Next installment of Tommi Reads the World – still in the As. Country: AustraliaTitle: True History of the Kelly GangAuthor: Peter CareyLanguage: EnglishTranslator: N/APublisher: Alred A. Knopf (2001) “Wait to see what more there is to hear my daughter for in the end we poor uneducated people will all be made noble in the fire.” PeterContinue reading “TRUE HISTORY OF THE KELLY GANG – Peter Carey”
Tag Archives: Alfred A. Knopf
NIGHT WATCH- Jayne Anne Phillips
“Her mother had named her the name he’d taken – her given name a version of her surname. She was a hint, a riddle, a remembrance.” Longlisted for the 2023 National Book Awards, Jayne Anne Phillips’s Night Watch (Knopf 2023) is a powerful historical novel that echoes with Faulkner but with a feminine energy thatContinue reading “NIGHT WATCH- Jayne Anne Phillips”
A SPELL OF GOOD THINGS – Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀
Booker season continues with Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀ ’s A Spell of Good Things (Knopf 2023). The novel is Wole Soyinka (without the bitter wit) meets The Girl with the Louding Voice – full of political corruption, a hunger for both food and education, and a sharp division between classes while still showing, quite literally, that we allContinue reading “A SPELL OF GOOD THINGS – Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀ “
A DANGEROUS BUSINESS – Jane Smiley
Jane Smiley’s A Dangerous Business (Knopf 2022) was published in December of last year, but I just got around to reading the uncorrected proof the publisher sent. I know Smiley is a phenomenal writer – Horse Heaven and A Thousand Acres are two powerful novels that highlight that talent – but A Dangerous Business wasContinue reading “A DANGEROUS BUSINESS – Jane Smiley”
THE RACHEL INCIDENT – Caroline O’Donoghue
“The smell of pastry, the chocolate melting on my tongue, the bitter black coffee. I needed to remind myself of my anger, so I didn’t inadvertently mix up good snacks with a good man.” Set primarily in 2009-2010, Caroline O’Donoghue’s The Rachel Incident (Knopf expected 27 June 2023) is a slice of life work that’sContinue reading “THE RACHEL INCIDENT – Caroline O’Donoghue”
BETTY – Tiffany McDaniel
“Then I buried the story alive, making sure it was deep enough, a wolf wouldn’t smell blood on it and dig it up.” I don’t really know what to say about this book, and I keep oscillating between a poor rating and a middle range rating. Part of the flipflopping is because I know thisContinue reading “BETTY – Tiffany McDaniel”
NIGHTCRAWLING – Leila Mottley
My eighth read of the 2022 Booker Prize longlist (and my last read before the shortlist is announced tomorrow) was Leila Mottley’s Nightcrawling (Alfred A. Knopf 2022). Mottley, a poet, was 17 when she started this novel, and there is a vibrance and urgency of youth that hums through the poetic prose. The words areContinue reading “NIGHTCRAWLING – Leila Mottley”
GREAT CIRCLE – Maggie Shipstead
“I was born to be a wanderer.” Maggie Shipstead’s Great Circle (Alfred A. Knopf 2021) is likely my pick for the 2021 Booker Prize. (And it has nothing to do with the fact a coonhound makes an appearance.) I love the uniqueness of Lockwood’s No One is Talking About This and it’s still my darkContinue reading “GREAT CIRCLE – Maggie Shipstead”
A PLAY FOR THE END OF THE WORLD – Jai Chakrabarti
In 1942, a prominent Polish Jewish children’s author, Janusz Korczak or Pan Doktor,staged a performance of Rabindranath Tagore’s play The Post Office. The Indian play is about a very sick boy who will die. Korczak, consistently refusing sanctuary and insisting he stay with the nearly 200 orphans in his care, wanted to prepare the childrenContinue reading “A PLAY FOR THE END OF THE WORLD – Jai Chakrabarti”
A Girl Named Tommi 