A Slap in the Face

The first time I read Atonement was a few years after its release, in the early 00's. It was a deeply formative time for my tastes, when I was finally allowed to enjoy things even if they weren't endorsed as acceptably uplifting and consistent with the religious principles I was

The Joys of Hate Reading

I would like to start by saying that I do not hate read very often. I don't have the patience for it. And actually a good hate read is even harder to find than a good joyful read. Joy itself is satisfying, hate isn't. For a hate read to work

Senseless & Sensibility

So you know how a few weeks ago everyone was losing their minds over the new Persuasion adaptation on Netflix? The one that is in period costume but where no one speaks in a period way? I never watched it so I don't have much of an opinion but it

Best So Far

I have not been writing much. Sorry about that. This newsletter was a way to feel like I did not always have to Do Book Stuff All the Time, where I could just get kind of messy and honest instead of putting on the good face you tend to need

Diving Into Discomfort

It is Pride month. Like most queers I don't really like Pride month. The internal queer discourse always turns toxic. There's never enough attention on the real help our community needs and instead everyone gets mad about something stupid. I saw days of arguing about some tweet about bisexual women

On Pandemic Novels

Ok look on paper I think pandemic novels are terrible. Just like 9/11 novels were terrible. (Remember when that was very briefly a thing and they were all just so very bad? And they all came far too soon? And it was just a whole mess? I still have

Not Gone

I know I disappeared for a while. There are a lot of reasons! February and March were very light on new releases, so I didn't have much to write about. Plus I've reached a new stage in post-book-job life where I am really luxuriating in not having to keep my

Feb 1: Awards

I am doing some awards reading, which is always tricky because I need to keep quiet about it but I also log all my books so it's a weird tension. But lucky you, that means I will have less reviews in the What I'm Reading Right Now section, which is

Jan 26: Adaptations

I have very little to say about faithful adaptations. Like The Lost Daughter, a fantastic movie based on a fantastic book, a relatively close adaptation all things considered. I could not write a whole newsletter about it. But I can about Station Eleven. I read the novel in April, 2014.