Monsters: A Fan's Dilemma by Claire Dederer. This book is constructed of short, thoughtful essays that each look at a handful of "art monsters" from film, music, and literature, connecting them to a few different themes: what it means to love art made by terrible men, why we grapple with the biographies of artists and… Continue reading Reading Roundup: March 2024
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Climate roundup: The dregs of winter
First of all: ceasefire now. The first and most salient reason for ceasefire is that the occupation of Palestine is a gross human rights violation. But yes, it is a environmental violation as well, and that is something worth witnessing and recording because environmental injustice is also a story of human injustice. This round-up provides… Continue reading Climate roundup: The dregs of winter
Reading Roundup: February 2024
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
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
Sara Davis 