Library

Books I’ve recommended in Trema, my monthly newsletter on books worth reading, link to that issue; the rest link to The Storygraph.

2026

• 
  Dead and Alive Zadie Smith
  SEP
• 
  Crook Manifesto Colson Whitehead
  SEP
• 
  The Cruelest Game Matthew Futterman
  SEP
• 
  Morning and Evening ★

  Jon Fosse
  SEP
• 
  City Like Water Dorothy Tse
  SEP
• 
  Beginning Middle End ★

  Valeria Luiselli
  SEP
• 
  Transcription ★

  Ben Lerner
  SEP
• 
  Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader ★

  Anne Fadiman
  SEP
• 
  Harlem Shuffle ★

  Colson Whitehead
  AUG
• 
  The Bee Sting ★

  Paul Murray
  AUG
• 
  The Silver Book ★

  Olivia Laing
  AUG
• 
  Gewone Hollandse jongens ★

  Mira Feticu
  JUL
• 
  Alles lekt ★

  Luuk Vulkers
  JUL
• 
  Mensen van de dag

  Emma Doude van Troostwijk
  JUL
• 
  Frog and Other Essays ★

  Anne Fadiman
  JUL
• 
  A Truce That Is Not Peace

  Miriam Toews
  JUL
• 
  Als Rusland wint

  Carlo Masala
  JUN
• 
  Zwarte zomer ★

  Tea Tupajić
  JUN
• 
  De dichter en de duivel ★

  Lieke Marsman
  JUN
• 
  A Visit from the Goon Squad ★

  Jennifer Egan
  JUN
• 
  How Fiction Works ★

  James Wood
  MAY
• 
  All That Man Is ★

  David Szalay
  MAY
• 
  Overgave op commando

  Nadia de Vries
  MAY
• 
  Flesh ★

  David Szalay
  MAY
• 
  Mauk

  Jan Vantoortelboom
  MAY
• 
  The Wild Birds ★

  Wendell Berry
  APR
• 
  The Overstory ★

  Richard Powers
  APR
• 
  String Theory: David Foster Wallace on Tennis ★

  David Foster Wallace
  APR
• 
  Greyhound ★

  Joanna Pocock
  APR
• 
  Ganzentijd ★

  Mirjam van Hengel
  MAR
• 
  The Memory Police ★

  Yōko Ogawa
  MAR
• 
  Levels of the Game

  John McPhee
  MAR
• 
  Ik zou uw dochter kunnen zijn

  Doortje Smithuijsen
  MAR
• 
  On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

  Stephen King
  MAR
• 
  One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This ★

  Omar El Akkad
  MAR
• 
  Oroppa ★

  Safae el Khannoussi
  FEB
• 
  Stil de Tijd ★

  Joke J. Hermsen
  FEB
• 
  Big Kiss, Bye-Bye ★

  Claire-Louise Bennett
  FEB
• 
  Power After Carbon: Building a Clean, Resilient Grid

  Peter Fox-Penner
  FEB
• 
  Near to the Wild Heart ★

  Clarice Lispector
  JAN
• 
  Parade

  Rachel Cusk
  JAN
• 
  Breakneck: China’s Quest to Engineer the Future

  Dan Wang
  JAN
• 
  Colony

  Annika Norlin
  JAN

2025

• 
  Bird by Bird ★

  Anne Lamott
  DEC
• 
  The Grid: The Fraying Wires Between Americans and Our Energy Future

  Gretchen Bakke
  DEC
• 
  Any Person Is the Only Self ★

  Elisa Gabbert
  DEC
• 
  Tremor

  Teju Cole
  DEC
• 
  Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil ★

  Hannah Arendt
  DEC
• 
  War and Turpentine ★

  Stefan Hertmans
  NOV
• 
  The Situation and the Story: The Art of Personal Narrative ★

  Vivian Gornick
  OCT
• 
  Hogere Machten

  Joost de Vries
  OCT
• 
  Human Acts ★

  Han Kang
  SEP
• 
  Perfection

  Vincenzo Latronico
  SEP
• 
  Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha ★

