Welcome back! Best translation is always a category that I wish was a bit bigger or more exciting around here. Although I always put "Read More Translated Work" on my Reading Goals year after year, I never quite hit the goals I reach. That said, I think the effort is important and worthwhile and it's… Continue reading The Annual Karissa Reads Books Literary Awards: Best Translated Work
Author: Karissa
Book Review: Shy Creatures by Clare Chambers
Shy Creatures - Clare Chambers (Mariner Books, 2024) Helen Hansford is an art therapist, working as an art therapist at Westbury Park, a psychiatric hospital. The year is 1964 and art therapy is still something of a new idea. Helen enjoys her work and is challenged by it but psychotherapy is on the cusp of… Continue reading Book Review: Shy Creatures by Clare Chambers
What I Read: November 2024
Read: The Mythmakers - John Hendrix (Abrams, 2024) The Leopard - Giuseppe di Lampedusa (translated from the Italian by Guido Waldman) (Pantheon Books, 2007) Tyll - Daniel Kehlmann (translated from the German by Ross Benjamin) (Pantheon Books, 2020) Rainbow Valley - L.M. Montgomery (Seal Books, 1976) James - Percival Everett (Doubleday, 2024) The Christian Book… Continue reading What I Read: November 2024
The Annual Karissa Reads Books Literary Awards: Best Non-Fiction
Hello and welcome! I'm back with the (somewhat) Annual Karissa Reads Books Literary Awards! I've been doing this for a few years now (inspired by the incomparable FictionFan). My attempt at these awards petered out last year due to the craziness that was my life in December 2023 but this year I've started early and… Continue reading The Annual Karissa Reads Books Literary Awards: Best Non-Fiction
Halfway Through November
Here are a few things we've been up to: Watching Justin Beaver have a bath Sunday morning Be Real A quote from my recent reading (listening): If only it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deed, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest… Continue reading Halfway Through November
Book Review: Tyll by Daniel Kehlmann
Tyll - Daniel Kehlmann (Pantheon Books, 2022) (translated from the German by Ross Benjamin) I had never heard of Tyll Ulenspiegel before picking up this novel but I gather that he's a well-known German folk figure. A classic trickster type, given to bawdy jokes. Here Kehlmann brings him into the context of the Thirty Years… Continue reading Book Review: Tyll by Daniel Kehlmann
Book Review: The Mythmakers by John Hendrix
The Mythmakers - John Hendrix (Abrams, 2024) Two of the greatest literary voices of the 20th century - and certainly two of the most influential voices in the realm of fantasy literature - are undoubtedly J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis. There aren't many readers in the Western world today who haven't been influenced by their… Continue reading Book Review: The Mythmakers by John Hendrix
Book Review: The Stolen Bicycle by Wu Ming-Yi
The Stolen Bicycle - Wu Ming-Yi (translated from Mandarin by Darryl Sterk) (Text Publishing, 2017) This was such an unexpected, playful, thoughtful, and informative book. It reads more like a non-fiction story rather than a novel, perhaps because it’s hard to tell at times how much is based on the author’s actual life. And perhaps… Continue reading Book Review: The Stolen Bicycle by Wu Ming-Yi
What I Read: October 2024
Read: Good Material - Dolly Alderton (Doubleday Canada, 2024) The Empusium - Olga Tokarczuk (translated from the polish by Antonia Lloyd-Jones (Riverhead Books, 2024) Intermezzo - Sally Rooney (Alfred A. Knopf, 2024) The Office of Historical Corrections - Danielle Evans (Penguin Audio, 2020) The Stolen Bicycle - Wu Ming-Yi (translated from the Mandarin by Darryl… Continue reading What I Read: October 2024
Highlights and Lowlights
It's been a week and although I'm late with my October What I Read post, I feel like I need to share a little life before I put it up. The obvious low point of the week was Wednesday morning, waking up to hear that Donald Trump had once more been elected president of the… Continue reading Highlights and Lowlights
Karissa Reads Books 