Blogs

Happy (?) Pride Month! 

I don't usually focus on a single author in these monthly posts, but our book club recently discussed Kazuo Ishiguro's Klara and the Sun and it got me thinking about other books by this amazing author that I have loved over the years. Read on - 

April is Earth Month and Poetry Month, and what better time to revisit the work of nature writer and poet Gary Snyder, specifically his 1990 essay collection The Practice of the Wild. While there have been countless books dealing with nature and the climate crisis in recent years (a few of which are recommended below) it is edifying to reread Snyder’s compassionate, philosophical, mythopoetic take on the interaction of humans with nature.

In celebration of Women's History Month, the I'm focusing on some of my favorite reads from the past year or so. We begin with a new/old book by a feminist icon. Read on - 

This month - celebrating fiction and poetry by trans writers and the best of recent Black literature. Read on -

Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters

Detransition, Baby is, in the best way, a tangled mess of a book. Tackling issues of gender, race, status, and motherhood, it glories in the complexities of living in the 21st century.

Happy New Year! We’re going meta this month, focusing on books set in bookstores and libraries. If there is a unifying theme in most of these books, it is the high quirk factor that accompanies life in a repository of literature. Award-winning author and bookseller Louise Erdrich’s new one is a salute to booksellers wrapped in a horror story wrapped in social commentary. A turbooken, if you will.

I am writing this on Cyber Monday, ostensibly the day when everyone goes online to polish off their holiday shopping in one fell swoop. Call this a commercial, call it a public service announcement, call it a heartfelt plea - this month’s blog is a bald-faced exhortation to shop locally. If you are shopping online, please shop at a place that has a storefront in your community.

It’s fall, and for many, the darkening of the days brings out the desire to read dark literature. When it comes to deep explorations into the murky corners of the human psyche, you can’t go wrong with Shirley Jackson as your tour guide.

September is National Translation Month! This month we'll explore a few great translated works. Thankfully for us Anglphones, some great literature has been translated into English over the years. Read on -