Books We Need to Read in Trump’s
In light of the inauguration of an American president with a now-indisputable fascist bent, I’ve put together a reading list for a Trump presidency. These books are either lesser-known or…
Blackout, Sarah Hepola, and Addiction Memoir
Sarah Hepola’s memoir Blackout: Remembering the Things I Drank to Forget is probably the best memoir I read in 2016. It’s not only exceptionally well-written, it’s brutally self-honest and open…
Notes from Underground
Notes from Underground represents my transition from the novellas and stories of the heavy-hitter Russians to their longer and more involved work. The first section of Notes is a rebellion…
Lorrie Moore’s Birds of America
Lorrie Moore is good at writing short stories. This surprises no one, I assume. I had read one or two of her stories in anthologies, but never took the time…
A Wizard of Earthsea, and why books for young people don’t have to be shit
After a few lukewarm readings of her short stories, I hadn't really bothered with Le Guin for a few years, but I'm trying to rectify that. The Lathe of Heaven…
A Book of Uncommon Prayer
Reading Log favorite Matthew Vollmer edited this particular anthology, an artifact that began as a personal writing project and expanded to include the work of many writers. Everything in here…
Mother Night -yes, more Vonnegut…
Mother Night is one of Vonnegut’s minor novels, but still a strong entry. With my goal of reading all of his novels, (as well as Palm Sunday and Man Without…
Mary Gaitskill’s Bad Behavior
Mary Gaitskill’s debut story collection is definitely one of the best collections I’ve read this year. It’s a wide range of stories -male and female protagonists, 1st and 3rd person…
Speedboat
Speedboat is a tough book to write about. It’s been written about quite a bit of late -the recent attention drawn by the novel, long out of print, making it…
The Shipping News
-If you have not yet read The Shipping News and you wish to remain ignorant of key plot points, stop reading. You’ve been warned.- I had read Close Range (Proulx’s…