What I'm Reading

Book discussions with a focus on the writer's craft

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Valiant Gentleman by Sabina Murray

Oct 12, 2021

After finishing All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr, I turned to Sabina Murray's Valiant Gentlemen, another novel about lives impacted by World War Two written in the third…

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All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

Sep 21, 2021

Before Tony Doerr's new novel arrives, I wanted to reread All The Light We Cannot See, his previous novel, published in 2014. This time, I read it slowly, only a few chapters a day—ten or fifteen…

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'Audition' by Dennis Norris II in American Short Fiction, Vol. 23, Issue 72, Winter 2020

Jul 24, 2021

Lately, I've been reading more fiction published by small presses because, overall, those books receive less attention from reviewers and so it's often harder to know about them. I also want to occasionally…

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The Mysteries by Marisa Silver

Jun 20, 2021

Marisa Silver's beautiful new novel, The Mysteries, achieves something that is rare in novels these days, a redemption that is found less through action than internal deliberation. Indeed,…

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The Book of Lost Light by Ron Nyren

Jun 01, 2021

Ron Nyren's The Book of Lost Light, published in 2020 by Black Lawrence Press, is about a photographer's obsessive desire to reveal the invisible data of time. It begins with what is probably…

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Abigail by Magda Szabó, trans. Len Rix

Apr 06, 2021

Abigail, by the Hungarian writer, Magda Szabó, is a lighter read than her other novels. It lacks the brilliant strangeness of The Door (my favorite Szabó novel), but it is compelling…

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Postcards by Annie Proulx

Mar 13, 2021

Lately, I've been thinking about novels that have two narrative lines, one central and one peripheral. It came to my attention while I was reading Scott Spencer's, A Ship Made of Paper, a novel…

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Imagine Me Gone by Adam Haslett

Mar 06, 2021

I just finished reading Adam Haslett's 2016 novel, Imagine Me Gone, for the second time. I expect I will reread this magnificent novel every few years, and right now, I'd like to talk about…

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Sisters by Daisy Johnson

Feb 21, 2021

Johnson explores the ambivalence in sibling relationships in this short novel about a mother who escapes with her two teenage daughters to a beach house after an unspecified horrific event at their…

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News of the World by Paulette Jiles

Feb 16, 2021

Set in the sparsely populated state of Texas in 1870, this is the story of a relationship between Captain, a seventy-two-year-old man who makes his living as a reader of the news in small towns in northern…

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Page & Story

In this monthly newsletter for writers and readers I'll focus on a novel or short story I love and show how the elements of story craft make it a compelling read.

(Or read it first!)