“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”
Tag Archives: reading
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”
THE BOOK OF RECORDS – Madeleine Thien
“It is late and, in these hours, the Book of Records always takes on a new form. The train continues, a sound that blurs into the tide of water against the shore.” “The boy turned the page of his book. ‘I’m counting the hours until we get to the ocean. My mother and aunt sentContinue reading “THE BOOK OF RECORDS – Madeleine Thien”
BURY OUR BONES IN THE MIDNIGHT SOIL – V.E. Schwab
“It is easy, isn’t it, in retrospect? To spot the cracks. To see them spread. But in the moment, there is only the urge to mend each one. To smooth the lines. And keep the surface whole.” Toxic lesbian vampires. That’s how V.E. Schwab’s Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil (2025 Tor) was marketed.Continue reading “BURY OUR BONES IN THE MIDNIGHT SOIL – V.E. Schwab”
MY FRIENDS – FREDRIK BACKMAN
“Twenty-five years later he still wishes for the same thing, that he was fourteen years old and that the world was full of broken clocks. “As seventeen-year-olds they would sleep next to each other almost every night in the foster home, with ice cream stains on their clothes and each other’s laughter in their lungs,Continue reading “MY FRIENDS – FREDRIK BACKMAN”
TIME SHELTER – Georgi Gospodinov
“Now, there’s everything you need to for a true beginning – bad dreams, war, and a headache.” “I had already lived through what was to come.” Current installment of Tommi Reads the World – we’re still in the Bs. Country: BulgariaTitle: Time ShelterAuthor: Georgi GospodinovLanguage: BulgarianTranslator: Angela RodelPublisher: Liveright Publishing Company 2022 (originally published 2020) Georgi Gospondinov’sContinue reading “TIME SHELTER – Georgi Gospodinov”
OATHBOUND – Tracy Deonn
“What is a bargain if not an oath? And what is an oath if not a promise with a price? Call these what you will. All are cut from the same cloth -a cloth woven of intention, will, and sacrifice.” The long-awaited third installment of Tracy Deonn’s remarkable The Legendborn Cycle was released this pastContinue reading “OATHBOUND – Tracy Deonn”
GOOD DIRT – Charmaine Wilkerson
“She is no stranger to keeping time by what she has lost.” When I reviewed Charmaine Wilkerson’s novel, Black Cake, back in 2022, I remarked that it was a solid debut, but I wished the transitions between POVs and timelines had been smoother. Her sophomore novel, Good Dirt (Ballantine Books 2025), similarly jumps timelines andContinue reading “GOOD DIRT – Charmaine Wilkerson”
COUNTING THE COST – Jill Duggar
While doing my latest book nook, I listened to Counting the Cost, Jill Duggar’s 2023 memoir that was written with her husband, Derick Dillard, and Craig Borlase. I had watched the Duggars with a bit of morbid fascination throughout the years, much like most reality TV, and was even more captivated when the religious houseContinue reading “COUNTING THE COST – Jill Duggar”
JOLLOF RICE AND OTHER REVOLUTIONS – Omolola Ijeoma Ogunyemi
“…oga dinma, oga dinma, it will be okay. Today. Tomorrow. Someday.” Omolola Ijeoma Ogunyemi’s Jollof Rice and Other Revolutions: A Novel in Interlocking Stories (Amistad 2022) is my favorite kind of short story collections – the kind where the stories weave in and out of each other, building the reader’s connection to a full castContinue reading “JOLLOF RICE AND OTHER REVOLUTIONS – Omolola Ijeoma Ogunyemi”
A Girl Named Tommi 