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One brief book recommendation, once every month. Fiction and non-fiction, for the casual or voracious reader.
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The Collected Works of Jo-Ann Beard (2023)
MAY 2025

The Collected Works of Jo Ann Beard combines essays from two of her books, Festival Days (2021) and The Boys of My Youth (1998), into one fantastic collection (her novella, Cheri, which I've written about before, is part of Festival Days).

More than a few of the essays found here completely swept me off my feet. Continue reading →
Caoilinn Hughes – The Alternatives (2024)
APR 2025

I first read something by Caoilinn Hughes last winter when The Paris Review published Two Hands, her short story about Gemma and Des. They take a driving lesson after a car accident that left their Italian Fiat Panda totalled and Gemma in tatters. They're there to build up confidence, Gemma says, not quite sure whose she means. The story made me snicker and laugh on multiple occasions... Continue reading →
Annie Jacobsen – Nuclear War: A Scenario (2024)
MAR 2025

Nuclear War: A Scenario, written by Pulitzer Prize finalist Annie Jacobsen, appeared on my radar through a combination of end-of-year lists (which I can't ever help but scroll) paired with the news of Denis Villeneuve potentially picking it up for a film after he wraps up Dune: Messiah; my interest wasn't just piqued—it ballooned into mushroom cloud proportions. Continue reading →
Jesse Ball – The Repeat Room (2024)
FEB 2025

A room has been erected in front of an audience. It's made of concrete, its door is thick like a vault, “a kind of killing jar”. The procedure is simple: the accused (“surplus person”) is brought into the room by two guards, long poles attached to the neck so as to keep their distance. Once placed inside the room, the door is closed. Then, slowly, oxygen is extracted from the room and everyone in attendance waits, long enough for the accused to be deceased. Clean and simple. “Try all they like, the lungs learn they have no job to do.”

Continue reading →
Marianne Brooker – Intervals (2024)
JAN 2025

In 2022 Marianne Brooker won the Fitzcarraldo Editions Mahler & LeWitt Studios Essay Prize for her essay proposal, Intervals. Through this annual competition she was given the opportunity to shape her proposal into a book-length essay, to be published by Fitzcarraldo Editions in February of 2024.

I picked up the book early last year, read it late-December, and it absolutely floored me. Continue reading →