BOOKS

recs, reading logs and more

i hated reading logs as a kid.

They made me write down the book I read, which pages, when I read it, what genre it was (d-y-s-t-o-p-i-a). Then when they let me leve elementary school I was put on Goodreads, where you write reviews and put shiny stars to try to measure the inscrutable nature of literature. Boring! Anyway, I love to read, I hate writing book reviews. I do use stars here, sometimes. For my purposes, anything above 3 compelled me enough to finish the book, 4 means well written, and five is great. Five means I thought about the book for a while. Some don't have ratings. Highlighted in dark blue are my favorites. Go to the library and pick something up.

2024

September

Creation Lake - Rachel Kushner 4/5

thoughts

Close to the Knives: A Memior of Disintegration - David Wojnarowicz

Those who leave and those who stay - Elena Ferrante

A Story of a New Name - Elena Ferrante

August

My Brilliant Friend - Elena Ferrante

Into the Woods - Tana French

In the Dream House - Carmen Maria Machando

Transit - Rachel Cusk

May

Eleanor Oliphant is perflectly fine 3/5

1984 - George Orwell 4/5

Birnam Wood - Elizabeth Catton 4/5

Orlando - Virginia Woolf

APRIL

Outline - Rachel Cusk 4/5

The Searcher - Tara French 2/5

Ulysses - James Joyce (ask me my thoughts about this book and I run)

MARCH

Written on the Body - Jeanette Winterson 4/5

Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter - Simone de Beauvoir 5/5

We Had to Remove This Post - Hanna Bervoets 3/5

The Hunter - Tana French 4/5

Another Country - James Baldwin

American Pastoral - Philip Roth 5/5

Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro

Why be happy when you could be Normal? - Jeanette Winterson?

FEBUARY

To be taught, if fortunate - Becky Chambers 3.5/4

Marytr! - Kaveh Akbar 4/5

JANUARY

Don't Look at Me Like That - Diana Athill 3/5

Stay True - Hua Hsu 4/5

2023

JANUARY

Either/Or - Elif Bautman

FEBUARY

If Beale Street could talk - James Baldwin 5/5

MARCH

THE BRAIN DEAD MEGAPHONE - George Saunders 3/5

APRIL

Straight Man - Richard Russo 4/5

MAY

The Graveyard Book - Neil Gaiman 4/5

Devotions - Mary Oliver 5/5

Sea of Tranqulity - Emily St. Mandel 4/5

JUNE

The White Album - Joan Didieon 5/5

Giovanni's Room - James Baldwin 4/5

The Great Believers - Rebecca Makkai 4/5

Afterparties - Anthony Veasna So 5/5

JULY

Old School - Tobias Woolf 4/5

Drive Your Plow over the Bones of the Dead - Olga Tokarczuk 4/5

Black Friday 4/5

AUGUST

At the Existenitalist Cafe - 5/5

We Sold Our Souls - Grady Hendrix 4/5

Run Towards the Danger - Sarah Polley 3/5

The Secret to Superhuman Strength - Alison Bechdel 5/5

SEPTEMBER

Bluebeard - Kurt Vounget 4/5

h4 Female Character - Fern Brady 4/5

OCTOBER

Monstrillo - Gerardo Sámano Córdova 4/5

Let The Record Show - Sarah Schulman 4/5 (partly read, lots of skipping around)

NOVEMBER

The Netanyahus - Joshua Cohen 5/5

Oranges are Not the Only Fruit - Jeanette Winterson 5/5

DECEMBER

Americanah - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 3.5/5

Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoevsky 5/5

Bright Young Women - Jessica Knoll 4/5