Some people put a lot of stock into their first read of the year, selecting it as a reflection of the coming year’s goals, like other people choose a word (or words) to represent the year ahead. Partly because I’m a moody reader, with an unwieldly stack including many
Simmering beneath all my 2024 goals was the idea of choosing to begin again, and choosing goals that mattered for ages—didn’t dissipate in an instant of good intentions. Reading lists I’d excitedly assembled decades ago, with specific books or authors scribbled into notebooks, were neglected. Often I no longer
In recent Januaries, Bill @ The Australian Legend has been hosting weeks dedicated to Australian women writers for so long that he finally invited the fellas to have a week too. My own interest in Australia was initially sparked in the fourth grade when I was assigned the Platypus
Midway through 2024, I enthused about Casey Plett’s On Community which includes a discussion of how Plett often feels the term is too slippery but it’s hard to find a suitable replacement. Sometimes I feel as though it means the opposite of what I want it to mean, or
Bertin, Groff (Ed.), Hurston, Suzuki, and Zadok (Ed.) Short Stories in October, November, and December Whether in a dedicated collection or a magazine, these stories capture a variety of reading moods. This quarter, I returned to two favourite writers and "discovered" many new-to-me story writers in