  Roddy Doyle
  SEP
• 
  No Straight Road Takes You There: Essays for Uneven Terrain ★

  Rebecca Solnit
  SEP
• 
  Scaffolding ★

  Lauren Elkin
  AUG
• 
  Burning the Days ★

  James Salter
  AUG
• 
  Ik Ga Naar de Schapen ★

  Marieke de Maré
  AUG
• 
  Het Lied van Ooievaar en Dromedaris

  Anjet Daanje
  AUG
• 
  The Story of Art ★

  E.H. Gombrich
  JUL
• 
  Open City ★

  Teju Cole
  JUL
• 
  Achtertuinen

  Robin Kramer
  JUL
• 
  Kiezels

  Judith Hermann
  JUL
• 
  Headshot

  Rita Bullwinkel
  JUL
• 
  It Lasts Forever and then It's Over ★

  Anne de Marcken
  JUL
• 
  Collected Works ★

  Jo Ann Beard
  JUN
• 
  The Alternatives ★

  Caoilinn Hughes
  MAY
• 
  Op een andere planeet kunnen ze me redden ★

  Lieke Marsman
  MAY
• 
  Abundance

  Ezra Klein, Derek Thompson
  APR
• 
  Between You and Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen

  Mary Norris
  APR
• 
  Een Kern van Waarheid

  Peter Buurman
  APR
• 
  The Safekeep ★

  Yael van der Wouden
  APR
• 
  Nuclear War: A Scenario ★

  Annie Jacobsen
  MAR
• 
  Ik kom hier nog op terug

  Rob van Essen
  MAR
• 
  All Things Are Too Small

  Becca Rothfeld
  MAR
• 
  Het Archief ★

  Thomas Heerma van Voss
  FEB
• 
  Focus Marc Hijink
  FEB
• 
  The Repeat Room ★

  Jesse Ball
  FEB
• 
  Martyr! Kaveh Akbar
  JAN
• 
  Een kleine geschiedenis van Amsterdam Geert Mak
  JAN

2024

• 
  Intervals ★

  Marianne Brooker
  DEC
• 
  De eerste 100 dagen van Arne Slot James Worthy
  DEC
• 
  The Chronicles of DOOM ★

  S.H. Fernando Jr.
  DEC
• 
  Creation Lake ★

  Rachel Kushner
  DEC
• 
  Bloedsinaasappel Alma Mathijsen
  DEC
• 
  Aleksandra Lisa Weeda
  DEC
• 
  That Which Appears Thomas A. Clark
  DEC
• 
  Orbital ★

  Samantha Harvey
  NOV
• 
  Species of Spaces and Other Pieces Georges Perec
  NOV
• 
  Pond ★

  Claire-Louise Bennett
  OCT
• 
  Beton Fleur Pierets
  SEP
• 
  All Fours ★

  Miranda July
  SEP
• 
  Pure Colour Sheila Heti
  SEP
• 
  Na de zon Jonas Eika
  AUG
• 
  Every Man for Himself and God Against All ★

  Werner Herzog
  AUG
• 
  Mr. Potter Jamaica Kincaid
  JUL
• 
  Continuous Discovery Habits Teresa Torres
  JUN
• 
  Tegen verkiezingen David Van Reybrouck
  JUN
• 
  Teaching a Stone to Talk Annie Dillard
  JUN
• 
  Totaal witte kamer Gerrit Kouwenaar
  MAY
• 
  The First Bad Man ★

  Miranda July
  MAY
• 
  The New York Trilogy Paul Auster
  MAY
• 
  Less is More: How Degrowth Will Save the World Jason Hickel
  MAY
• 
  The Three-Body Problem Liu Cixin
  MAY
• 
  Baumgartner ★

  Paul Auster
  MAY
• 
  The Long-Winded Lady Maeve Brennan
  APR
• 
  My Mother Laughs ★

  Chantal Akerman
  MAR
• 
  The Chancellor Kati Marton
  MAR
• 
  Pose Basje Boer
  MAR
• 
  A Sport and a Pastime ★

