Kirby’s debut collection is stunningly encapsulating and absurd. She plays with ideas of girlhood, sex, and skewed historical fiction. Her format is incredible and her framing narrative keeps me coming back to her collection.
This was my first time ever reading Lebowitz’s work and I never want to stop. Her wacky, yet grounded, opinions represent my ideal form of creative nonfiction.
CivilWarLand In Bad Decline is perfect for people who think they hate short stories. Saunders’s characters are relatable yet still stretch the realms of possibility. His book is a delight.
This novel surprised me and confused me and moved me to tears. I can’t claim to understand everything going on in this work, but the deep care, wit, and playing with our reality make Leichter’s work astounding. This book moves quickly and its overarching structure is satisfying and still moving.
I haven’t read All the Light We Cannot See, but I don’t know how Doerr could top Cloud Cuckoo Land. The split story structure and the different time periods keep the book moving at a good clip and introduce character upon character without sacrificing depth. Cloud Cuckoo Land can take a little bit to get into, and you have to trust it. If you do, you won’t be sorry.
The title doesn’t lie. Mott won the 2022 National Book Award with Hell of a Book, and it’s easy to see why. He works in commentary on today’s world, challenges the notions of engrained racism and what we expect of authors of color, and layers several levels of absurdity that I don’t know if I’ve encountered in any other work.
