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Short writing about books worth reading. I’m drawn to books that make small worlds feel enormous—often in translation, often slim, rarely what you’d call a page-turner.
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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 →
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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 →
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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 →
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Jesse Ball: The Repeat Room (2024)
FEB 2025A 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.”
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Marianne Brooker: Intervals (2024)
JAN 2025In 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 →