Hi all! I hope you’ve been well 🙂 I want to share what my reading has looked like the first few months of the year and offer some recommendations of novels I’ve enjoyed over this time.
This year has been off to an unexpected start with reading— uncharacteristically, I’ve gravitated towards nonfiction books and short stories. Most of the novels I’ve read have been short (under 300 pages); while I still have a preference for longer, well crafted stories, I’m finding that I tend to set them down in favor of shorter reads because of how little time I have to read. (Also, I am worried that my increased consumption of short form content (TikTok) has tanked my attention span, but I try not to think too much about that).
I do have some long books I’m planning on reading soon, including Mantel’s The Mirror and the Light, the last novel in the Cromwell Trilogy I started last year. I haven’t read much poetry this year, but have some collections I plan to get to soon, including newly released Customs by Solmaz Sharif and Time Regime by Jhani Randhawa. I am looking forward to the release of Ocean Vuong’s new collection next month, and am also eagerly anticipating the new Hernan Diaz novel coming this spring.
But for now, here are some of the short story collections, nonfiction, and slim novels I have read and enjoyed this year:
- Terminal Boredom by Izumi Suzuki
Terminal Boredom is a recently translated collection of Izumi Suzuki’s science fiction short stories, written in the 1970s and 1980s. The stories address a range of social issues, especially concerning gender, class, and pressure for conformity, in accessible language. The world building is swift and the pace is sometimes jarringly to-the-point, but each of the stories offers a unique, creative perspective. The stories feature a society where men are imprisoned for the crimes of their gender, a population control method involving suspension in someone else’s dreams, and a family attempting to preserve the human culture amongst monsters. I recommend this to anyone interested in translated speculative fiction and/or accessible short form sci-fi.
- Recitatif by Toni Morrison w/ Introduction by Zadie Smith
This February, Toni Morrison’s only short story, Recitatif, was recently rereleased with an introduction by Zadie Smith. I was graciously allowed access to this audiobook by Libro.fm and Penguin Random House Audio. Morrison’s short story describes two young girls who meet in an orphanage, Twyla and Roberta, and how their lives converge and diverge from there. While race plays a critical part in both character’s experiences, and we know that one is Black and one is white, Morrison intentionally doesn’t tell the reader which one is which. Zadie Smith offers a fascinating analysis of this premise, as well as the cultural and literary impact this story has had since its publication. This new edition is a great way to experience Morrison’s legendary short story alongside the analysis of another wonderful writer and thinker.
- The Sinner and the Saint by Kevin Birmingham
My father gifted me The Sinner and the Saint this past holiday season because it tells the story of my favorite author as he crafted his first masterpieces. Fyodor Dostoyevsky had an incredibly interesting and tumultuous life, from his involvement in secret political circles to being sentenced to Siberian prison. While his first published work, Poor Folk, was a success, it took him years to cultivate the literary career he so desperately wanted (and needed, as he lived much of his life in debt). In this nonfiction account, Kevin Birmingham details the real crime stories and the political and artistic landscapes that enabled Dostoevsky to write one of his major masterpieces, Crime and Punishment. I recommend this new nonfiction work to all Dostoevsky or C&P enthusiasts.
- The Bradshaw Variations by Rachel Cusk
One of the authors I was determined to pick up this year was Rachel Cusk. As of this month, I’ve read both Outline and The Bradshaw Variations. Outline is well regarded and highly recommended widely, so I figured I’d offer The Bradshaw Variations as my Cusk recommendation in this post. Following the Bradshaw family— three adult brothers, their parents, their wives, their children, etc— Cusk weaves a beautiful portrait of the sadness and muted joy of mundane lives. In eloquent, sparse prose, Cusk moves between moments to capture the complex web of family dynamics. This is a quiet, sad read, and ultimately a very moving piece of fiction.
- No One Is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood
Perhaps my favorite fiction read of the past few months— Patricia Lockwood’s incredible No One is Talking About This. Short listed for both the Booker prize and Women’s prize in fiction, No One is Talking About This is a sharp reflection on social media and how it informs our language and experience. Told in two parts, split by a defining plot point, Lockwood captures how the Internet has distorted our connections and how we process information. What do we do when we experience monumental grief or tragedy that doesn’t lend itself to public consumption? How do we resist the constant need to flatten our experiences into a stream of words and jokes in a language that does not hold up outside “the portal”? For those interested in literary fiction about social media and the Internet, clearly written by someone who uses these platforms rather than an outsider looking down upon them, please pick up No One Is Talking About This if you haven’t already!
** All book titles are affiliate links to Bookshop.org.
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