  James Salter
  MAR
• 
  The Living Mountain ★

  Nan Shepherd
  FEB
• 
  The Sick Bag Song Nick Cave
  FEB
• 
  Exteriors ★

  Annie Ernaux
  FEB
• 
  Abody, Abode Jenny Grettve
  JAN
• 
  Faithful and Virtuous Night Louise Glück
  JAN
• 
  Luister ★

  Sacha Bronwasser
  JAN
• 
  Cheri ★

  Jo Ann Beard
  JAN
• 
  Het Dwaallicht Willem Elsschot
  JAN

2023

• 
  August Blue ★

  Deborah Levy
  DEC
• 
  Prophet Song ★

  Paul Lynch
  DEC
• 
  architect, verb. Reinier De Graaf
  DEC
• 
  Oersoep Bregje Hofstede
  DEC
• 
  All This Could Be Different Sarah Thankam Mathews
  DEC
• 
  The Writing Life ★

  Annie Dillard
  NOV
• 
  The Year of Magical Thinking ★

  Joan Didion
  NOV
• 
  The Bell Jar ★

  Sylvia Plath
  NOV
• 
  Dune Messiah Frank Herbert
  NOV
• 
  Kitchen Confidential Anthony Bourdain
  OCT
• 
  Bird by Bird ★

  Anne Lamott
  OCT
• 
  Age of Cage Keith Phipps
  OCT
• 
  Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead ★

  Olga Tokarczuk
  OCT
• 
  What We See When We Read Peter Mendelsund
  SEP
• 
  Four Thousand Weeks Oliver Burkeman
  SEP
• 
  What's Our Problem? Tim Urban
  SEP
• 
  Winning Ugly Brad Gilbert
  SEP
• 
  Hiroshima ★

  John Hersey
  AUG
• 
  Mating in Captivity Esther Perel
  AUG
• 
  Philip Roth ★

  Blake Bailey
  JUL
• 
  How Much House? Urs Peter Flueckiger
  JUN
• 
  Faith, Hope and Carnage ★

  Nick Cave, Sean O'Hagan
  JUN
• 
  Work Less, Do More ★

  Alex Soojung-Kim Pang
  JUN
• 
  The Human Stain Philip Roth
  MAY
• 
  The Dry Heart ★

  Natalia Ginzburg
  MAY
• 
  How to Avoid a Climate Disaster Bill Gates
  APR
• 
  All the Lovers in the Night ★

  Mieko Kawakami
  APR
• 
  Kitchen Banana Yoshimoto
  APR
• 
  De eerlijke vinder Lize Spit
  MAR
• 
  An Immense World ★

  Ed Yong
  MAR
• 
  Deuntje Eduardo Halfon
  MAR
• 
  Ik ben er niet ★

  Lize Spit
  MAR
• 
  The Inner Game of Tennis W Timothy Gallwey
  FEB
• 
  Cinema Speculation Quentin Tarantino
  FEB
• 
  The Creative Act Rick Rubin
  FEB
• 
  The Twittering Machine Richard Seymour
  FEB
• 
  Getting Lost ★

  Annie Ernaux
  JAN
• 
  Landmarks ★

  Robert Macfarlane
  JAN

2022

• 
  Grey Bees ★

  Andrey Kurkov
  DEC
• 
  Sontag: Her Life ★

  Benjamin Moser
  DEC
• 
  Grip Rick Pastoor
  NOV
• 
  Brave New Work Aaron Dignan
  NOV
• 
  String Theory: David Foster Wallace on Tennis ★

  David Foster Wallace
  NOV
• 
  Paul McCartney Philip Norman
  OCT
• 
  Draft No. 4 ★

  John McPhee
  OCT
• 
  Patch Work: A Life Amongst Clothes ★

  Claire Wilcox
  SEP
• 
  Black Paper ★

  Teju Cole
  SEP
• 
  Bluets ★

  Maggie Nelson
  SEP
• 
  A Little Devil in America ★

  Hanif Abdurraqib
  SEP
• 
  The Silent Woman Janet Malcolm
  SEP
• 
  Free Love And Other Stories Ali Smith
  AUG
• 
  De Bomen Albert Alberts
  AUG
• 
  Recitatif Toni Morrison
  AUG
• 
  The Shortest History of Europe John Hirst
  AUG
• 
  Wonen Andrea Prins
  JUL
• 
  Suppose a Sentence ★

