Practice Rosalind Brown

Taiwan Travelogue Yáng Shuāng-zi
︎I Am You Victoria Redel
The Forgery Ave Barrera - a self indulgent romp, as in Barrera wrote exactly whatever story he wanted to write, absurd and lavish, and that made it a joy to read. It doesn’t try to be anything more. José Federico Burgos is hired to forge a mysterious painting by the absurdly wealthy Horacio. Mega wealthy house with a hot mom. Dad ends up being a houseless guy who saves Jose from more pain. You can write what you wanna write!
The Wall Marlen Haushofer
One Sun Only Camille Bordas

Ink Blood Sister Scribe
The Lighthouse Virginia Woolf

︎ War and Peace Leo Tolstoy

Sunbirth An Yu
Elementals AS Byatt

Infomacracy Malka Older

Cities of Salt Abdulrahman Munif

Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet David Mitchell - Dejima & Nagasaki during the Napoleonic wars makes for a fascinating location, but can’t say I’d recommend this book, see, e.g., the comically evil baby eater villain ???? (sorry for the spoiler)
The Glass Bead Game Herman Hesse 

︎Polostan Neal Stephenson - I usually like Stephenson but I got real bored by this quasi-historical early 20th centruy tale of the grooming of a KGB spy
The Labyrinth: A Novel Burhan Sönmez
The Golden Road William Dalrymple - really an academic history text; fascinating and detailed overview of 2000 years of Indian history and the influence southeast Asia had locally and on the Ottoman Empire, China, Rome, and southern Europe
︎Rose/House Arkady Martine
The Waves Extinguish the Wind Boris and Arkady Strugatsky

The Possessed Elif Batuman - a hilarious collection of essays from the Batuman about her PhD in Russian Literature; highly recommend, especially if you’re in academia. One of my favorite essay writers of our time --> subscribe to her newsletter.
︎The White Road: A Pilgrimage of Sorts Edmund de Waal - like every other millenial, I am an aspiring potter, but I am also geology-adjacent and huge nerd so loved de Waal’s foray into the geology and social history of porcelain. A well-written travelogue (though at times his white british priviledge could use some introspection, especially in the beginning) that shows de Waal’s dedication both to craft and to really understanding the lineage he’s a part of.
Covenant of Water Abraham Verghese - tale of a Christian family in Kerala, didn’t do much for me, read for a book club and struggled through, reall hit you over the head with its themes, badly needed to be edited down

Chess Story Stefan Zweig - short novella, gripping despite the somewhat unlikely premise, decent fall at the end, characters were a little overdrawn, writing style was simple and effective, very effective use of narrator as tool
Howl’s Moving Castle Diana Wynn Jones - because I rewatched the Miyazaki film; much more heternormative and less about freedom, wonder, and finding oneself than the movie

Midnight’s Children Salman Rushdie - not a hot take, but loved Midnight’s Children. the language, the shape of the narrative, the scope of the characters, the humor, the integration of a horrendous and enormous historical event into something chaotic and violent but not overreaching. I think about it a lot.

︎Rakesfall Vajra Chandrasekera - listened on audiobook, bought the paperback immediately. inventive novel  interweaving myth, technology, relationship, and what it means to be a being across vast scales of time, space, and consciousness. not at all similar but still reminded me of This Is How You Lose the Time War

Lost to time 

The Saint of Bright Doors Vajra Chandrasekera - an interesting premise, and a good character, but didn’t quite land for me, very much a debut novel, bought because his second (Rakesfall, see above) was transcendent

Teaching a Stone to Talk Annie Dillard - I’ve returned to this essay collection many times. I read and taught from “An Expedition to the Pole” on the icefield.

A Memory Called Empire Arkady Martine - second time reading this book, a tremendously fun space opera based on Byzantine politics where a poem can topple a dynasty
Burntcoat Sarah Hall - did nothing for me
The Last Samurai Helen DeWitt - I fucking love this book. Uh, I dunno what can be said that hasn’t. DeWitt takes on language, motherhood, genius, agency in this story about a (genius?) mother and her (genius?) son, using an improbable premise that not just works, but is the only way this story could be told. Somehow the complexity doesn’t slow down the reading. Wanted to start again as soon as I finished. Love all of DeWitt’s pettiness and vendettas. 

