Sometimes it‘s not the characters or the dialogue that is the star, but it is McCracken‘s narrator who runs off with the whole of “Bowlaway,” a book with sentences so off-kilter and rich that the highest compliment I can give it is it begs to be adapted into film by Wes Anderson. Something in every paragraph makes your brows furrow, provides a chuckle about the seemingly cursed New England candlepin alley at the turn of the century. A delight.

A little preposterous with all of the twists, but gives an interesting look into what “evil” looks like in youth.

Truly and honestly picked for the gorgeous cover and topic of the circus, “TFCOMS” was overall not bad. Hough develops a strong voice in Stark, but the novel largely turns into episodes of her marriages with men we barely get to know, and an extremely limited cast of interesting side characters. The fact that Hough ends this book with a BJ is crazy work. Worth the read if you like reading circus fiction. No “Water for Elephants” for sure!

My exact niche. Knew a good chunk going in but also learned a ton of BTS stuff. So fun reading the final chapter which was the “Moonlight” debacle.

Truly a chore to get through. A book I can admire for its dedication to replicating the southern dialect of its day, its smirking, satirical moments, and not much more. Feels remarkably archaic in its presentation and stories, and oh, so repetitive in its cyclical nature of Huck and Jim going on an adventure, getting caught, an extremely elaborate lie, escape, repeat. Glad to have it under my belt, but this one took me forever.

I‘ve been trying to get through “Huck Finn” for two months, but devoured McCurdy‘s memoir in one week while I was bedridden. Go figure! I have a hard time reading books about ED, so this was only difficult for that reason. McCurdy‘s prose is simple and straight forward and often funny in the face of what was a horribly tragic adolescence. Felt like a long brunch with an old friend who‘s catching you up on their tough times.

I would love to see a production of this, or any of the Chekhov I‘ve seen. I feel like it‘s probably a lot better onstage.

Wanted this to be more in the vain of “Life of Brian.” “Lamb” can be really funny when it wants to, but it gets bogged down with Moore‘s descriptions of Biff and Joshua‘s time with the three magi. It gets quite dark at the end and the twist that explains everything is quite clever. Kudos to Moore for the ambition and I‘m sure the landslide of Christian backlash he received.

“I was thinking about becoming the village idiot, if my father will allow it.”
“He has a God-given talent,” Joshua said.
—“Lamb,” page 27.

Though described as a comedy, I didn‘t find it particularly funny (this translation at least; Ann Dunnigan‘s), but a huge improvement for me from “Ivanov.” Madame Trepleva, Nina and Konstantin all seem like rich roles to play. As with the rest of these I need to read, I bet seeing this onstage would assist in my grasp of it 100x better.

A book worshipper‘s wet, sapphic dream, Bechdel intimately examines her childhood, honing in on her father, and, to a lesser degree, her suffering mother. Her intertwining of classic lit like Ulysses, The Importance of Being Earnest and others into trying to explain her own life‘s narrative reads like the most fascinating English essay of the 21st century. Charmingly simple illustrations abound as well.

Made a new account after lost access to @bravenewtrav when I deleted my old email. My first Chekhov. Difficult to follow the names but fascinated by how he writes characters. His oldest one and I‘ve heard his least accessible compared to his other stuff. Looking forward to reading “The Sea Gull” next & hoping I have an easier time with it.