Those Who Knew: A Novel | 
pickThis is one of the best novels I have read in a long time. I find it difficult for literary fiction novel to be nearly perfect but this novel is. I can barely bring my thoughts together to write a review. The prose is masterful and timely, covering themes of corruption, wealth, family, and interpersonal relationships including LGBT ones. Please read this one. It is so intensely beautiful.
“She kissed the top of her friend‘s head and it felt maternal, sensual— that fragile, erotic overlap that can happen in an embrace between two people who have gradually become essential to one another but have yet to speak of it, and who will likely never speak of all the shoved-down wadded-up things they have come to silently glimpse inside each other.”
P. 80: “How did Joan of Arc do it, S? How did she stay true to the voices in her head as they led her into the fire?”
Loving this so much! The unnamed island is creepy, trippy fun, and there is a bookstore featuring prominently recipe for D-light 😍
pick“There was really no predicting where, or when, the least lonely years of one‘s adult life might begin.”
pickI already know this will be somewhere near the very top of my list for 2019, and it‘s only January. Spell-blindingly good. Lyrical, relevant, magical, thoroughly intoxicating. You know that old cliche about not wanting a book to end? Totally that.
pickThis is my first read of the new year. It‘s smart and relevant and timely. I picked a good one to kick off 2019.
so-soThis book was a social commentary on class, status, and power. It was a book about the consequences of one's actions and how past choices can follow you. While this book had some lofty aims, overall it fell flat for me. It was a quick read but not one that is likely to be memorable.
I've decided for 2019 that I want to do a better job tracking the books I've read. I found this beautiful Moleskin book journal that is the perfect way to reflect on what I have read. I was so excited about it, that I decided to get an early start. Love love love. 😻
My book haul from #HarvardBookstore and #BrooklineBooksmith. So many good ones to choose from! I definitely relied on Litsy to help me decide which ones to get!
pick#WriterCrushWednesday is all about Idra Novey and her novel Those Who Knew. Her provocative story follows Lena, who suspects foul play from a current Senator/former co-ed when a young women who is helping him out politically turns up dead. With a nod to the thriller genre, Idra's storytelling explores the cost of staying silent paralleled with the reactions to speaking up. Find your copy on the main floor. #wcw
bailedNope...I'm outta here!! 🏃🏼♀️💨 🚫👎🏻
Can't do it. I'm an hour and 15 minutes in and I don't know what I'm listening to. I'm not sure if it's me or the book's fault but I don't know who the characters are or what the setting is, nor can I see a plot at this point. So, what's the point of continuing? Permission to abort, granted.
panI liked the journey but there didn‘t seem to be any destination. I really liked Ways to Disappear and was hoping for more. Solid writing; muddy plotting and magic realism touches that go nowhere. Meh.
I‘m an hour from the end of this one with no clue where it‘ll end up - and I like it #audiobus #weekendlibrarian
panI read her other book and loved it, so I picked this one up and it just didn‘t do it for me. Set in an unnamed country after a regime has fallen, the main character revisits a fraught relationship she had with a senator. This book is doing too much. And it‘s meant to feel universal, but vagueness doesn‘t equal universality. Yet, plenty of people will read this and love it because of its faux literary fiction sentences that are just so beautiful.
