Current installment of Tommi Reads the World – we’re still in the C’s!!! Country: CroatiaTitle: Slanting Towards the SeaAuthor: Lidija HilgeLanguage: EnglishTranslator: N/APublisher: Simon & Schuster 2025 “Back home, all things slant towards the sea.” “I can’t remember the last time someone said I had potential. But the thing about potential is that it doesn’t goContinue reading “SLANTING TOWARDS THE SEA – Lidija Hilje”
Tag Archives: book review
THE CONVENIENCE STORE BY THE SEA – Sonoko Machida
I recently read The Second Chance Convenience Store, and that library hold came in with The Convenience Store by the Sea by Sonoko Machida (translated by Bruno Navasky, Putnam 2025). The first was a Korean convenience store that served as the setting to unfold a story about a mysterious man as told through several interconnectedContinue reading “THE CONVENIENCE STORE BY THE SEA – Sonoko Machida”
THE GIRLS WHO GREW BIG – Leila Mottley
“Momma raised me right till she refused to raise me at all.” “They wanted us to be anything but what we were.” “’Cause hundreds of years ago, some pirate ship sunk and spilled treasures all over the bottom of our sea and now the water shines emerald green for us and if that don’t makeContinue reading “THE GIRLS WHO GREW BIG – Leila Mottley”
FLASHLIGHT – Susan Choi
“In one hand he holds a flashlight which is not necessary, in the other hand he holds Louisa’s hand which is also not necessary.” (3) “Up and down with their flashlights: one carries the flashlight, the other carries the gun.” (378) Susan Choi’s Flashlight (Farrar, Straus and Giroux 2025) is next up in the BookerContinue reading “FLASHLIGHT – Susan Choi”
THE SECOND CHANCE CONVENIENCE STORE – Kim Ho-Yeon
If you’re looking for a slim, comfortable little novella that is reminiscent of the heart hug I get from Backman, try Kim Ho-Yeon’s The Second Chance Convenience Store. (Translated by Janet Hong, Originally published in South Korea 2021; English translation published by Harper Perennial 2025). It’s full of warmth and humor, found families, and secondContinue reading “THE SECOND CHANCE CONVENIENCE STORE – Kim Ho-Yeon”
THE ORIGINAL – Nell Stevens
“Everything done for the second time is a copy of when it was done for the first time, and an attempt to bring back something lost.” Nell Stevens The Original (W.W. Norton & Company 2025) is a delicious, queer historical fiction, laced in a Victorian gothic tradition that rendered it un-put-down-able. As a young girl,Continue reading “THE ORIGINAL – Nell Stevens”
AUDITION – Katie Kitamura
“There are always two stories taking place at once, the narrative inside the play and the narrative around it, and the boundary between the two is more porous that you might think, that is both the danger and the excitement of the performance.” (38) First up in the 2025 Booker 101 is a slim sliceContinue reading “AUDITION – Katie Kitamura”
THAT’S ALL I KNOW – Elisa Levi
“Look, sir, here’s your dog. I told you dog weren’t like me, dogs stick around.” “And they’d tell me that if I was going to be so distrustful of the outsiders, I’d end up hating them, and in small towns hatred is more dangerous than guns, the forest, or illness.” With perhaps the most perfectContinue reading “THAT’S ALL I KNOW – Elisa Levi”
THE ORIGINAL DAUGHTER – Jemimah Wei
“Irrevocably dispersed throughout the land he abandoned, the land where he belonged.” Until page 150, I thought Jemimah Wei’s The Original Daughter (Doubleday 2025) was easily going to be a 4-star read. I enjoyed the storytelling style and, more importantly for me, I enjoyed the story. At page 150, there is a marked shift inContinue reading “THE ORIGINAL DAUGHTER – Jemimah Wei”
JAMAICA ROAD – Lisa Smith
“I’ve missed you too. I’ve been missing you for ages.” Lisa Smith’s Jamaica Road (Knopf 2025) is a heartbreaking debut of a love story that is very much time and place. Set primarily in South London, Jamaica Road opens in 1981 with a young Daphne. Daphne is the only Black girl in her class, andContinue reading “JAMAICA ROAD – Lisa Smith”
A Girl Named Tommi 