Sheila Heti

“How can we know how it will go for us, us ambivalent women of thirty-seven? On the one hand, the joy of children. On the other hand, the misery of them. On the one hand, the freedom of not having children. On the other hand, the loss of never having had them- but what is […]

McNally Jackson, New York

SoHo’s McNally Jackson is one of the most aesthetic and best-curated indie bookstores I’ve ever visited. Sure, the employees are the most hipster (read: the rudest) you’ll find, but that comes with the territory of being an independent bookstore in one of New York City’s trendiest areas. I visited McNally Jackson on a Wednesday afternoon […]

Packing the Paperbacks: Four Months in Florida

I just moved in to my new apartment for a semester-long internship in Florida!!! I’m sure I won’t have much time for reading since I’ll be working a minimum of thirty hours per week, probably double that some weeks, and (hopefully) exploring in my spare time, but I’m going to try to read at least […]

Home Fire // Kamila Shamsie

Home Fire has been praised and recognized by so many before me- including two of my favorite literary awards, the Women’s Prize for Fiction (2018 winner) and the Man Booker Prize (2017 longlist). A retelling of Antigone, Home Fire is Greek tragedy retold for the modern age. Given that my recollection of Antigone is extremely […]

Less // Andrew Sean Greer

I think it’s pretty safe to say that Less shocked everyone when it won last year’s Pulitzer. The Pull-it-sir winner heard ’round the world… is a comedic break-up novel about a middle-aged gay man who travels the world Jules-Verne-style? You betcha!! From the back cover: You are a failed novelist about to turn fifty. A […]

Lincoln in the Bardo // George Saunders

Wow. This one almost left me speechless. Lincoln in the Bardo is so experimental and so well-done. It shows the makings of not just a talented writer but a creative genius as well. I’m usually not a fan of experimental fiction, preferring to admire it from afar rather than read it myself, but with Lincoln […]

Swing Time // Zadie Smith

Ahhh, my first Zadie Smith novel (and my first read of 2019!). Swing Time wasn’t my first exposure to Zadie, that was “The Waiter’s Wife” back in the spring for my British Literature class. Yet, everyone warned me not to start with Swing Time, that it was Smith’s worst novel, that it fell flat in […]