My second read from the Booker Prize longlist left a bad taste in my mouth. It wasn’t because of the writing – Paul Harding writes beautifully and with a concise purpose (albeit with a tone that reminds me of works that want to appear smarter and more literary at the sake of losing the actualContinue reading “THIS OTHER EDEN – Paul Harding”
Tag Archives: book review
IF I SURVIVE YOU – Jonathan Escoffery
“Tell him – across the expanse of time and distance, as I am telling you now – all that I can’t say to him. Start with the resentment and the feelings of neglect and your resulting recklessness. Recount every injury, every scar you carve into each other. And when you’re finished, and you are certainContinue reading “IF I SURVIVE YOU – Jonathan Escoffery”
HOW TO TURN INTO A BIRD – María José Ferrada
“One side of love, an undervalued one, has to do with letting the other person walk their own path.” María José Ferrada’s How to Turn into a Bird (translated by Elizabeth Bryer, Tin House 2022) echoes with the same tender ache of growing up as Le Petit Prince and Peter Pan, and it has justContinue reading “HOW TO TURN INTO A BIRD – María José Ferrada”
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 GIRL WITH THE LOUDING VOICE – Abi Daré
“This flower be the brown of a wet leaf that suffer a stamping from the dirty feets of a man that forget the promise he make to his dead wife.” Abi Daré’s debut The Girl with the Louding Voice (Dutton 2020) has been on my TBR for ages. I was admittedly a bit reluctant toContinue reading “THE GIRL WITH THE LOUDING VOICE – Abi Daré”
BANYAN MOON – Thao Thai
“He’s polish without substance, and I’ve hitched my wagon to nothing but a handful of glitter.” “The living must trespass on the dead; everything left behind a gift, an inheritance, no matter how unintentional.” Thao Thai’s debut Banyan Moon (Mariner Books 2023) is a heart hug of a family saga. From the 1960s Vietnam toContinue reading “BANYAN MOON – Thao Thai”
THE MEMORY OF ANIMALS – Claire Fuller
“This is grief, Neffy… It is awful and terrible, and it will never truly leave, but you will learn to live with it, and you have to let me help you.” I didn’t anticipate having a pandemic book framed by a woman’s teetering-into-inappropriate relationship with an octopus as one of my top reads of theContinue reading “THE MEMORY OF ANIMALS – Claire Fuller”
A DAY OF FALLEN NIGHT – Samantha Shannon
“We will all be stories one day, and I’d want someone to believe we existed. Wouldn’t you?” When I found out Samantha Shannon was returning to the world of The Priory of the Orange Tree, I was already smitten; she is a special author to me because I’ve been along for the ride since theContinue reading “A DAY OF FALLEN NIGHT – Samantha Shannon”
THE FORBIDDEN TERRITORY OF A TERRIFYING WOMAN – Molly Lynch
Molly Lynch’s The Forbidden Territory of a Terrifying Woman (Catapult 2023) was an unsatisfying but thankfully quick read. Billed as an exploration of motherhood during an ecological collapse, I was expecting more of a developed and likable even if morally grey character in Ada. Unfortunately, I didn’t care what happened to her, why it happenedContinue reading “THE FORBIDDEN TERRITORY OF A TERRIFYING WOMAN – Molly Lynch”
THE LAST RUSSIAN DOLL – Kristen Loesch
“She stood, with her doll beneath her arm, and she walked, across the blood-red floor, over her blood-red siblings, through the blood-red door, out of the blood-red house, all the way to the blood-red river. She forgot to wash her blood-red hands.” Spanning the period from 1916 to 1993, Kristen Loesch’s The Last Russian DollContinue reading “THE LAST RUSSIAN DOLL – Kristen Loesch”
A Girl Named Tommi 