Tag: National Book Award
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The Hysterical Hamster
The King Is Always Above The People by Daniel Alarcon
It’s a good collection but there’s a sameness, tonally and thematically, to a number of the stories which meant they blurred together rather than stood out.
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Dark At The Crossing by Elliot Ackerman
The good – this is one of the first novels I’ve read that deals with the current civil war in Syria and in particular the desire of some to leave their country and fight against the regime. The bad – the book spends too much time on dull domestic issues, the sort you’ll find in any number of literary novels.
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Her Body And Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado
Don’t waste your time reading this review. Just go buy the book!
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A Kind of Freedom by Margaret Wilkerson Sexton.
A strong debut novel that considers the question of race over three generations.
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Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward
TL;DR A haunting, beautiful and discomforting novel about the lasting repercussions of racism in...
Read MoreThe Leavers by Lisa Ko
TL;DR The prose is great, but I’ve grown bored with self destructive characters. Opening Remarks After reading five consecutive historical novels it’s refreshing to pick up a book set in the 21st Century. The Leavers...
Read MoreMiss Burma by Charmaine Craig
My Observations and random thoughts (with added flavour text): Another day another historical novel (five in a row!) – Miss Burma by Charmaine Craig, longlisted for the National Book Award. Miss Burma is Craig’s second...
Read MoreImagine Me Gone by Adam Haslett
Adam Haslett’s Imagine Me Gone spans a fourty year period. It begins in the 1960s when Margaret, an American living in London, marries John, who while charming and charismatic has also been battling with depression since...
Read MoreWho Should Have Won This Year’s National Book Award
As a reminder here is a list of the nominees with a helpful link to my reviews: Karen E. Bender, “Refund” Angela Flournoy, “The Turner House” Lauren Groff, “Fates and Furies” Adam Johnson, “Fortune Smiles” Hanya Yanagihara, “A...
Read MoreBook Review: Fortune Smiles by Adam Johnson
Bottom Line A powerful, intellectually honest and confronting collection of six stories. Representative Paragraph An excerpt from “Interesting Facts” This was a year after my diagnosis, surgery, chemo and the various...
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