as I did. Maybe better. You have raised the dead and given us one more turn. Now tell me how this long match ought to end.” “Our first god mad the world from eggshells and tears and bone. Then our artists made the other gods outContinue reading “PLAYGROUND – Richard Powers”
ENLIGHTENMENT – Sarah Perry
“She was the most alive person he’d ever met.” “Her mouth was blotted red, as if she’d painted her lips, regretted her sin, and rubbed her shame on the back of her hand.” “Grace Macaulay – in whose veins ran Essex rivers and Bible ink…” “For God’s sake, Thomas Hart, for God’s sake: isn’t itContinue reading “ENLIGHTENMENT – Sarah Perry”
CREATION LAKE – Rachel Kushner
“The French might have better novels (Balzac, Zola, and Flaubert) and they have better cheese (Comte, Roquefort, Cabecou). But in the grand scheme that’s basically nothing.” “Bad people are honored, and good ones are punished. The reverse is also true. Good people are honored, and bad people are punished, and some will call this grace,Continue reading “CREATION LAKE – Rachel Kushner”
STONE YARD DEVOTIONAL – Charlotte Wood
“A feeling that something is coming, waiting to be born, out of this time. Almost physical, like before a period, or pregnancy, or vomiting. Something is getting ready to resolve itself.” The Booker journey continues with Charlotte Wood’s Stone Yard Devotional (Allen & Unwin 2023), yet another thin volumed character reflection, heavy on the introspectiveContinue reading “STONE YARD DEVOTIONAL – Charlotte Wood”
WILD HOUSES – Colin Barrett
We’re a week out from the shortlist announcement, and I just finished my ninth from the Booker Dozen. In following this year’s theme of thin volumes and character studies, Wild Houses by Colin Barrett (Grove Press 2024) is a gritty look at small town Irish life – heavy on drugs, violence, and hopes to escapeContinue reading “WILD HOUSES – Colin Barrett”
WANDERING STARS – Tommy Orange
“I wasn’t trying to be funny. I could have done it if you hadn’t come. We’ve just been the feather. We used to be the whole bird. We used to believe and we were the whole bird.” Next up on my Booker journey is Tommy Orange’s Wandering Stars (Knopf 2024). Wandering Stars is a bookendContinue reading “WANDERING STARS – Tommy Orange”
THE SAFEKEEP – Yael van der Wouden
“Little baby Jesus everywhere. They have no problem letting Jews into their homes as long as they’re carved from wood, do they” “What did people who spoke of joy know of what it meant, to sleep and dream only of the whistle of planes and knocks at the door and on windows and to wakeContinue reading “THE SAFEKEEP – Yael van der Wouden”
A Girl Named Tommi 