Surprise Late Addition

It is my last kid-free evening before the holiday stuff all kicks in and I am beyond delighted to tell you that I have a late addition to my Favorites of 2023 book list. This doesn't happen often! Last year my best list was set by the end

Not a Best List

I always feel obligated to do a Best Books list. But this year I am not really going to do it. I have written about basically all of them here already so it would be repetitive. You are welcome to look at my list or previous issues of this newsletter.

Silly/Fun

A question I have started to ask lately is about the relationship between silly and fun. A lot of stories are silly. And that is fine! Silly can be extremely enjoyable. The question is, if you're being silly are you letting us have fun with it or not.

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

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

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

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

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