Short roundup this month. I started a couple of new learning ventures (yes, ventures) in September: another online writing class through the university where I work, and virtual training to become a volunteer Tree Tender in my neighborhood. Both have weekly readings and assignments, so I sometimes find myself completing quizzes on sick tree symptoms… Continue reading Reading Roundup: September 2020
Category: Fiction
Reading Roundup: August 2020
Trust Exercise by Susan Choi. The first half is a heady, florid coming of age story set in the pressure cooker of a high school for performing arts. I am not sure it is correct to say that I enjoyed it--the suffocating teenaged desperation for any kind of validation is rendered both sympathetic and insufferable,… Continue reading Reading Roundup: August 2020
Reading Roundup: June-July 2020
Like many folks, I started summer by ordering a stack of black-authored books. Most of mine are still en route--if that's you, too, be patient! Some of them are back-ordered as booksellers struggle to meet the demand. But as it turns out, I had little time to read. I felt angry, anxious, and afraid for… Continue reading Reading Roundup: June-July 2020
Reading Roundup: May 2020
I started the month still absorbed by my comfort read, War and Peace, and to be fair I am still reading it. I'm just past the part of the story from which Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet is adapted, now in a war-centric section where there is a great deal of cattiness about historical… Continue reading Reading Roundup: May 2020
Reading Roundup: April 2020
I had to set aside The Mirror and the Light for a bit, in part because I have it as an ebook on my phone, and under the unusual circumstances of voluntary isolation, I had less motivation and interest in looking at my phone. But then late one night I couldn't sleep because I hadn't… Continue reading Reading Roundup: April 2020
Reading Roundup: March 2020
Last month I started Black Leopard Red Wolf by Marlon James, and wrote about how its style required me to selfconsciously read unselfconsciously. Reading it was work for the first hundred pages or so, but then I didn't want to put it down. I got accustomed to the rhythm of the story and able to… Continue reading Reading Roundup: March 2020