  Brian Dillon
  JUL
• 
  Time is a Mother ★

  Ocean Vuong
  JUN
• 
  Dependency ★

  Tove Ditlevsen
  JUN
• 
  Cliënt E. Busken Jeroen Brouwers
  JUN
• 
  Heaven Mieko Kawakami
  JUN
• 
  In mijn mand ★

  Lieke Marsman
  MAY
• 
  Essayism ★

  Brian Dillon
  MAY
• 
  Exit West ★

  Mohsin Hamid
  APR
• 
  Architects on Dwelling Christopher Platt
  APR
• 
  A Lonely Man Chris Power
  APR
• 
  Monterosso mon amour Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer
  APR
• 
  Het warmtefort Lucas Rijneveld
  APR
• 
  Liverpool James Worthy
  APR
• 
  Het tegenovergestelde van een mens Lieke Marsman
  MAR
• 
  Liefde in de grote stad Sang Young Park
  MAR
• 
  Dilla Time ★

  Dan Charnas
  MAR
• 
  Uitgewoond Cody Hochstenbach
  MAR
• 
  The Alchemist Paulo Coelho
  FEB
• 
  De gelukzalige jaren van tucht Fleur Jaeggy
  FEB
• 
  Boy on Fire ★

  Mark Mordue
  FEB
• 
  At Night All Blood Is Black David Diop
  FEB
• 
  Long Live the Post Horn! ★

  Vigdis Hjorth
  FEB
• 
  Hot Milk Deborah Levy
  JAN
• 
  On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous ★

  Ocean Vuong
  JAN
• 
  Breasts and Eggs ★

  Mieko Kawakami
  JAN

2021

• 
  Everybody Olivia Laing
  DEC
• 
  The Manual Epictetus
  DEC
• 
  Out of Office Anne Helen Petersen, Charlie Warzel
  DEC
• 
  The Devil and Sonny Liston ★

  Nick Tosches
  NOV
• 
  Besieged: Life Under Fire on a Sarajevo Street ★

  Barbara Demick
  NOV
• 
  Afterlives ★

  Abdulrazak Gurnah
  NOV
• 
  Forty-one False Starts Janet Malcolm
  OCT
• 
  Lost in Thought Zena Hitz
  OCT
• 
  Revolusi ★

  David Van Reybrouck
  OCT
• 
  Second Place Rachel Cusk
  SEP
• 
  Under a White Sky Elizabeth Kolbert
  SEP
• 
  The Hour of the Star ★

  Clarice Lispector
  SEP
• 
  Real Estate ★

  Deborah Levy
  SEP
• 
  De afwijking Dries Muus
  SEP
• 
  Countdown to Zero Day Kim Zetter
  SEP
• 
  Living Rooms Sam Johnson-Schlee
  AUG
• 
  The Good Enough Job Simone Stolzoff
  AUG
• 
  Austerlitz ★

  W.G. Sebald
  JUL
• 
  Invisible Women Caroline Criado Perez
  JUL
• 
  Too Much and Not the Mood ★

  Durga Chew-Bose
  JUL
• 
  Wij zijn licht Gerda Blees
  JUL
• 
  Lincoln in the Bardo George Saunders
  JUL
• 
  De geschiedenis van mijn seksualiteit Tobi Lakmaker
  JUN
• 
  Youth ★

  Tove Ditlevsen
  JUN
• 
  Anna ★

  Annejet van der Zijl
  JUN
• 
  Wat wij zagen Hanna Bervoets
  JUN
• 
  De groef: een wandeling Maartje Wortel
  JUN
• 
  Lentetuin Tomoka Shibasaki
  MAY
• 
  Childhood ★

  Tove Ditlevsen
  MAY
• 
  Luster ★

  Raven Leilani
  MAY
• 
  Klara and the Sun Kazuo Ishiguro
  MAY
• 
  No One Is Talking About This Patricia Lockwood
  APR
• 
  Homegoing Yaa Gyasi
  APR
• 
  A Swim in a Pond in the Rain ★