Calculation of Volume I & II Solvej Balle - read the first two in this series about a woman who gets stuck in a day while going to the hospital with my dad and playing Zelda, both of which somehow exactly mirrored the Groundhog day experience of the narrator. No idea how she’s going to land these, but really enjoyed reading these, like drinking an excellent cup of coffee, they set out to do something and did it very well

Calculation of Volume III Solvej Balle - I don’t know how I feel about the introduction of new characters, but also something needed to happen (I think?) to add more than just interior tension to the story. Not as good as the first two, but still very enjoyable to read.

︎Dawn, Adulthood Rites, and Imago Octavia Butler - I listened to Butler’s Lillith Brood out of order on accident (Imago, Dawn, Adulthood), so the stories are one now. As with other Butler I’ve read, these are bursting with ideas about how to be, what could be, what it means to live a meaningful life with limited choices, etc, but I also find the writing/plotting to be a little stilted, so actually audio was a great way to take these in. 

Ways of Seeing John Berger - had read the book in piecemeal but never all at once; also watched the 4-part BBC series from the 70s; a reference I return to often.

House of Days House of Nights Olga Tokarczuk - similar to reading Kavalier and Clay, I constantly was looking things up to see if they were real or not. really savored my time with this one, my first Tokarczuk
︎Sea People Christina Thompson - an interesting history of Polynesia, navigation, mapmaking, and colonisation, with facts and incidents and people I still think about. But it went on a bit and the tone alternated between between extremely personal and conversational and quite dry, and could have been edited down. Perhaps this would have been better as a book where I could skim more
︎The Mysterious Affair at Styles Agatha Christie - great romp to listen to while recaulking the bathroom but yeah Christie’s antisemistism and racism does come through on this one

TOAF Renee Gladman - love how Gladman thinks, big fan, though her prose doesn’t always work for me, but took a lot from this autobiographical-ish novella about letting go of a story that doesn’t work

Washington Square Henry James - read some Henry James after listening to Renee Gladman talk about how much inspiration she gets from him. I looked out for his sentences. Someone help me appreciate him more?
Daisy Miller Henry James - same as above

Solenoid Mircea Cărtărescu - the world building and linguistic faculties are immense, but I struggled to get through this book; it’s density defeated me about halfway through. perhaps will return again.

The Two Worlds of Andrew Wyeth - picked this up at random from my parent’s house and absolutely floored by this interview and Wyeth’s articulation of his process: how he sees, draws, paints, and thinks; his compassion and relationships with people and place are obvious in his oeuvre and on each canvas. I went to see the Wyeth foundation on November and seeing his paintings in person was a quasi-religious experience

︎Provenance Ann Leckie
︎The Empire of Gold S. A. Chakraborty
The Deluge Stephen Markley - terrible book to read while writing a thesis on glaciers and ice sheets; resented how he portrays the life of scientists; the desperation and movements feel relatively fully realized, but odd how little of the rest of the world plays into the book. i wouldn’t read it again, or necessarily recommend it. but a useful work of climate fiction.

︎Translation State Ann Leckie
︎Ancillary Mercy Ann Leckie
American War Omar El Akkad - while the future itself feels unlikely, the characters and focus is brutal and thorough, chilling and fully humanized

Martyr! Kaveh Akbar - sort of a quintissential first novel, some gorgeous language, a few thouroughly realized characters, but stilted in its portrayal of parenthood, and many times the characterization felt awkward through a sort of arbitrary addition of traits, stated but never played out, or added to make the character seem more interesting. kind of a predictable plot. loved the last chapter, and want to know when in the process it was written.
The Left Hand of Darkness Ursula K. Le Guin - second or third time reading, that, along with moving to the Netherlands as an immigrant and watching Shogun, make for an incredible reflection on identity, alienation, assimilation, language and translation, love, and culture

The Tale of Genji Murasaki Shikibu the abridged version, translated by Edward Seidensticker

Frogs Mo Yan 
Windup Girl Paolo Bacigalupi 
when I sing, mountains dance Irene Solá

Giovanni’s Room James Baldwin

The Door Magda Szabo 
Essays II Lydia Davis
︎Miracle of Mindfulness Thích Nhất Hạnh

Circe Madeline Miller

Maus Art Spiegelman 
Man’s Search for Meaning Viktor Frankl

Greek Lessons Han Kang

The Odyssey Homer (Emily Wilson translation) 

Orbital Samantha Harvey
Intermezzo Sally Rooney - my first Sally Rooney. Enjoyed! Do not know much about Wittgenstein or chess! Characters were compliated, flawed, and evolving.

