“You owe me nothing. I owe you everything.” Imbolo Mbue’s Every Story is a Love Story (Random House 2026) is a beautiful study in grief and growth, revolving mostly around how messy human-life actually is; we live in the grey, my friends – don’t let anyone tell you differently. And while I appreciate how messyContinue reading “EVERY STORY IS A LOVE STORY – Imbolo Mbue”
Category Archives: Uncategorized
SUNRISE – Téa Obreht
“Nina has never fled anything the way she flees this. She is simply gone, the way wind is gone, or sound.” What to say in a review of Téa Obreht’s Sunrise (Random House 2026)? The writing is simply delicious, and I was positively smitten with the setup. I love alternating timelines and POVs; it’s partContinue reading “SUNRISE – Téa Obreht”
ASTRONAUT! – Oana Aristide
“The boy giggled a little at the nakedness part, but on the whole the story seems to have made him uneasy. Some stories just are like that.” Oana Aristide’s Astronaut! (W.W. Norton & Company 2026) is likely going to be in my top ten reads of the year; it’s simply well done with so muchContinue reading “ASTRONAUT! – Oana Aristide”
Dèy – Edwidge Danticat
“I told her that I loved her more than the sea had water. ‘I love you more than the earth has air,’ she’d say.” Edwidge Danticat’s Dèy (Knopf 2026), is a delicate and fragile novel of love, grief, and home. Of the seven books I’ve read that are longlisted for the National Book Award, DèyContinue reading “Dèy – Edwidge Danticat”
PRETEND YOU’RE DEAD AND I CARRY YOU – Julián Delgado Lopera
“It is a known fact that some people grow to be old, while others become birds or panthers or beasts. Some people even turn into rivers.” “It is a known fact that the queens who refuse their destiny are haunted. Rejection turns itself inward, a bullet to the heart of said queen, and unleashes, perContinue reading “PRETEND YOU’RE DEAD AND I CARRY YOU – Julián Delgado Lopera”
THE BOOK OF CHUCK – Latoya Watkins
“And I try to record the scent of outdoors and flowers and dust and lavender and old tears so I can carry it with me.” After reading Latoya Watkins’s Perish, I stated that it wasn’t for me, writing “There are definite echoes of Morrison and Zora Neale Hurston, but it is much more ragged, rawContinue reading “THE BOOK OF CHUCK – Latoya Watkins”
A TENDER AGE – A Tender Age
“You think you can die only once. What luck, if that’s true. I was eleven years old, and I thought I knew everything.” Chang-Rae Lee’s A Tender Age (Riverhead 2026) should have captured my attention a bit more than it did. I tend to love bildungsromans, and a novel about a Korean kid growing upContinue reading “A TENDER AGE – A Tender Age”
BEGINNING MIDDLE END – Valeria Luiselli
“This was a story with a mother and a daughter and a beginning. And the story, it turned out, was about everything that we reinvented after that.” This year’s Booker list is extremely male-centric, which infuriates me because it’s not like the pool of eligible candidates was devoid of books that center women. I continueContinue reading “BEGINNING MIDDLE END – Valeria Luiselli”
SWITZY – Emma Cline
“You’re the boss, applesauce – lights out.” “Do no harm – hadn’t he done only a little?” Emma Cline’s Switzy is the last of the Booker longlist for me, and much like the rest of the longlist, it deals with loneliness, memory, and a rewriting of the past. David Hastings has Alzheimer’s disease, and heContinue reading “SWITZY – Emma Cline”
THE DISAPPEARERS – Marlon James
“Yes, there will be violence. Yes, there will be tenderness. Yes, there will be rape.” “Me tired of this. Me tired of running. Me tired of fighting, too.” “We covering our tracks so good that even we can’t find the way back home.” “So him just abracadabra and vanish or somebody disappear him?” “This isContinue reading “THE DISAPPEARERS – Marlon James”