  George Saunders
  APR
• 
  De avond is ongemak Lucas Rijneveld
  APR
• 
  Weather Jenny Offill
  APR
• 
  Whites: On Race and Other Falsehoods Otegha Uwagba
  MAR
• 
  The Years ★

  Annie Ernaux
  MAR
• 
  De God denkbaar, denkbaar de God Willem Frederik Hermans
  MAR
• 
  The Invention of Nature ★

  Andrea Wulf
  MAR
• 
  You Think It, I'll Say It Curtis Sittenfeld
  MAR
• 
  Foundation Isaac Asimov
  MAR
• 
  Alle verhalen Isaak Babel
  FEB
• 
  A Short History of Nearly Everything Bill Bryson
  FEB
• 
  Chernobyl Prayer ★

  Svetlana Alexievich
  FEB
• 
  The Little Virtues Natalia Ginzburg
  FEB
• 
  The Memory Police ★

  Yōko Ogawa
  JAN
• 
  The Plot Against America Philip Roth
  JAN
• 
  Autobiography of Red ★

  Anne Carson
  JAN
• 
  A Promised Land ★

  Barack Obama
  JAN

2020

• 
  The Mars Room ★

  Rachel Kushner
  DEC
• 
  Siddhartha Hermann Hesse
  DEC
• 
  De Correspondent in Amerika Leendert van der Valk
  DEC
• 
  Antkind ★

  Charlie Kaufman
  NOV
• 
  Year of the Monkey ★

  Patti Smith
  NOV
• 
  The Situation and the Story ★

  Vivian Gornick
  NOV
• 
  Dune ★

  Frank Herbert
  OCT
• 
  Intimations ★

  Zadie Smith
  OCT
• 
  Attached Rachel Heller, Amir Levine
  SEP
• 
  Coventry Rachel Cusk
  AUG
• 
  Maybe You Should Talk to Someone Lori Gottlieb
  AUG
• 
  How To Be an Antiracist Ibram X. Kendi
  JUL
• 
  Beloved Toni Morrison
  JUL
• 
  The Secret History ★

  Donna Tartt
  JUL
• 
  Hallo witte mensen Anousha Nzume
  JUL
• 
  Uncanny Valley: A Memoir Anna Wiener
  JUN
• 
  James Baldwin: Living In Fire Bill V. Mullen
  JUN
• 
  On the Shortness of Life Seneca
  JUN
• 
  The Goldfinch ★

  Donna Tartt
  JUN
• 
  The Gifts of Reading Robert Macfarlane
  MAY
• 
  Because Internet Gretchen McCulloch
  MAY
• 
  The Snow Leopard ★

  Peter Matthiessen
  APR
• 
  Kudos ★

  Rachel Cusk
  MAY
• 
  Transit ★

  Rachel Cusk
  APR
• 
  Outline ★

  Rachel Cusk
  MAY
• 
  What If This Were Enough? Heather Havrilesky
  APR
• 
  Underland ★

  Robert Macfarlane
  MAR
• 
  Changing My Mind ★

  Zadie Smith
  APR
• 
  Jazz Toni Morrison
  MAR
• 
  The Cost of Living ★

  Deborah Levy
  MAR
• 
  Grand Hotel Europa ★

  Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer
  FEB
• 
  Tokyo Ueno Station Yu Miri
  FEB
• 
  Another Country James Baldwin
  FEB
• 
  The Nickel Boys ★

  Colson Whitehead
  JAN
• 
  Trick Mirror Jia Tolentino
  JAN

2019

• 
  The Water Dancer ★

  Ta-Nehisi Coates
  NOV
• 
  The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs ★

  Steve Brusatte
  NOV
• 
  Play It as It Lays ★

  Joan Didion
  OCT
• 
  The Argonauts ★

  Maggie Nelson
  OCT

This page was last updated on October 7, 2026. The library holds 283 books — 136 fiction, 140 non-fiction and 7 poetry — written by 230 writers, of whom 111 are women, 118 are men and 1 is non-binary. I’ve read 63 of them in Dutch and 220 in English.