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@readingatw

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September Highlights:
•East of Eden 📚
•Turtle Diary 📚
•Bookstores 📚
• Joining my first ever book club 📚
•Backyard delights 🪶🌻
•Quick trip to Iceland ✈️
•Texas Hill Country ✈️
•Lifer Tiger Beetle (Limestone Tiger Beetle) 🪲
•Meeting new relatives ❤️
• Remembering lost ones ❤️
•Visiting family ❤️ by @readingatw

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4 days ago

What an odd (wonderfully odd in all the most magnificent ways) tender little book. On the surface, Turtle Diary is about two lonely, middle-aged Londoners who become independently obsessed with the sea turtles at the London Zoo and ultimately hatch a plan to set them free. But, of course, it really isn’t about the turtles at all. Or maybe it is.

Told through the alternating diaries of William and Neaera, this is really a book about loneliness, freedom, and that strange realization that you can become trapped inside your own life without quite knowing how you got there. (I suspect this will resonate with Elizabeth Strout fans).

I loved that Hoban never turns their connection into the story you expect it to become. Their shared mission doesn’t magically fix them. Instead, freeing the turtles becomes a small act of rebellion against resignation, a way of proving that something can still change.

There’s a melancholy running through the novel, but it’s balanced by dry humor, warmth, and a surprising amount of hope. I especially loved the idea that perhaps we don’t always need to reinvent our lives. Sometimes we just need to do one improbable thing that reminds us we’re still capable of being relevant.

A strange, funny, deeply human little novel that I suspect will stay with me for a long time to come. Maybe freeing the turtles was never really about the turtles.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thanks to @jcgrenn for the recommendation! by @readingatw

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17 days ago

Reading Around the Word: Iceland by @readingatw

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19 days ago

While far from a perfect list, I find this selection much more intriguing and interesting than the current Booker Prize Long List. And hopefully with the timing of this announcement, we can move on from talking about the same 13 books that have been discussed ad infinitum over the past two months. .

I own three of these, so that’s a plus. But I also feel like I want to read all of these — so that’s a hole in my pocket about to be made. A delightful, welcome hole in my pocket.

Also, I love that some of these choices have not been talked about much (if at all) over the past season! And hopefully some real jewels emerge from those.

And finally! Can we talk about the artwork on the Ant book - I would own this book just for the cover art!

Happy NBA season! A breath of fresh air! by @readingatw

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19 days ago

by @readingatw

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22 days ago

The Great American Novel? Thou Mayest Decide.

Peeps! The hype is real! This is a 600-page masterpiece. My expectations were extremely high for this often-reviewed book, and it did not disappoint.

Reviewing East of Eden feels a little like reviewing the Bible: it has already been analyzed, interpreted, praised, and argued over by far better minds than mine. So I won’t pretend to have the final word.

I’ll only say this: if East of Eden isn’t the Great American Novel, what is?

I’m not usually an annotator, but Steinbeck made me wish I were. Nearly every page offered a sentence to underline, an idea to wrestle with, or a passage I wanted to carry away with me. This is a novel about good and evil, fathers and sons, inheritance and choice—and the astonishing freedom contained in two words: thou mayest.

I was “this week years old” when I discovered that Samuel Hamilton was John Steinbeck’s maternal grandfather and Olive Hamilton Steinbeck was his mother. Although the Trasks—and their battle between good and evil—are fictional, Steinbeck wove his own family history into the novel alongside them. That revelation made an already extraordinary book feel even more intimate.

I finished it knowing I’ll read it again—next time with a pen in hand. Bookstagram has already said everything worth saying about this book. The rest of us are merely leaving notes in the margins.

Five stars. Absolutely loved it. taken in Salinas, California by @readingatw

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24 days ago

August was a great month for reading! I achieved my PBR of 8 books; and along the way read some from the Booker longest nominations, some WIT, and a great new travel book from my favorite travel writer.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Etna — Paul Yoon: Told entirely through the eyes and voice of an ex-military dog, Etna follows his odyssey across a war-ravaged landscape in search of home, exploring war, loss, loyalty, and hope from a uniquely canine perspective.

She Who Remains — René Karabash: In rural Albania, a young woman escapes an arranged marriage by becoming a sworn virgin, setting in motion a devastating story of gender, love, family, and patriarchal tradition.

