Fair Play by Tove Jansson
Best for: Those looking for a mix between short stories and a novel. In a nutshell: Jonna and Mari are artists and friends who are in their 70s and live at opposite ends of an apartment building on an island. Worth quoting: “She’s not shy; she just won’t bother trying to be pleasant. She thinks it’s artistic to be gloomy.” Why I chose it: My partner gave this to me as a gift, I think because it’s a novel about friendship, not romantic love, and […]
Eight Short Science Fiction Stories by Ray Bradbury
Sometimes you just need to escape and read some space stories. And this collection of Bradbury’s finest was quite satisfying. These are quite old stories, and all are freely available via Project Gutenberg or other sites. I’ll include original publication dates and links in case one or more takes your fancy. Knowing when the tales were published makes each that much more enjoyable (to me, at least). Truly, Bradbury is a genius. 1. Rocket Summer First published in 1947. This is a wonderfully political take […]
People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry
Here’s one I found at a Goodwill for $1.99 (along with a Peanuts Busy Book that had all its figures, minus the only black character, which feels intentional). I’d seen it in Target’s bestseller section plenty of times and couldn’t resist it at so low a price-point. I’m glad I decided to pick it up, because I needed a breezy breather like this after We Were Liars gave me multiple successive gut punches. People We Meet on Vacation is about friends Poppy and Alex and […]
We Were Liars by E. Lockhart
Onto another of the books from my Christmas haul, We Were Liars isn’t my favorite book of the year so far, but it does probably take the title of most surprising. I thought I knew what I was getting into with this one, except I didn’t expect the lies that wound up being unearthed. What seems like an innocent enough story about a family absolutely obsessed with securing what they feel is rightly theirs from their aging, rich grandfather, and the grandkids who are unwittingly […]
The Maid by Nita Prose
I don’t often take recommendations; generally, I prefer to find my books more organically, especially since my tastes are a bit all over the place, even more than with other types of media. You might think me weird, finicky, or downright contrarian, but it’s not like I try to be. I just know what I like when I actually see it; I give most potential books a first sentence/paragraph/page test, seeing if they grab my attention right out of the gates, because they probably […]
Pattern Recognition by William Gibson
I have read this novel four or five times now, and even taught it a few times. Each time I read it the scope of it dramatically shrinks for me. It happened this time as well. I first learned about this novel right when it came out and it was nominated for the Virginia Book Prize. And one of my professors, who is otherwise really buttoned-down and prim, knowing that Edward P Jones’s The Known World was going to win, decided she would champion this […]
