![luce [is reading]](https://wishfullyreading.files.wordpress.com/2023/01/9429655-1.jpeg){kind=small}
-
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
“To understand the world at all, sometimes you could only focus on a tiny bit of it, look very hard at what was close to hand and make it stand in for the whole.” The Goldfinch is an emotional rollercoaster spanning 700+ pages and proof that literary lightning can indeed strike twice. Fully deserving of…
1st pov, 2010s, 5 STARS, ABSOLUTE FAVOURITE, academia, addiction, Adult, ALIENATION, America, American, AMERICAN AUTHOR, anxiety, anxiety-inducing reads, ART/CREATIVITY, beautiful prose, big books, bildungsroman, BOOK REVIEW, BOOK REVIEWS, Booklr, boyhood, CHILDHOOD, class, Contemporary, CRIME, DEATH, DEPRESSION, donna tartt, existentialism, fathers & sons, favourite authors, female authors, forgiveness, friendships, GRIEF, growing up, GUILT, introspective, las vegas, lgbtq+ side, LITERARY FICTION, MEMORY, morality, mothers & sons, museums, My reviews, Netherlands, nevada, NEW YORK, orphans, paranoia, philosophical, PRIVILEGE, psychological, published in 2013, Pulitzer Prize, pulitzer prize winners, queer undercurrents, re-reads, read in 2017, read in 2021, reading, rich people, strong sense of place, suicide, SUSPENSE, terrific prose, the goldfinch, trauma, unrequited love -
The Office of Historical Corrections by Danielle Evans
The Office of Historical Corrections is a striking collection of short stories, easily the best one to be published this year. Unlike many other collections—which tend to have a few forgettable or ‘weaker’ stories—The Office of Historical Corrections has only hits. There isn’t one story that bored me or wasn’t as good as the rest.…
4.5 STARS, Adult, America, American, AMERICAN AUTHOR, ARTISTS, beautiful prose, Black & Black heritage authors, CHILDHOOD, class, collection of short stories, Contemporary, Danielle Evans, family, favourite authors, female authors, female friendships, friendships, girlhood, history, LITERARY FICTION, motherhood, museums, netgalley, NOVELLA/SHORT STORY, office, prison, published in 2020, RACE, re-reads, read in 2020, read in 2021, short stories, SOCIAL COMMENTARY, social issues, The Office of Historical Corrections -
The Hollow Places by T. Kingfisher
The Hollow Places is a thoroughly entertaining novel that plays around with parallel worlds, portal fantasy and cosmic horror. When our narrator, Kara, moves back to her hometown (Hog Chapel, North Carolina) she is still reeling from her divorce. To avoid sharing a house with her mother she volunteers to work in her uncle’s peculiar…
1st pov, 3.5 STARS, Adult, adventure, America, American, AMERICAN AUTHOR, Contemporary, FANTASY, female authors, friendships, gay side characters, HORROR, HUMOR, lgbtq+ side, MAGICAL DOORS, monsters, museums, North Carolina, parallel universes, PARANORMAL, portal fantasy, published in 2020, read in 2020, SPECULATIVE FICTION, SUSPENSE, T. Kingfisher, The Hollow Places, weird -
Tunneling to the Center of the Earth: Stories by Kevin Wilson
A very Wilsonesque collection of stories: dysfunctional families, spontaneous human combustion, surreal scenarios, and plenty of eccentric characters. Each story in this collection held my attention, and while they share similarities, they also showcase Wilson’s range: from lighthearted tales (such as “Grand Stand-In” and “Tunneling to the Center of the Earth”) to more bittersweet stories…
4.5 STARS, Adult, America, American, AMERICAN AUTHOR, bad love, collection of short stories, Contemporary, different styles (1st/2nd/3rd povs), family, favourite authors, friendships, great storytelling, HUMOR, Kafkaesque, Kevin Wilson, lgbtq+ side, LITERARY FICTION, m/m side, MAGICAL REALISM, male authors, museums, published in 2009, queer side characters, read in 2020, short stories, siblings, SPECULATIVE FICTION, surreal, toxic relationships, Tunneling to the Center of the Earth, weird, what ifs, work culture -
Confession with Blue Horses by Sophie Hardach — book review
“A year or so after my mother died, I received an unexpected inheritance.” In Confession with Blue Horses Sophie Hardach captures the fraught atmosphere between East and West Germany. When Ella, a rather aimless thirty-something year old, comes across some of her mother’s diaries, she’s drawn back to her birth city, Berlin, where, assisted by…
1980s, 20th century, 3.25 stars, Adult, Berlin, CHILDHOOD, cold war, Confession with Blue Horses, drama, east and west germany, england, family, female authors, German, German British Author, Germany, HISTORICAL FICTION, LITERARY FICTION, LONDON, MEMORY, mothers & daughters, museums, MYSTERY, politics, published in 2019, read in 2020, siblings, Sophie Hardach -
A Beautiful Crime by Christopher Bollen — book review
A Beautiful Crime is a tantalisingly suspenseful part thriller part romance, one that brilliantly captures the landscape, aesthetics, and politics of Venice. “The love of the city had killed its people. Quite simply, Venice had been visited to death.” The opening of the novel has a terrific hook. We know that someone at some point…
4.25 stars, A Beautiful Crime, Adult, America, American, AMERICAN AUTHOR, ART/CREATIVITY, cheating, Christopher Bollen, class, Contemporary, CRIME, gay, heist, Italy, lgbtq+, LGBTQ+ Author, LITERARY FICTION, m/m, male authors, museums, MYSTERY, NEW YORK, politics, published in 2020, queer, read in 2020, rich people, social issues, SUSPENSE, THRILLER, travel, Venice, white-collar crime -
Feast Your Eyes by Myla Goldberg — book review
“Time after time my mother traded privacy, square footage, countertops, and a decent bathroom for darkroom space.” While the way in which Feast Your Eyes is framed makes for an undoubtedly interesting technique (telling the story of a fictional photographer Lillian Preston through the catalogue notes for an exhibition of her work at the Museum…
1950s, 1960s, 3 STARS, Adult, America, American, AMERICAN AUTHOR, ART/CREATIVITY, ARTISTS, documentary style, epistolary, Feast Your Eyes, female authors, HISTORICAL FICTION, LITERARY FICTION, motherhood, mothers & daughters, museums, Myla Goldberg, navel gazing, NEW YORK, obsession, photographers, PHOTOGRAPHY, published in 2019, read in 2020 -
A Pure Heart: A Novel by Rajia Hassib — book review
A Pure Heart’s portrayal of sisterhood is tepid at best. The needlessly expository narration, the clichéd character dynamics, and the meandering storyline didn’t really grab me at all. This novel reminded me a lot of The Other Americans and many other titles that seemed aimed at an American audience…so we have these two sisters who…
2.5 STARS, 3rd pov, A Pure Heart, Adult, America, American, archaeology, Cairo, Contemporary, cultural dissonance, drama, egypt, Egyptian American author, family, female authors, identity, Islam, LITERARY FICTION, museums, published in 2019, Rajia Hassib, READ IN 2019, Religion, SISTERS, social issues, violence
luce [is reading] 