True North: On the Road in Canada — Paul Theroux: Theroux journeys across Canada by road using encounters with its people, writers, landscapes, and remote communities to explore what Canada is and what holds it together.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

The Things We Never Say — Elizabeth Strout: A compassionate portrait of a Massachusetts teacher whose hidden loneliness and an unexpected revelation force him to reconsider how little we truly know those closest to us.

The Song of Achilles — Madeline Miller: A lyrical retelling of the Trojan War through Patroclus’s eyes, centered on his passionate, tragic love for Achilles and the terrible cost of glory.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

All Them Dogs — Djamel White: A young Dublin gangster’s return home entangles him in violence, revenge, and an unexpected love for a dangerous childhood acquaintance.

Seascraper — Benjamin Wood: A young shrimp fisherman on England’s northern coast dreams of becoming a folk musician until a mysterious American offers him a glimpse of a life beyond the shore.

Contrapposto — Dave Eggers: Two friends and artists remain entwined for more than six decades as they wrestle with love, ambition, beauty, integrity, and what it really means to make art.

September should mean Fall is on the way, but I live in Florida so will check back in a month and see if it’s finally around the corner.

Photo: Gobi Desert in August @trryan

August highlights: a work trip to the Seychelles and a bookish trip up to Gainesville. taken in Winter Park, Florida by @readingatw

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a month ago

Seascraper by Benjamin Wood
4/5 ⭐️
Thank you @simonandschuster for the paperback copy just released last week.

Benjamin Wood’s Seascraper, long listed for the Booker Prize in 2025, is a slim novella that delivers an extraordinary sense of place.

I loved the place-based fiction here, from the fog-shrouded coast and tidal flats to the rhythms of shrimping life. The landscape feels alive on every page, and Wood’s beautiful descriptive writing makes Longferry as memorable as any character.

Plot takes a back seat, but at just 176 pages, I never felt it needed more. The book’s power comes from its atmosphere rather than its story. What begins as a grounded portrait of a young man stuck in a hard coastal life gradually shifts into something stranger: part coming-of-age tale, part folk story, part dream. I especially enjoyed the mystical and ambiguous elements that emerge as the novel unfolds.

Thomas’s slightly overbearing mother and the arrival of a charismatic, but slightly suspicious outsider, both reinforce the sense that he’s caught between the life he has and the life he imagines for himself. It’s a quiet book about longing, art, class, and possibility.

If you enjoy novels driven by landscape, mood, and beautiful prose rather than plot, Seascraper is well worth seeking out. Once you’re done, though, you’ll want to have a long, hot shower and sit by the fire with a Jimmie Rogers ballad playing in the background. by @readingatw

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a month ago

Book Review
TRUE NORTH On the road in Canada. @paul.theroux
Thank you 🙏🏼 @marinerbooks for the ARC.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Paul Theroux is a brilliant travel writer precisely because he is not trying to be a travel writer. At heart, he’s a journalist searching for the soul of a nation through its people. While many travel books focus on scenery, attractions, and itineraries, Theroux is interested in conversations, contradictions, histories, and the stories people tell themselves about where they live.

What makes this book especially compelling is that it begins as a personal journey. He traces the story of an ancestor who arrived in Canada from France in the seventeenth century and uses that family history as a lens through which to view the broader story of Canada. It’s part travel narrative, part family history, and part exploration of what it means to be Canadian.

Along the way, he examines Canadian reactions to tensions with the US while also confronting Canada’s treatment of First Nations peoples. Some of these chapters are heartbreaking, particularly his exploration of residential schools and their lasting impact on Indigenous communities.

A theme running throughout the entire book is Canada’s immigration story (currently approaching 25%). Through conversations with both longtime Canadians and newcomers, Theroux explores questions of identity, belonging, opportunity, and social change. Rather than offering easy answers, he reveals the complexity of a country shaped by generations of immigration and still defining what it means to be Canadian.

Outside of the book’s explorations of politics, immigration, and Indigenous history, I found Theroux’s time in Newfoundland especially compelling from a pure off-the-beaten-path travel perspective. Through his eyes, it emerges as one of the most fascinating places in North America: remote, rugged, culturally distinct, and breathtakingly beautiful. His descriptions left me wanting to book a flight and experience this overlooked corner of Canada for myself.

