Pay no attention to the sentences in The Girl on the Train. The sentences are utilitarian at best, and often laden with painful clichés. But words aren’t what matters in The Girl on the Train. It’s plot. It’s characters who feel familiar and surprising. It’s scenes as vivid as a Netflix thriller. Speaking of Netflix … Continue reading The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
Murder in the Dark is a little book of journal scratchings. Some might call them prose poems, others might call them micro-essays, experimental short stories, or newspaper columns. Atwood’s ideas are intelligent, but in their current form I doubt they’d make it out of the slush pile without her Can-Lit name. It makes me jealous. … Continue reading Murder in the Dark by Margaret Atwood
Barkskins is a novelized history of the people who’ve worked the forests of North America for the last 400 years. Annie Proulx is best known for her short story Brokeback Mountain, which became a movie by the same name, about gay cowboys in Montana. That credit solidifies her as a talent for depicting the lives … Continue reading Barkskins by Annie Proulx
Garden of the Evening Mists is impeccably precise. The story unfolds like a deck of cards, like a magic trick, fully realized and devoid of distractions or mistakes. The language, the structure, the characters: all are premeditated, purposeful and productive. (Photo: Amy Attas) This is a story about trauma, and how trauma manifests in our … Continue reading Garden of the Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng
This book made the media rounds in 2015, with the biggest news being the “wood wide web,” the revelation that trees are connected and communicating with each other. It’s perspective-shifting, the first time you hear about it. Through the roots, and through the fungal network attached to the roots, trees can pass information about pests … Continue reading The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben
Straight on the heels of Zeitoun’s spectacular reading experience, I picked up A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, the Dave Eggers book I’d actually had on my reading list. It is creative non-fiction like Zeitoun, but that is where the similarities stop. AHWOSG is personal, about Eggers in his 20’s, where Zeitoun is reported, and … Continue reading A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers
I thought I knew what happened during Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. I thought I knew about racism in America and Muslims after 9/11 and George W. Bush’s obsession with trrrists. Dave Eggers’s Zeitoun states explicitly that it is not meant to be an all-encompassing history of Katrina — there’s no Superdome, no Lower 9th, … Continue reading Zeitoun by Dave Eggers
My second reading of “Into Thin Air” was just as immersive and suspenseful as the first. Krakauer’s writing has momentum – even as he pauses for paragraphs or pages to ruminate on climbing tactics or historical precedent, the story falls forward as if it’s been pushed off a cliff. In the case of historical precedent, … Continue reading Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer
Like the Hardy Boys or the Boxcar Children, Rick Brant is an adventurous lad who’s managed books and books’ worth of adventures before graduating high school. Unlike the Hardy Boys or the Boxcar Children, Rick Brant is a chemistry nut with a passion for electrical engineering. It’s amazing how often one can get into a … Continue reading The Lost City by John Blaine
“If you like weird things, you’ll like this book.” That was the clarion call that made me crack this spine. It was also what held me when two months had passed and I still hadn’t finished it. I want to be a weirdo. And, in the past, when I’ve tried weird things and hated them … Continue reading You Too Can Have A Body Like Mine by Alexandra Kleeman
Amy Attas 