booktrovert – Page 27 – Cannonball Read 17

Secret-laden family reunions: My favorite genre!

The Arsonist's City by Hala Alyan

February 22, 2022 by booktrovert Leave a Comment

I’m a sucker for stories about families. This one is especially easy to get lost in. Throw together some siblings and yet-to-be discovered love affairs, add in a dose of grief, maybe a dash of a real estate as plot device (will they or won’t they sell this home that is also a very literal depiction of their heritage?) – I AM SO DOWN FOR THAT BOOK. And by THAT book I mean THIS book – The Arsonists’ City, by Hala Alyan, was a great […]

Notes to Self

Dear Senthuran: A Black Spirit Memoir by Akwaeke Emezi

February 20, 2022 by booktrovert 2 Comments

I devoured Freshwater in 2020 – it was one of the most original stories I have ever read. As a work of auto-fiction, it drew heavily from Emezi’s life experiences and their own ontology. While it hit the beats of many books written about humans, especially human females as they encounter the world, Freshwater was entirely different because Emezi is neither human nor female. They are an embodied minor deity, born to human surrogates. They understand writing to be their work, and their devotion to […]

Early this morning when you knocked upon my door …

Crossroads by Jonathan Franzen

February 18, 2022 by booktrovert 2 Comments

Something I wasn’t aware of when I read this book (I’m not quite sure how I missed it) but other potential readers may want to know – this book is meant to be the first in a trilogy. I came across that piece of information before I finished the novel but after I was well into it. Knowing that helped me to understand the end of this novel, which feels less like a conclusion and more like a chapter break. Because, essentially, it is […]

Please read this stunning book

How the Word Is Passed by Clint Smith

February 10, 2022 by booktrovert 7 Comments

There is VERY much a reason why this book is topping so many best-of lists in 2021. The most important thing to take away from this review is that you should read this book. It is extraordinary. This is a work of non-fiction in which the author visits 9 different sites, in the US and abroad. At each location, Smith vacillates between exploring the local connections to slavery (sometimes more explicit than others) and meditating more broadly on how our society should shape itself around […]

Intimate, expansive, wise, sad

The Transit of Venus by Shirley Hazzard

February 4, 2022 by booktrovert Leave a Comment

I read this book on a recommendation from Modern Mrs. Darcy, who said something about this being the sort of book that, upon reading the last page, she immediately turned to the first page and restarted. I have some reservations about recommending this book as whole heartedly – even MMD noted that she was a little exasperated in the first 75 pages or so. On balance, I would say I really enjoyed this book – it was both more than what it seemed as I […]

Let Them Eat Pills

Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty by Patrick Radden Keefe

January 31, 2022 by booktrovert Leave a Comment

Would you like to know something interesting that I have in common with James Comey? We both had the embarrassing misapprehension when we first heard of Purdue Pharma that it was linked to Perdue Farms, as in chicken. This speaks to the success of the Sackler family campaign to keep their name, and their business interests, largely out of the public eye for a long time. This excellent book by Patrick Radden Keefe (author of Say Nothing, another empathetic and informative book) exposes the Sackler family […]

Zirza on A Gothic Classic for a ReasonIt's one of those wish-you-could-read-it-again-for-the-first-time books. I loved it.
Emmalita on “It came to something when you found yourself hoping that the footsteps you heard were ghosts.”I loved the ending! I don’t think it’s been out long enough to talk about why though.
Dixie on Track Her Down by Melinda LeighI am just starting Track Her Down and I have read them all in order till now and thought I...
Roland of Gilead on How can you give us the gift of a crazy character named Rando Thoughtful and then just as suddenly take that gift away? We need to talk, Uncle Stevie.I came across this randomly years after it was written because I was searching "Random Thoughtful. But I have the...
Emmalita on “Only you, Em, would refer to heartbreak as a distraction. I think I would have a more sympathetic response if I asked to marry a bookcase.”Oh my goodness, Gallifrey was beautiful. I’m sure her mittens were gloriously murdery.

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