“Better not to be making memories right now anyway,” he said. “In my father’s reality, my mother had never died and his country had never betrayed him.” “What is the weight of memory?” “Then she died and no one called me that anymore.” There is typically a novel of exile appearing on the Booker longlistContinue reading “THE RENOVATION – Kenan Orhan”
Tag Archives: reading
CHILDREN OF THE WILD – Kevin Powers
Based on the premise and the reviews, I thought I was sure to enjoy Kevin Powers’s Children of the Wild (Harper 2026). Color me wrong. I was so disappointed in this book. And quite honestly mad at myself for finishing it. But where did it go wrong? Historical fiction set in 1917, isolated rural valleyContinue reading “CHILDREN OF THE WILD – Kevin Powers”
MARE – Emily Haworth-Booth
“When I began it, I saw that the story didn’t begin with her at all, but further back. I decided to begin it, for now, with the dog.” “And the dog died, and all my stories with him…” Emily Haworth-Booth’s Mare (Farrar, Straus and Giroux 2026) is the type of book that will rip theContinue reading “MARE – Emily Haworth-Booth”
ALL THEM DOGS – Djamel White
A buzzy debut with some Booker-heavy blurbs, including from the first Booker prize winner to serve as chair of the award, Djamel White’s All Them Dogs (Riverhead Books 2026) has been on my radar for a bit. It’s one of two releases that I anticipated would end up on my predictions list and hoped toContinue reading “ALL THEM DOGS – Djamel White”
CANON – Paige Lewis
“They only bite what they don’t understand, which means, in this dream, Yara is biting everything.” Paige Lewis’s Canon (Viking 2026) is one whackadoodle of a book. This “nonbinary epic” will have you rolling. The bard of this tale and the distinctive voice of the storyteller throughout the novel is fantastic. The chapter headings areContinue reading “CANON – Paige Lewis”
SON OF NOBODY – Yann Martel
“You liked animals, too, Helen. They are dreams made of flesh.” I loved Yann Martel’s Life of Pi. I read it while traveling to Cambodia back in 2003, and that paperback remains one of my most prized possessions. When I run my thumb over the red-dirt stained edges, I’m immediately transported back to when IContinue reading “SON OF NOBODY – Yann Martel”
TAILBONE – Che Yeun
“The redness in her eyes reminded me of the lipstick she hadn’t worn in a while. I wanted to ask her out to the street vendors again, to eat skewers together, to become two jobless mindless dipshit girls wandering the city together. To feel how surely she took each footstep, how her heels smacked theContinue reading “TAILBONE – Che Yeun”
YESTERYEAR – Caro Claire Burke
“This is the last day of the life I imagined for myself.” Caro Claire Burke’s Yesteryear (Knopf 2026) is certainly one of the buzziest books of the year. Buzzy books can be hit or miss for me, so I was already approaching it from the standpoint that it probably wouldn’t live up to the hype.Continue reading “YESTERYEAR – Caro Claire Burke”
THE SEVEN DAUGHTERS OF DUPREE – Nikesha Elise Williams
“Everything don’t need to be voiced. Everything don’t need to grow wings, ride the air, and visit folk you don’t know with stories they got no stake it.” “She knew some deceptions deserved the dirt.” In the vein of The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois comes Nikesha Elise Williams’s The Seven Daughters of DupreeContinue reading “THE SEVEN DAUGHTERS OF DUPREE – Nikesha Elise Williams”
THE FOUNTAIN – Casey Scieszka
“She touches the barrel to her chin, to her temple, back to her chin. She braces herself for the shock of it. She hopes for the thousandth time, millionth time, for some relief.” Emma Straub called Casey Scieszka’s debut novel, The Fountain (Harper 2026), “like Tuck Everlasting for grown-ups,” and that perfectly sums up thisContinue reading “THE FOUNTAIN – Casey Scieszka”
A Girl Named Tommi 