In Colm Tóibín's "Long Island," Eilis Lacey Grows Up
Long Island, the newly-published follow-up to Colm Tóibín’s most beloved novel, Brooklyn, takes place around twenty years after the first novel and begins...
Sophomore Slumps and Addiction in "Wandering Stars" (and "Monkey Grip")
Tommy Orange. Credit: PRH/Michael Lionstar In the current economy of publishing, and by extension books coverage too, debut novels take up such a...
The Best Old(er) Books I Read in 2023
I read more books in 2023 than I have in any year of my adult life, and perhaps even in years when, as a child, I spent all my time burrowed into fantasy...
The Ten Best Books of 2023
Below, you'll find a list of the ten best new books I read this year, along with a list of honorable mentions. I decided not to separate reissues, or books...
Little Dorrit, or: How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love Dickens
Well, I did say it would be a while before my next newsletter — it has been a particularly unpleasant couple of months for me. I have a few other pieces...
Autism Misinformation and Stereotyping in Angie Kim's "Happiness Falls"
Angie Kim’s new novel, Happiness Falls, opens on a minor miracle. Mia, the novel’s sardonic undergraduate protagonist, finds herself literally bowled over by...
Welcome & Covid in Fiction
Hello, friends and readers. I created this newsletter some time ago (initially, via Substack) in order to keep in touch with folks as Twitter became less...
