The Fraud by Zadie Smith
The Fraud (2023) by Zadie Smith was on many “best of” lists last year. I’d already read On Beauty by Smith, which I really enjoyed. I was hoping for more of the same with The Fraud. Unfortunately for me, I had a hard time getting into this one. I felt like Smith was intentionally writing a book that was difficult to follow, and if you didn’t have a strong knowledge of English history, then you were missing out. This was a bit of a slog […]
Writers & Lovers by Lily King
This was a buddy read with my husband, which was such a fun experience. Narrated in first person by Casey, it recounts a few months of her time in Massachusetts in the 90s as she copes with the recent death of her mother and a break-up while struggling to make ends meet as an aspiring novelist. During this time she also develops relationships with two very different men—also writers. This is a quiet, internally focused novel. Casey is deeply grieving her mother’s death and often […]
Beyond They/Them: 20 Influential Nonbinary and Gender-Diverse People You Should Know by Em Dickson and Cameron Mukwa
Either the celebrities are getting younger, or I’m getting older (I’m assuming the former, as I’m certainly not getting older….). Joking aside, the first few sections of Beyond They/Them: 20 Influential Nonbinary and Gender-Diverse People You Should Know focuses on young people born in the 1990s mostly, so I was a bit surprised how young the people were. Then again, we are just starting to have nonbinary and/or trans people in literature and/or mainstream, making the pioneers younger. And Em Dickson and Cameron Mukwa proudly […]
Prince of Fools: The Red Queen's War #1 by Mark Lawrence
Cowards divide into two broad groups. Those paralysed by their fear, and those galvanized by it. ― Mark Lawrence, Prince of Fools I’ve always felt that the placement of a man’s testicles is an eloquent argument against intelligent design. ― Mark Lawrence, Prince of Fools Prince Jalan is the third son of the third son of the queen of Red March. Despite being a long way off from the path of succession, he’s successfully used his title of prince to maximum effectiveness. He’s a gambler, […]
The Fireborne Blade by Charlotte Bond
The Bloodless Princes by Charlotte Bond
I came across The Fireborne Blade at the library, and between it being a novella (tis the season (IYKYK) lol) and having a dragon on the cover, I took a closer look. I’m so glad I picked this up, and between picking it up and starting it, I swung by the library again and happened to see the sequel, The Bloodless Princes (it was one of those “why is this look familiar? Oh! Same series!” moments). The Fireborne Blade does a lot of typical dragon […]
The Voyage Home: A Novel (Women of Troy Book 3) by Pat Barker
The Voyage Home is Pat Barker’s final installment in her Women of Troy trilogy. The first two novels, The Silence of the Girls and The Women of Troy, take on the events of The Iliad and imagine them from the point of view of the vanquished, in particular from the point of view of the Trojan women who became enslaved to the victorious Greek armies. The princess Briseis, who became Achilles’ concubine/slave, was the primary focus of those novels, which were brutally realistic in their […]
