How I Won a Nobel Prize by Julius Taranto. I inhaled this book, which was darkly satirical and so much fun to read. It centers on the Rubin Institute, a neoliberal fever dream of a university where disgraced public figures are exiled after being fired for saying or doing something unforgivable in the public eye.… Continue reading Reading Roundup: February 2024
Author: Sara Davis
Reading Roundup: January 2024
Terrace Story by Hilary Leichter. This is exactly the sort of read I wanted to kick off the new year: short, moody, a hint of magic in the mundane. The title story was originally published in Harper's and won a fiction prize, and it is still a perfect modern fairy tale: mysterious, wonderful, bleak. The… Continue reading Reading Roundup: January 2024
An intention for 2024
I've been setting one-word intentions for the last six years. But in 2023, I didn't. I was not feeling motivated or optimistic. I said "Whatever happens, happens," which is what my ballet teacher says when she isn't confident that we understand an exercise but doesn't have time to rehearse it again. What happened first is… Continue reading An intention for 2024
Books I loved in 2023
I read 55 books in 2023 for my own pleasure, plus another 13 in my capacity as a nonfiction book reviewer for Publishers Weekly before I took a hiatus from that role. 2023 felt like a fantastic year in reading, for me: I continued to really love reading on my couch during meals, enjoying daylight and… Continue reading Books I loved in 2023
Reading Roundup: December 2023
The Deep Sky by Yume Kitasei. While I was devouring this book and trying to explain it to friends, my short pitch was pregnant women solving a murder in space. This is a gross oversimplification. For one, not everyone pregnant on this spaceship is a woman, and not everyone solving the murder is pregnant--but most… Continue reading Reading Roundup: December 2023
Climate Roundup: Winter blues
The 28th Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC, or COP 28, met in Dubai in early December, and it was, by all accounts, kind of a mess. For one, there was a significant presence of parties who are invested in continuing the use of fossil fuels--including this year's COP president, who is the head… Continue reading Climate Roundup: Winter blues
Sara Davis 