2.22.2023 | Hoooooo, Goodness, What Even IS 2023?!
Yup, for those of y’all keeping score, I did not post my 2022 book list! There’s been, I dunno, a lot going on.
Alas! I did read a great many books last year! Here are my top ones, no real preamble, no explanation, no subsections, no particular order:
How to be Both by Ali Smith
Companion Piece by Ali Smith
The Candy House by Jennifer Egan
Poison for Breakfast by Lemony Snicket
The Sentence by Louise Erdrich
The Devil’s Treasure by Mary Gaitskill
Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro
Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons
Toad by Katherine Dunn
Priestdaddy by Patricia Lockwood
The Silent Woman by Janet Malcolm
Slouching Towards Bethlehem by Joan Didion
Read about ’em online, and if they sound good, read ’em!
5.23.2022 | Recently Finished & Currently Reading!
Gosh, it’s been a while, huh? Truth be told, I haven’t been reading much! It pains me to write that; it’s a weird time to be alive and human, and I can only hope we’re all doing our best.
That said, I do have a couple of new book recommendations!
Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro
Slow moving, thoughtful, and altogether lovely.
Who would I recommend Klara and the Sun to?
Readers who love books that make you think about mortality, emotions, and what it means to be a living being.
Poison for Breakfast by Lemony Snicket
A slim, delightful, and darkly funny novel. I’m a big fan of A Series of Unfortunate Events. I like how Snicket puts sentences together, and how he’s able to take a reader round and round in circles and yet tie everything together in a completely satisfying way.
Who would I recommend Poison for Breakfast to?
Honestly? Almost everyone. There are those who might find the way he writes pretentious, and if that’s you, I don’t need to tell you to skip this book, because you already will. For everyone else, this is a fantastically fun and thought-provoking read. There’s even a fair amount of narrative tension, as it’s also a bit of a mystery. Looking for an easy literary beach read? This is it.
The Sentence by Louise Erdrich
With Erdrich’s novels, she either has me at hello and I’m rapt for the duration (see: The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse, for example), or I just can’t quite get into it (see: The Round House). This was a new experience for me, in that it took me a bit to get into it, but the narrator — wonderfully quirky — won me over, and I ended up really enjoying the book.
Who would I recommend The Sentence to?
People who love books and bookstores. People who like ghost stories. People who will appreciate the fact that Louise Erdrich herself is a character in the novel, and the way she writes herself as a character is really funny.
Currently reading:
The Candy House by Jennifer Egan. (Very strong recommendation on this one coming soon! And if you haven’t read A Visit from the Goon Squad, while it’s not necessary to have read it to enjoy this sort-of sequel, it’s a great novel, and the ways it’s referenced in The Candy House are fun.)
Companion Piece by Ali Smith. If you’re reading this, you very likely know that I am completely, devotedly obsessed with Ali Smith. I think the way she uses words and language is so clever, so playful, so fun — and of course all of this while working through some pretty dark topics. This is the fifth installment of her epic Seasonal Quartet, and I’m reading it slowly on purpose because 1. it’s just that good, and 2. I don’t want it to end.
The TBR shelf is loaded and ever-more unwieldy. Hopefully I’ll get back into soon? No one can say for sure.
2.11.2022 | Recently Finished!
Fake Accounts by Lauren Oyler
OK, first off: some of this book—some sentences, some paragraphs, some sections—are perfect and so wonderfully written that I read them repeatedly just to get to experience the pleasure of reading them again. I might even feel this way about much of this book, not just some of it. These sentences, paragraphs, and sections made me laugh, made me gasp, made me see things in a different way. It’s very SMART (I initially had that italicized—smart—and it looks all wrong that way, don’t you think?), and intentionally so.
There’s been much debate about whether or not you can write a book about the internet and make it interesting. After all, how interesting can someone staring at a screen BE? This novel, somehow, argues for both sides. Oyler manages to make the internet parts clever and funny; that said, the book feels relentless in its detail. For all the parts that I love, love, loved, there were parts (and one section) that I just wanted to end already. There was a tedium to it; this might’ve just been me, or it might’ve been intentional.
While it’s really nothing like The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt, the reading experience struck me as similar—exhaustively detailed, such that the pacing of the book becomes vaguely unsatisfying (I say “vaguely” because truly, so much of it was so good and so satisfying). (Go ahead, come at me, Tartt fans. I couldn’t finish The Secret History—although my attempt was a very long time ago, and although the prologue remains one of the most perfect things I’ve ever read [truly, the first sentence, “The snow in the mountains was melting and Bunny had been dead for several weeks before we came to understand the gravity of our situation,” runs through my head on a loop sometimes all these years later]—and although I’m sure we can all agree I’m getting away from the point here.)