Pegasus in Flight Anne Mcaffery - what a waste
Spirit and Stone Marion Boatwright 
Fevered Star Rebecca Roanhorse 

The View From the Seventh Layer Kevin Brockmeier 
Babel RF Kuang 
How to Loiter in a Turf War Coco Solid 

Story of a Brief Marriage Anuk Arudpragasm 
The Unbroken CL Clark 
The Great Derangement Amitav Ghosh 
Amsterdam: A History of the World’s Most Liberal City Russell Shorto

A Closed and Common Orbit Becky Chambers
To Be Taught, if Fortunate Becky Chambers 

Calamaties Renee Gladman - whew !!
Ordinairy Notes Christina Sharpe- *and* the formatting *chef’s kiss*

Akata Warrior Nnedi Okorafor
My Volcano John Elizabeth Stintzi 

The Wind’s Twelve Quarters Ursula K. LeGuin - love UKLG but this was not her strongest
Luster Raven Leilani - willing to bet her next book is going be 5/5

A Painter of Our Time John Berger - a gorgeous and painful read about art, hope, loneliness, and purpose; the format would be trite if it wasn’t so effective
Last Notes Granta, edited by Sigrid Rausing - especially loved Cairo Song by Wiam El-Tamami
How It Feels to Float Helena Fox - devoured in a night; one of the only books I've ever read that adequately describes dissociation

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay Michael Chabon - historical detail so exact I found I couldn’t tell the difference between reality and fiction
︎Beowolf: A New Translation Maria Dahvana Headley- maybe this shouldn’t have been my first introduction to beowolf. while i loved her text about her translation choices, i personally found some of the modernisms to be distracting to the point of triteness (”broooo”)
The Namesake Jhumpa Lahiri- I have a feeling this is one I’ll have to let simmer and return to. some of the chapters I loved. Her characters are seamless. everyone’s motivations as clear or as opaque as any living person, always with a reason or a context. I felt Sonia was sold a little short in the telling and could have been given more depth without taking up more space.
Lessons in Chemistry Bonnie Garmus - just... so over the top... kept being taken out of time by conversations and word choice... clear the author didn’t have any sense of what scientific research actually entailed... a quick read but also could have been cut by a third and tightened significantly
Nona the Ninth Tasmyn Muir - this way exceeded my expectations. loved the worldbuilding. masterfully done ‘amnesia’. I loved Nona’s point of view and Muir’s description of her innocence and love without any pedantry, pity, or simpleness. john’s dreams were a little over the top for me. 

The Hurricane Wars Thea Guanzon - needed a fun, easy read for my honeymoon. this fit the bill! a debut for sure - lots to tighten - but fun world building
︎Agency William Gibson - just a redux of the Peripheral
Camp Zero Michelle Min Sterling - there seems to be this trend in cli-fi right now where novels don’t get the editing they need. This includes poorly researched descriptions of science-related topics—e.g., the meteorologist gets a message titled “Absolute Zero” and makes a big deal of how that term is only used by other meteorologists, even though Kelvin is used across most scientific disciplines. The haracters felt loose, the structure felt haphazard. It’s a bummer! Camp Zero had an interesting premise and some exciting points of view; with more editing, it could have been fantastic, instead, it was middling and disengaged.

︎Old Path White Clouds Thich Nhat Hanh - I listened to this over the course of many months, on late night walks with my dog. I finished it just after she passed. No way to rate this, really. Peaceful and meditative, this relates the mostly mytholigized life of the Buddha, teaching, of course, as he lives

Satanic Verses Salman Rushdie - immediately began rereading it, perhaps a first, here are some useful notes to have alongside.

Snake Agent Liz Williams - read while isolating wtih Covid. superb world building and fun heaven/earth/hell relations! everything else was just okay

Anicllary Justice Ann Leckie - a political and nuanced work of science fiction that takes place mostly internaly and through the memories of an AI locked into a single body. Immediately pops to the top of my sci-fi recommendation list, with .