After reading more of Bolaño’s 2666 than I ever should have, I cleaned my bookshelves of all the to-read have-tos that I’ve held on to for far too long. And found myself without anything to read. Failure to read good books generally puts me in a state of existential crisis, so I decided to return […]
Book Reviews for Writers
The book reviews on this site bring together my love of literature, political science background, and experience living abroad in an attempt to understand the world. As a novelist, I also write about what these writers teach me about craft and how they influence my writing.
Asia
Ai Weiwei, The Bicycle Book, and the Art of the Tangible
I’m still trying to figure out where I fit in the world, reconceptualizing my career and the way I spend my time. Naturally, I’m turning to books, but I’ve also been slowing down, paying attention to moments and returning to old favorites. Recently, that brought me to The Bicycle Book by Bella Bathurst, but I […]
Latin America
Seeking Myself in Dorfman’s The Suicide Museum
It must have been fate that I finally opened Ariel Dorfman’s The Suicide Museum during the week of September 8. I’d asked for the book ages ago and then kept avoiding it because it looked thick and the title was… not where I was at. But I had forgotten why I’d wanted to read this […]
US & Canada
Woman No. 17, It. Goes. So. Fast. and Writing the Complex Balance of Motherhood
Is any identity more fraught with social expectation than motherhood? Our culture is as filled with images of gooey angelic perfection as it is with bitch queens who betray their children. My generation has put a special spin on the topic, doubling down on mothers who are aware of this duality and embrace the messy […]
Arabia
Contemplating Zoroaster’s Children by Marius Kociejowski
I’m always excited when I get a package from Canadian publisher Biblioasis. The books they publish (including Alphabet, The Tuner of Silences, and The End of the Story) are intelligent, creative, and well-written and Zoroaster’s Children by Marius Kociejowski is no exception. To call Kociejowski a travel writer is to do him a grave disservice. […]
Eastern Europe
Silence and Speaking Up in Aflame and The Empusium
It feels like a natural day to reflect on silence as my husband is on a field trip with our son and I have the whole house (and garden!) to myself. It’s just me and the distant sirens on this hermitage (oh, the joys of opening the windows on a summery day). But I’ve been […]
South Pacific
Crafting Emotional Honesty in In the Quiet by Eliza Henry-Jones
It’s not hard to trigger a newish mom’s “what would happen to my family if something happened to me” fears, but it is hard to sustain a quiet story over 350 pages. In In the Quiet, Eliza Henry-Jones does both so beautifully that not only did I feel immersed rather than manipulated, but I stayed […]
Western Europe
Satisfying a Craving for Craft with Warlight and The Reluctant Fundamentalist
I’ve been reading voraciously lately, hungry for the kind of craft that makes me sink into a book, that I can steal and learn from for my own. This binge put me eight books ahead on my reading goal for the year, but it wasn’t going to be satisfied until I found something really worth […]