Asides aside, who would I recommend Fake Accounts to?
People who spend a lot of time on social media, as it’s a worthy take on where the time goes; people who are into “academic” books; students of philosophy (literally or metaphorically); those who don’t mind not a whole lot of plot but love a whole lot of description; readers who like it when basically the entire page is text.
Much has been done to compare this book to No One Is Talking about This by Patricia Lockwood. Other than the “books about the internet” connection, I don’t totally get it, but I will say I LOVED No One Is Talking about This and would recommend it wholeheartedly. The first half is hilarious and astute, and then the second half pulls your heart out and shreds it into tiny pieces. And then it sets those pieces on fire. And then it stomps the fire out with cleats—the sharp golf kind, not the decidedly less aggressive soccer kind.
The Devil’s Treasure by Mary Gaitskill
Mary Gaitskill, how I love you. Let me count the ways. Anyone to whom I’ve ever talked about Gaitskill has heard me say something like this:
What I like most about her writing is that she writes in a way that is very sensitive and almost entirely based in emotion, all while presenting complex characters and situations with no narrative judgment or morality at all—because of this, I learn so much about what *I* think about things when I read her.
After reading The Devil’s Treasure, I’ll add the following to the list of things I will always say when she comes up:
She is “known” for being cruel to her characters—but as she puts it in this book, she writes about sensitive people in a cruel world. Something like that, but better of course. (Forgive me, I looked for the exact quote and couldn’t find it. I’ll find it soon enough and add it in, so be sure to check back often!)
This book is part new story, parts of a few of her previously published works, part commentary on said books, part new nonfiction, and a couple of collages, all woven together—for lack of a better word—seamlessly, which is to say: once I got over the compulsion that I needed to stay aware of what part each section was from and maintain that for the duration of the novel (flipping back obsessively, considering creating a note-taking system), everything bled together in a most enjoyable way.
One of the hardest-hitting revelatory parts for me personally was her description of growing up in the Detroit suburbs. She experienced that about twenty years before I did, so it’s not an exact match, but I had never heard the suburbs described quite that way, and it made me think of my childhood in a wholly different way—and, importantly, one that makes more sense to me. (I’m not gonna write about that here, now. Maybe later? Or maybe we should talk about it the next time we hang out; just remind me to bring the book so I can read some of what she wrote instead of ham-fistedly trying to paraphrase. Suffice it to say: she discusses how the suburbs are a nice enough place materially, but that they are psychologically brutal, that there is violence in almost every aspect of how suburbanites present themselves in the world. It’s on page 27. I put that here so we can turn right to it when we talk about it.)
The best parts of it feel like staying up all night listening to the smartest, most interesting, most intuitive person you know talk to you about whatever she feels like talking about. I’ve read the books she revisits, but doing it again in this context (and lack of context, as the books themselves are sliced into small, sometimes tiny, pieces) felt completely new.
Who would I recommend The Devil’s Treasure to?
For those who love Gaitskill, it’s truly a must-read. Sensitive people who enjoy reading about very dark things will likely see a lot of themselves in the material. Readers who are fans of fairy tales (I’m thinking more of the Carmen Maria Machado or Helen Oyeyemi brand of fairy tale).
Currently reading:
The Sentence by Louise Erdrich
How to be Both by Ali Smith
Priestdaddy by Patricia Lockwood
Bits and pieces of The Devil’s Treasure again, because I can’t quite put the book away yet
(I typically try not to read more than one book at a time, but, you know, sometimes this happens.)
On deck:
Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro
Manifesto by Bernadine Evaristo
Matrix by Lauren Groff (tbh I’ve never actually finished one of her books, but her reading of her story, “Annunciation” on the New Yorker: Writer’s Voice podcast was excellent and piqued my interest)
The Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead (recommended to me by my friend Shelly, who is the reason I read Trust Exercise and The Great Believers, earning my forever-trust in her recommendations)
Fiona and Jane by Jean Chen Ho
A stack of books from my delightfully readerly (and read: delightful) neighbor
I’ll keep you posted.
Some things to listen to:
Mary Gaitskill reading her story, “Acceptance Journey,” on the New Yorker: Writer’s Voice podcast.
