Category: Books

Klara and The Sun by Kazuo Ishiguru is a beautifully written book warning of the Fourth Industrial Revolution disguised as an exploration of whether robots have souls. (Spoiler alert: They do not. But that doesn’t mean they can’t demonstrate goodness. Or, in Klara’s case, perhaps…be good.) Klara is an average

Inside Story by Martin Amis is a maddening book written by a maddening man. I’m writing this review partly out of perversity, gleeful with the knowledge that Inside Story is unlikely material for a “mom blogger“. Amis would likely eye my attempt with utter disdain. And courting disdain from such

Adeline, the protagonist from The Invisible Life of Addie Larue by V.E. Schwab, knows how annoying it is to re-introduce yourself. No, like, she really understands. Addie has to re-introduce herself to every person she encounters. If they turn their back to her, they’ll forget her. Addie Larue is literally

Reviewing Must I Go by Yiyun Li wasn’t on my content calendar. But it haunted me. This book dug into me, claws first. At first glance, Must I Go doesn’t seem so insistent. Just an old lady narrating and annotating an ex-lover’s journal. Must I Go is shocking with brilliant

Halloween is the perfect time for creepy books. I embraced the horror genre as a kid, cutting my teeth on Dean Koontz and R.L. Stine. These days, I appreciate wordplay more than gore. Let’s shrug on some flannel, pour a pumpkin spiced anything, and explore some creepy books. Zone One

Daisy Jones and The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid is a love story. A love story to rock and roll, about rock and roll; celebrating powerful, talented, and (at times) broken women. The prose dances around unrequited and loyal love. Reid is no stranger to love stories. Her previous five

Thom Stead couldn’t get the crocodile right. He ended up making the reptile out of clay, then pitching it. It took weeks for an “aha moment” to rear its head. And that moment? Thom lives for it. Stead recreates book covers and posts them on his Instagram account, readbooks.servelooks. And

Fleishman Is in Trouble is a novel about marriage that opens with divorce. Toby Fleishman divorced a harridan. A social climbing, shallow, money-obsessed, whip yielding succubus. During fights, Rachel Fleishman “went for Toby’s masculinity like it was an artery.” As an unattached doctor at a major New York City hospital,

Autumn is the first offering of Ali Smith’s Seasonal quartet, described on the book jacket as “four stand-alone books, separate yet interconnected and cyclical (as the seasons are)-and it casts an eye over our own time.” Everyone wants to talk about Autumn’s politics. But I want to talk about the