Book Report
Thoughts on books I’m reading.
Another Life
I read this novella on a whim after seeing in mentioned in a thread about Hugo drama. It’s a quick, straight forward, breezy read. I genuinely admire Ulibarri’s political optimism on display, and I found the character, plot, and style enjoyable.
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Rabbit Run
Updike is a nuanced and linguistically competent writer, and the plot is fast and engaging. As a character study it is engrossing.
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Possession: A Romance
What an audacious book this is.
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Belonging: A German Reckons with History and Home
In Belonging, Krug digs deep into an identity of collective inherited guilt.
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The Pisces
This book was recommended effusively by an author I admire, Lulu Miller. So it went on my list. Broder is an exquisite writer, and I love a first-person narrative that goes deep, so it’s no surprise I loved this.
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Stolen
I was engrossed by the first act of Stolen, seen through the eyes of a nine-year-old girl.
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Sofia Coppola Archive
I love getting these glimpses into Coppola’s visual inspiration. The book is full of them.
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Dracula
Somehow I got this far in life without ever reading Dracula.
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The Great White Bard
Karim-Cooper, an accomplished Shakespeare scholar and woman of color, does the hard work, turning to the text, and the history of racial language…
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Egg
I adore this kind of book. It’s a sort of renaissance work of affection and obsession.
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But Will You Love Me Tomorrow
This book is almost 100% constructed from excerpts from first person interviews with a wide cast of characters from the industry and era, all meticulously edited…
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Immortal Longings
This book was not for me.
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Madonna
I grew up in Indiana to mostly liberal parents in the heart of conservative America, and in the thick of the AIDS crisis. Which is to say Madonna was, for the most part, a villain in the cultural mind of my surroundings.
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Fairyland
I spotted this book on a promo table at a book store in San Francisco and I suppose I was taken in by the striking cover, and because you know, like, I’m a father of girls.
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The Scarlet Letter
Over dinner, Isabel told me they re-read this because their students are reading it in Literature class. Isabel said it was so much better than they remembered.
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The Westing Game
My brother and I read this book together during a family trip when we were maybe 10 and 11. I had completely forgotten about it…
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The Name of the Rose
It has everything!
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Olga Dies Dreaming
What an engrossing and possessing book this is.
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The Future is Female
This collection of sci-fi short stories by women authors is, unsurprisingly, a mixed bag, but also a lot of fun.
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Holy the Firm
I re-read this book yesterday as a sort of healing balm as I grieve…
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A Brief History of Black Holes
What a delight this book is. It’s deeply engrossing, perfectly light for a non-scientist with genuine interest, and wonderfully structured.
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Eight Mountains
It’s a beautifully written book about that friction between the world we sometimes imagine we want.
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The Six
This book is so well constructed. Even though you probably know many of the events, Grush unfolds them for us beautifully.
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Cleopatra
Schiff does such a good job illuminating the source material and putting what has been said about Cleopatra into historical and cultural context.
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Indigenous Continent
The steady drumbeat of violence described in Indigenous Continent, put into terminology that is not so tainted by white supremacy, made all this very bare.
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Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret
Thanks an awful lot to you too, Margaret.
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Marie Antoinette
I decided to read this because it is the basis of one of my favorite films, Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette. And because the cover is gorgeous. But it is also a very timely read.
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What She Said
I devoured this book today from beginning to end. Powerful, intimate, redemptive, and beautifully illustrated. It brought me to tears.
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The Perks of Being a Wallflower
I can see why this book resonated. It is very good. I love a first-person narrative. I love an epistolary novel. And I love a distinctive voice. This book is all three…
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The Road
To me this book is the opposite of hopeless…
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Alan Turing
A little over-long and short on insight, but still a worthy read…
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