My reading this year has a different rhythm. Some year-long projects require only a few pages of reading each week, a chapter maybe. In contrast, reading for work requires bursting through backlists in a week or two. In between, some books have sprawled in that territory between lackadaisical and
Fofana, Lam, Morrison, Ogunyemi, Scott, Smith and Smyth Short Stories in January, February and March 2023 Whether read all-in-a-burst or over several weeks, these stories capture a variety of reading moods. This quarter, I returned to three favourite writers and also explored four new-to-me story writers.
Hosted by Cathy and Rebecca with weekly themes and a link collector, the first week of this event invites participants to “tell us about any novellas you have read since last NovNov” (it’s okay not to follow the five week’s themes exactly and, instead, allow them to mesh with
Picking up yesterday's thread, the balance in Seçkin’s novel sways toward the personal, whereas the political scene in Alaa Al-Aswany’s The Republic of False Truths (2021) is more prominent, despite all the attention paid to characterization—a network that grows increasingly complex as readers turn the pages. (And there’s at
In a few weeks, Jean-Michel Fortier’s new novel The Electric Baths will be reviewed in the new issue of World Literature Today, translated by Katherine Hastings. A galloping read populated by an inordinate number of widows and tragic ends. There are some bloody bits but you're caught between gasping