This isn’t a book about sightseeing. It’s a book about history, identity, immigration, and the people who shape a nation. For me, that’s travel writing at its best! taken in Canada by @readingatw

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a month ago

Book Review
ETNA - Paul Yoon
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Etna was a First Editions Club pick from Lauren Groff’s @thelynxbooks, and when it arrived, I was fairly certain it wasn’t going to resonate with me. Surprise!

Paul Yoon tells the story of Etna, a former military dog crossing a war-ravaged country in search of the home from which he was taken as a puppy.

What sounds like an animal story becomes something much deeper: a meditation on loss, belonging, memory, and survival in the aftermath of unimaginable destruction.

What I loved most was that Etna’s perspective never felt gimmicky. By seeing the world through the eyes of a dog, Yoon strips life down to its essentials: loyalty, fear, love, loneliness, trust, and hope.

At the same time, that perspective underscores the terrible ravages of war. Etna moves through a landscape scarred by violence, encountering humans and animals alike who are trying to make sense of what’s left behind.

The novel is a powerful reminder that wars don’t simply end. Their effects linger in places, communities, and lives long after the fighting stops.

Beneath Etna’s journey lies a question that echoes throughout the novel: what is home, really? Is it a place, a memory, or simply the longing for something that may no longer exist?

There is a quiet, fable-like quality to the storytelling that probably won’t be for everyone. But for readers willing to settle into its rhythm, Etna feels a little magical. Its power comes from small moments, fleeting connections, and the stubborn persistence of hope.

Another reminder that Lauren Groff has impeccable taste. This is a book I never would have picked up on my own, and I’m so glad I did.

A magical little novel that won’t be for everyone, but one that I suspect many readers will still be discovering decades from now. by @readingatw

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a month ago

Book Review: Contrapposto - Dave Eggers
Publisher: @aaknopf
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

I absolutely loved this book and the bigger questions it asks about “what is art.” A compelling read!

Contrapposto is, on the surface, a novel about friendship, love, and the art world, but what stayed with me most was its exploration of what art actually is.

Years ago, as a freelance editorial photographer, I briefly considered pursuing gallery work. What quickly became apparent was that creating visually compelling images wasn’t enough. The expectation was that the work needed a concept, a larger idea that tied everything together. Reading Contrapposto, I found myself thinking back to that realization.

Through the lives of Cricket and Olympia, Dave Eggers explores the tension between talent and concept, craftsmanship and theory. Cricket possesses genuine artistic ability, yet repeatedly encounters an art world that often seems more interested in ideas than execution. The novel doesn’t dismiss conceptual art, nor does it argue that technical skill alone is enough. Instead, it wrestles with the uneasy relationship between the two.

At the heart of the story is the decades-long connection between Cricket and Olympia, a relationship that shifts between friendship, creative partnership, devotion, and love. Their bond provides the emotional anchor for a novel that spans continents, careers, successes, disappointments, and the inevitable changes that come with age.

What I appreciated most is that Eggers never offers easy answers. In a world where artistic value is often shaped by trends, critics, and market forces, Contrapposto asks whether beauty, mastery, and dedication still matter and leaves readers to decide for themselves.

For me, the novel succeeded because it revived questions I hadn’t considered in years and reminded me of a crossroads in my own creative life. Any book that can do that has earned its place on my shelf!

Art by Jordanian artist @_samusement_ by @readingatw

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2 months ago

Book Review: SHE WHO REMAINS
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Read for Women in Translation Month
Reading Around the World: Albania 🇦🇱

I struggled just a bit with the first few pages of She Who Remains, but then something shifted and I was completely drawn in—by the strangeness of the story, its enchantment, and especially René Karabash’s lyrical writing. At times I wondered: was I reading a novel or poetry?

The story moves backward and forward and then back again through time, but I quickly realized there was no need to try to follow a conventional narrative arc. Just let the story wash over you like the ebb and flow of the tides. Gradually, almost magically, it begins to come together.

Set in rural Albania and shaped by the ancient laws of the Kanun, this is a story about identity, gender, forbidden love, tradition, and survival. There is brutality here, but also tenderness, dark humor, and something almost mythical running through it.

Karabash’s language can be dreamlike and unsettling, beautiful one moment and brutal the next. It feels like a story being remembered, dreamed, and sung all at once.

Strange, beautiful, haunting, and completely original. It took me a few pages to find my way into it, but once I did, I was under its spell.

Easily in my top 10 for the year (so far)!!! taken in Albanian Alps by @readingatw

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2 months ago