While I was reading The Human Stain by Phillip Roth, I felt like I had to talk about it with someone, so I explained the premise to my brother, and my brother said something along the lines of, “How did he write so much—an entire novel—about that?!” Which basically sums up my feelings about this […]

I’m not entirely sure how I feel about Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney. I like Rooney’s writing and her characters, but I’m not quite aligned with the ethics of this story, which revolves around an extramarital affair. I’m not above reading books about unethical people or situations, but though the characters seem to be […]

I’m a sucker for WW2 novels, so I wolfed down The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah, but it’s definitely not perfect. There were inconsistencies and unrealistic events (like occasionally forgetting to age characters appropriately or having a beautiful meal seasoned with lemon and garnished with fresh herbs in the middle of war-time rationed France). But I […]

I have a lot to criticize about this book, so I should probably start by saying that I did enjoy reading this book, and my general impressions weigh more heavily to the positive rather than the negative, despite the criticisms I enumerate below. But it wasn’t an engrossing novel for me, and it did have […]

Ernest Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast is a memoir about his time in Paris as a budding writer. It reads as fiction and delves into his writing technique and his relationships with other writers in Paris at the time, including Gertrude Stein, F Scott Fitgerald, T. S. Eliot, among others. This is a very quick read, […]

Edith Eva Eger’s memoir was recommended to me by my mother who told me that I was going to love it, and I was skeptical though I had no real reason to be. But my Mom was right.  The book is more or less divided into 4 parts: her childhood surviving the Holocaust, journeying to […]

Grapes of Wrath somehow managed to be utterly heartbreaking and rather dull at the same time. And you know it tears at my heart to say anything bad about John Steinbeck, because I was thinking he was a strong contender to becoming my favorite writer (still is, to be fair) because I loved East of […]

Daphne du Maurier is great at writing so that you get lost in the story; it seems so seamless and effortlessly atmospheric. Granted, Mary Anne wasn’t the same caliber, but the praise applies to Rebecca and My Cousin Rachel. I still like Rebecca a lot more, probably because I related to the new Mrs. de […]

I first read If Beale Street Could Talk in college, and I remember being struck by Baldwin’s writing. I was no less impressed on my second read. The book takes place right after the Civil Rights Movement in 1973, and it’s about a young woman fighting to get her fiance, Fonny, out of jail. Fonny […]

I’m finding this book very hard to review. I loved our protagonist, Count Rostov; I loved each individual story or happening that takes place; I loved the supporting characters, nearly all of which were gems; and I loved the history. Unfortunately, despite all of that, I didn’t love the experience of actually reading the book.  […]