Mary Gaitskill live at the Moth.
Jennifer Egan reading Gaitskill’s “The Other Place” on the New Yorker: Fiction podcast.
1.14.2022 | A Listening Recommendation
Today, a dear friend asked for a podcast or audiobook recommendation, and the first thing that truly sprang to mind was the incomparable Zadie Smith reading her absolute-perfection story, “Now More Than Ever,” in her absolute-perfection voice on the New Yorker’s oh-so-excellent Writer’s Voice podcast. I’ve listened to this story—let’s do a best guess here—26 times. I hope you’ll give it a listen, and if you do, ENJOY!
1.11.2022 | My Favorite Books of 2021!
Note: I no longer post these lists necessarily as recommendations. The more I read, the more I realize the “types” of books that really HIT me, and the fact that they hit ME of course doesn’t mean they’ll hit YOU. To that end, I’ve created the Novel Concierge, a free service I encourage you all to check out.
Keeping a list of the books I read and ranking them is one of the best ways I have found to mark time. For example, looking over this list, I was TRULY CONFOUNDED that I’d read some of these books THIS year. It showed me in a whole new way how very, very long 2021 was, and how many lives I lived within it.
The last three years, I’ve had ONE book that I literally hug and kiss when I finish it (last year, it was Trust Exercise by Susan Choi; the year before, it was Gingerbread by Helen Oyeyemi). This year, it was:
Life of the Mind by Christine Smallwood
And the other really big thing that happened in my life as a reader this year: ALI SMITH. Last year, I fell down a Shirley Jackson rabbit hole, an experience I STILL STAND BY AND VERY MUCH ENCOURAGE. THIS year, I fell down an Ali Smith rabbit hole, and HOLY MOLY just WOW. She is one of those writers where every cell in my body hums, We will never be the same, while I read her. Somehow I had never heard of Ali Smith, but I came across something online that said if you like Helen Oyeyemi (and I SURE DO!), you’ll like Ali Smith. I’m not sure of the science behind this, but I do have anecdotal evidence to support it.
There is very likely no wrong way to fall down an Ali Smith rabbit hole, but here is mine:
Hotel World
The Accidental
Autumn
Winter
Spring
Summer
. . . and I’m halfway through How to be Both and have preordered Companion Piece—the next installment in her beautiful and soul-crushing seasonal quartet—which comes out in March!
Here are my best reads of the year, in semi-particular order:
No One is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood
Peaces by Helen Oyeyemi
The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai
I Love You But I’ve Chosen Darkness by Claire Vaye Watkins
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
What Are You Going Through by Sigrid Nunez
We Run the Tides by Vendela Vida
Sisters by Daisy Johnson
Dept. of Speculation by Jenny Offill
Know My Name by Chanel Miller (truly should be required reading for . . . all people)
Here is my long-list for best reads, alphabetically:
A Touch of Jen by Beth Morgan
Animal by Lisa Taddeo
Assembly by Natasha Brown
Sam the Cat by Matt Klam
Solutions and Other Problems by Allie Brosh
Spilt Milk by Courtney Zoffness
Who is Maud Dixon? by Alexandra Andrews
You’ll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey by Amber Ruffin and Lacey Lamar
And the slightly longer-list, no particular order:
Six Months, Three Days, Five Others by Charlie Jane Anders
Self Care by Leigh Stein
Answered Prayers by Truman Capote
Breakfast at Tiffany’s by Truman Capote
The Low, Low Woods by Carmen Maria Machado
The Banks by Roxanne Gay
Shit, Actually by Lindy West
Heroes of the Frontier by Dave Eggers
In the Land of Men by Adrienne Miller
Mrs. March by Virginia Feito
Blue Ticket by Sophie Mackintosh
How Y’all Doin’? by Leslie Jordan
Books I had the most wonderful time working on, and that I truly love as books, and that you might enjoy as well:
Note: Books I edit or help with in some way are not currently eligible for my best-of list.
Out now:
People Want to Live by Farah Ali
Museum of Rain by Dave Eggers
The Every by Dave Eggers
Brood X by Josh Dysart
One Eye Open by Alex Grecian
You People by Nikita Lalwani
Ivory Shoals by John Brandon
Coming March 2022:
I Know What’s Best for You, ed. Shelly Oria
Coming November 2022:
Watching by Charles Taylor
Dali/Dalai by Rick Solomon
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