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One brief book recommendation, once every month. Fiction and non-fiction, for the casual or voracious reader.Subscribe.
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Samantha Harvey – Orbital (2023)
NOV 2024I could read a tower of non-fiction books about space, climate change and humanity, and they wouldn't pack the same punch as this 144-page novel. Continue reading →
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Claire-Louise Bennett – Pond (2015)
OCT 2024Shortly before the halfway mark of this book, there's a tiny story named Stir-Fry. It goes as follows:
I just threw my dinner in the bin. I knew as I was making it I was going to do that, so put in it all the things I never want to see again.
Stir-Fry is followed by a delightful seven-page story named Finishing Touch about throwing a little party (“I have so many glasses after all”), which I loved. After that comes Control Knobs, my favourite in the entire book, about the deteriorating knobs on the narrator's outdated Salton mini-kitchen.
I don't often read books of short stories. And, as I'm sure you can tell by now, this book is not your average book of short stories, either. But, it struck a chord. It moved me. Continue reading →
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Miranda July – All Fours (2024)
SEP 2024In Miranda July's latest novel, its nameless main character (a 'half-famous' artist) sets out to drive across the United States to celebrate her 45th birthday. She leaves her husband and child behind, promises to update them on her progress and, through a series of rapid decisions, she winds up in Monrovia, the next town over. Continue reading →
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Herzog has lived many lives and exudes an endless curiosity—as if, as a child, he fell into a Bavarian creek awash with potion and clambered out anew, like some German Obelix. Continue reading →
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In March of this year I picked up Paul Auster's Baumgartner in a bookshop in Brussels. Known to be a revered author (‘one of the great American prose stylists of our time’), I hadn't yet read any of his books before. I decided to start digging into his body of work with his latest novel, released at the tail-end of 2023. Continue reading →