Sing to It by Amy Hempel
“A woman of her word can do what she signed on to do.” If you need a quick but cathartic sob, this is the book for you. Clocking in at under 150 pages, Sing To It houses a tiny and brutal collection of stories- some so tiny that they are just a few sentences long. Do not let the brevity fool you; even the most micro of the micro-fiction within will burn you. Several stories are still playing in my head days later. “Full-Service Shelter” is […]
Valentine by Elizabeth Wetmore
This was the first book in a while that my book club didn’t really agree on. We were split down the middle, actually. (I’m glad we’re still doing book club by Zoom but I miss hanging out with my people in person, and I miss all the yummy food. I know everyone misses everyone and everything right now, but I wanted to say it anyway.) If you can’t tell by my rating, I was more on the dislike side of it, though I didn’t hate […]
Lift by Minh Le
Lone Wolf by Sarah Kurpiel
cbr12bingo Debut One can find their “pack” or friends and family anyplace. Or more accurately, the “right anyplace.” And in Lift by Minh Le (who wrote Drawn Together which I greatly liked as well as a Green Lantern for the middle school crowd, which I enjoyed) and illustrated by Dan Santat you find an interesting “pack of friends.” And with Lone Wolf by Sarah Kurpiel the right place to find your family/pack can be right under your nose. And also a debut author can be under […]
Ghachar Ghochar: A Novel by Vivek Shanbhag
Cbr12bingo Uncannon — but this could also fit for “money” or perhaps “debut” if “English language debut” counts for that category From a review in The Guardian: “Ghachar Ghochar is the English-language debut of a writer already established as a leading figure in both the pan-Indian and Kannada-language literary scenes. Once again, reading beyond our tiny borders shows us what we’ve been missing, and proves the necessity of translation for a dynamic literary culture…” I first heard about this 2017 novel a few months ago […]
The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski
3.5 #CBR12 Bingo: Repeat (since I’ve already covered the Adaptation square) Geralt of Rivia is a Witcher. This means he roams about the countryside, travelling from place to place, killing monsters for profit. To become a Witcher, he was taken from his family as a child, and long training, magic and special potions make him a strong, fast and highly efficient killer. Based on the stories in this collection, it seems that once, there were a lot more Witchers, now they are rare and unusual, and […]
The Duke and I (Bridgertons #1) by Julia Quinn
Continuing down the road of comfort reading I’ve decided to do some rereading of Julia Quinn’s Bridgerton series. I first read the books in 2015 and loved them then, and I’m happy to report that after my latest reading of The Duke and I, the first book in the series, that I’m just as pleased now as I was then. Even better, there’s a Netflix adaptation of the series on the way – season one finished filming before COVID shutdown most television production but we […]
