This week's theme is college in the late 1990s was wild. I can attest. What I read this week Transcription by Ben Lerner I'm a Ben Lerner completist. I am always intrigued by his work, as long as I can block out the sounds of his
The theme of the week is hurt people hurt people. What I read this week Here Where We Live Is Our Country: The Story of the Jewish Bund by Molly Crabapple I never thought that in my adult life I would spend so much time thinking about what it means
This week's theme is errant children What I read this week London Falling: A Mysterious Death in a Gilded City and a Family's Search for Truth by Patrick Radden Keefe When you think of "narrative nonfiction," Patrick Radden Keefe is likely the writer whose
The theme of this week is primogeniture. What I read this week The Keeper by Tana French Tana French is a stop-everything-and-read author for me, and so I was lucky when the audiobook version of The Keeper was uploaded to the PRH audio app last week just when I was
This week's theme is homecomings What I read this week The Fountain by Casey Scieszka For transparency: Casey is a member of my writing group. That said, she joined when this novel was pretty much in the bag so there is not much reflected glory that I can
This week's theme is multiple POVs. The other theme is air travel in America and how canceled flights and persnickety wifi can really throw off a newsletter writer (sorry this is a day late!). What I read this week Whidbey by T Kira Madden An explosive revenge novel
The theme of the week is schadenfreude What I read this week Night Night Fawn by Jordy Rosenberg Why aren't more people screaming about this book? What an accomplishment for Jordy Rosenberg to change the entire tenor and tone of his work after his excellent debut, Confessions of
The theme of the week is poetry in unexpected places. What I read this week The Copywriter by Daniel Poppick Not since Hannah Horvath worked in advertorial at GQ has a true artiste's creative energy been so stifled by a day job. Daniel Poppick's debut novel
The theme of this week is reappearances What I read this week This Is Where the Serpent Lives by Daniyal Mueenuddin As precise and epic in scope as the most celebrated Russian novels, This Is Where the Serpent Lives is a modern history of Pakistan whose characters will likely haunt
The theme of the week is heroines of the telephone company What I read this week Vigil by George Saunders Is Vigil George Saunders's best work or third best work or fifth best work? No. But do his sentences still sing, each and every one of them? Even
The theme of the week is fictional characters named for other fictional characters What I read this week The End of Romance by Lily Meyer Lily Meyer has said that the heroine of her second novel is named Sylvie Broder, after Broder, the protagonist in Isaac Bashevis Singer's
The theme of the week is how-to. But first... This is the worst part. I hate to do this. But I just re-upped my account for this newsletter on Ghost (it would have been nice if they'd given me a warning first!) for more than $1000 for the